IBM’s Rick Strasser, Gurnaik Dosanjh: Agencies Should Consider People, Process, Tech in Payroll Modernization

Rick Strasser and Gurnaik Dosanjh of IBM wrote in a joint article published Thursday on Federal Times that government agencies pursuing payroll modernization projects should consider the triad of people, process and technology.

“Leading employees through a transition to a new payroll system requires repeated, well-rounded training, frequent communications and continuous management of expectations,” Strasser and Dosanjh wrote.

They called on agencies to create a governance office to help review and advise on the execution of communications and training opportunities as well as survey users on key developments to help establish “an engaged and educated workforce for informed change management.”

Dosanjh and Strasser said agencies should address complex business processes through automation.

“This should be directly integrated into the technology implementation across both personnel and pay management,” they said. “Automation helps achieve what we call ‘intelligent workflows,’ the paradigm shift from people supported by technology, to technology supported by people.”

When it comes to technology, they warned against significant software customizations and urged agencies to trust and use modern payroll technology software.

Strasser is an associate partner at the U.S. federal practice and Army PEO-EIS client account leader at IBM’s services arm, while Dosanjh is the practice area leader of the Oracle federal practice within the enterprise applications group at IBM’s global business services.