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Employee paid £84,000 after being left on payroll

A fraud report has highlighted that an employee of the Belfast Health Trust was paid approximately £84,000 in wages after having left their job.
 
According to Leighton Buzzard Online, the employee will now be subject to a theft and fraud investigation, launched by the trust, and joins the 176 other suspected cases of fraud found within the trust across 2009/10. The trust confirmed that there was a reported total of £102,000 pay-related inaccuracies throughout 2009/10, before referring to the employee who was grossly overpaid.
 
"One case in particular accounted for almost £84,000 of this total value and relates to an employee who continued to be paid after they left the organisation's employment."
 
"Although uncommon, this case highlighted the importance of ensuring that there are robust procedures in place for removing staff from the payroll, and the need for cost centre managers to ensure salaries paid are appropriate and correct," the report stated.
 
It added that an internal audit would be undertaken to review the trusts' payroll processes, including how adequate and effective they have been and will be in the future.
 
The trust could ensure the report's recommendations are carried out by investing in an efficient payroll service, as this would allow trust staff to manage the process without facing in-house staff error or inaccuracies - particularly given over £100,000 worth of pay and pay-related inaccuracies were detailed in the fraud report.
 
Despite the slip-up, the report also demonstrated a decrease in the number of suspected fraudulent cases, reported The Belfast Telegraph, which has potentially been attributed to the removal of figures relating to deceased persons who were still paid.

Pressured HR departments should outsource

HR departments feeling the pressure should seriously consider outsourcing some of their functions, according to one recruitment expert.

As the chairman of the Recruitment Society, Steve Huxham has a good understanding of the overwhelming amount of responsibility held by HR professionals - who he believes must plan for increased numbers of staff.

He urged companies struggling to cope to outsource payroll, pre-employment checks or other important functions; as many businesses' recruitment and people management strategies were not hitting the mark.
 
"If they [HR departments] are failing, there are plenty of people out there that they can outsource this applicant screening to, and who will give meaningful messages and feedback to people," Huxham told Poolia.
 
"You need to plan better and organise yourself better, and if not, then your employer needs to find somebody or a department that can do the job better."
 
Huxham continued to say that he wouldn't accept HR departments claiming they were "overstretched," adding that "volume shouldn't make a difference one way or the other."
 
He believed that the reason so many HR departments were failing was because they had underestimated the amount of work involved when taking the functions in-house, according to BDO.UK, and were struggling to keep up with the huge amount of services typically provided by a human resources team.

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