Ernst & Young is tackling complicated payroll processes with this new app

Employees are demanding better, more comprehensive tech solutions from their HR departments — and Ernst & Young is supplying.

The consulting firm recently announced the launch of EY Interact, a mobile app to support its global EY Payroll Operate service, according to a press release. The addition will allow organizations to access real-time reporting, analytics and payroll controls in order to track production, discrepancies and anomalies. The data collected will be used to add organizational value — such as attrition prediction, gender reporting and equality.

For employees, the app provides access to pay slips, tax documents, personalized reports and an AI chatbot to help answer questions in over 48 languages, the press release says.

“Our clients just were not happy with any of the solutions out there,” says Sheri Sullivan, EY Global and EY Americas payroll operate leader. “So we said let's see if we can create that solution with our clients that’s going to meet their needs.”

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The world of HR tech has room for improvement, according to Sullivan. EY implemented built-in governance and continuous compliance that is agile enough to keep pace with changes in the employee and worker landscape.

“Right now I think a lot of companies are struggling with how to provide a true experience for employees end-to-end,” Sullivan says. “We can see some beginnings of it now in taking different mobile apps and combining them into a dashboard that employees can go into and create.”

Companies have been re-thinking their current HR tech offerings after the pandemic forced thousands of employees to depend on — and subsequently suffer at the hands of — inadequate strategies. In response, 35% percent of marketing leaders are overhauling the technology tools they offer in 2021, according to a survey conducted by Gartner.

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It’s less about providing a number of tech solutions, according to Sullivan, and more about ensuring that the solutions companies are providing fit with the needs and wants of their employee base.

“[Employees] want to be able to create their own reports for a mortgage,” she says. “[For example,] they want to be able to make their own comparison between last year's bonus and this year's bonus and they want it all at the touch of a button.”