Avery Healthcare Group, a leading provider of high quality care homes, has entrusted its entire UK payroll function to Bond International Software’s comprehensive and fully accredited payroll bureau – Bond Payroll Services. In a 12-month rolling contract, up to £850,000 in monthly salary will be processed across 800 employees spread over disparate locations.
Avery Healthcare provides high quality care homes for the elderly and people with disabilities. With over 20 years’ experience, care services are offered including personal care, nursing care, respite and convalescence throughout all homes. All twelve homes are located within the UK, including Chester, Northampton, Wiltshire, Bristol, West Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Avery Healthcare’s payroll had previously been outsourced to a firm of accountants, where it was managed by a sole individual. Therefore, the principal driver for the introduction of the new service was to remove the risk and disruption incurred should that person be ill or leave the business.
Mark O’Brien, Group Finance Manager at Avery Healthcare, describes, “With our ongoing growth targets – we opened six new care homes this year alone – to have one outsourced person in charge of our entire payroll function for over 800 employees simply wasn’t sufficiently reliable or scalable. When comparing Bond’s bureau offering with other companies, it was clear that Bond’s hands-on and fully supported approach, and its sheer depth of resource, suited our business needs. We are now able to manage our fourteen individual payrolls (one for each location) with the flexibility and consistency that we lacked previously.”
O’Brien adds, “On top of the security and peace of mind, the system adds real value to our business by providing us with increased efficiency. Previously if errors occurred, then there would typically be a wait until the next month to resolve them. With Bond Payroll Services, we have experienced fewer errors and we now have a regular and improved internal approval process. By cutting out the mistakes, we are saving time, resources and ultimately cost.”
O’Brien concluded, “Bond’s involvement has provided us with a fully supported, scalable and feature-rich payroll system, but without the risk of one person running it. Whilst we expect to continue growing at a rapid rate, I am confident that the inherent scalability in Bond’s services will allow our payroll processes to grow with us and save us substantial time and resources in the process.”
Tim Richards, Managing Director of Bond International Software, comments, “Payroll is arguably one of the most important internal business functions, and if a company expands beyond its own abilities to pay its staff, then this can be disastrous. Bond Payroll Services is of particular value to companies such as Avery Healthcare as the outsourced managed service provides total visibility and confidence in the process, and allows the growth of the organisation to continue, unhindered by any concerns of outgrowing the payroll department.”