Paycom Software, Inc. has updated its Direct Data Exchange® usage management analytics tool, incorporating new data from a professional services firm EY report that details the rising labor and non-labor costs associated with manual human resources tasks.
The EY report highlights that the average cost of manual data entry by an HR professional is projected to reach $4.86 per instance in 2025, an increase from $4.78 in 2023. This trend indicates a continuous rise in costs across various HR categories, including expense management, onboarding, benefits enrollment, and time management, since the survey’s inception in 2018. Paycom utilizes EY’s data to quantify the cost savings achieved through the adoption of automated HR processes via Direct Data Exchange, which provides an overview of employee engagement with the self-service features of Paycom’s software.
Shane Hadlock, chief client and technology officer at Paycom, commented on the findings, stating, “EY’s latest report denotes a widening gap between the costs of manual processes and the advantages of automation. Paycom’s full-solution automation helps our clients bridge this gap, reduce costs and drive business growth.”With the expansion of EY’s 2025 study to include new HR tasks, Direct Data Exchange can now factor in the potential cost savings associated with Paycom’s command-driven AI engine, IWant™. This tool automates the process of finding employee information, aiming to eliminate the need for manual navigation through software. The report estimates that without IWant, an HR professional or manager incurs an estimated labor cost of $11.75 per instance when searching for employee information, primarily due to the time expended. Certain manual tasks, such as obtaining information to compare benefit plans, were estimated to cost as much as $23.27 per instance. The report emphasizes that labor costs account for nearly all total expenses related to manual HR tasks, underscoring the potential for substantial financial savings through automation.
The Kraft Group, parent company of the New England Patriots, identified $5 million in savings through its use of Paycom, crediting the comprehensive automation for a smooth and efficient user experience. A senior vice president of operations at The Kraft Group stated, “Data is everything. With Paycom’s full-solution automation, we’re on top of cost controls and efficiencies, and that drives the return on our investment.”EY routinely updates its report through additional surveys and inflation adjustments. Manual payroll creation showed the largest increase in estimated cost since EY’s 2023 report, rising by $5.73 to a total of $20.83 per instance. When manual payroll tasks were factored in, the report’s overall average cost per data entry increased from $4.86 to $5.68, up from $5.35 in 2023. Paycom’s payroll tool, Beti®, automates the payroll process by pulling live data, identifying errors, and guiding employees to resolve them before submission. This automation has been shown to reduce labor costs for payroll processing by 90% and save HR and accounting teams over 2,600 hours annually, according to a commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Paycom in June 2023. These results are based on a composite organization representative of interviewed clients.
