News, Payroll | Caroline Kalu | 8 July 2026

Reducing pay errors through digital efficiency and innovation

Toni-Mason Hambidge, head of employment services and global process owner for payroll at NLPSS, shares how a new Microsoft-based app is simplifying the process of making changes that effect employees’ pay and as a result reducing the volume and cost of pay errors.

Nationally NHS organisations are facing increasing levels of staff overpayments and underpayment. In most cases, these issues arise when changes affecting an employee’s pay are not communicate to payroll in a timely manner. Changes such as terminations, maternity leave, variations in working hours, unpaid leave and extensions of fixed term contracts can all have a significant impact on pay.

We recognise that managers are balancing many competing priorities, so we wanted to develop a solution that makes these processes as quick, simple and accurate as possible. Our aim was to provide managers with an easy-to-use tool that reduces the likelihood of errors while ensuring that payroll receives the information needed to pay employees correctly and on time.

We developed the NLPSS Managers’ Dashboard for changes, which is a platform that makes it easier and quicker for those with budget approval to process pay effective changes, track submissions and manage requests all in one place. Unlike paper-based or traditional digital forms, the app includes built-in controls that prevent individuals without the appropriate budgetary authority from making employee changes. This helps ensure that requests are submitted by the correct manager and reduces the risk of unauthorised or incorrect actions.

The app also provides managers with a clear audit trail, allowing them to track the progress of their submissions and see exactly where they are in the process. As a result, managers can quickly confirm that a request has been received and is being processed, significantly reducing the need to contact the payroll team for updates. In addition, the app is designed to capture only the information required to process a change accurately. This improves data quality, minimises delays caused by missing information, and reduces the need for payroll teams to follow up with managers. At the same time, it prevents managers from spending time providing unnecessary information, making the process more efficient for everyone involved.

We process around 700 payroll-related changes each month. Before introducing the app, we had limited visibility of the types of changes being submitted, making it difficult to identify the most common payroll issues or pinpoint departments that were consistently submitting information late. The app now provides comprehensive reporting and real-time insights, giving us a clear overview of submission trends, volumes, and compliance levels across the organisation. This enables us to identify recurring problem areas, work proactively with departments to improve processes, and address issues before they result in significant costs or payroll errors.

The use of RPA (robotic process automation) to complete some of the payroll changes is also helping us to streamline the process and reduce the administrative burden. This speeds up the process and frees up capacity so the payroll team can support managers in a more meaningful way, using their expertise to solve problems and provide a better user experience.

We’ve seen a 32% reduction in overpayments since the app launched in March 2026, compared to the same period in 2025. There has also been a significant improvement in the number of accurate pay effective change requests with only 4% rejected compared to 25% pre app.

Feedback has been hugely positive with managers praising the technology for how it has made their lives easier. They particularly like the speed in which they can request payroll changes and how the app stores all the information they need in an easily accessible place. I’m delighted at how well it has been received, and we are now in talks with other trusts about how we can roll this out further for the benefit of more of our partners.