Question 1
For any organization that is making a consideration to replace its internal payroll system with payroll outsourcing system, the cost reductions and direct revenue enhancements for such a company, which is into the internal payroll system may include employees’ productivity increase since they can at this instant focus on engaging in more productive things hence improve the profitability. For example, this is essentially true for the small businesses having employee strength of 10 to 20. Additionally, another direct cost reduction could actually be, avoiding the IRS penalties. The IRS penalties dictate that 40 percent of the small businesses actually pay an average of 845US dollars in every year as penalty for incorrect or late payments and fillings. Outsourcing of payroll might aide the company to avoid penalty notices (Adler 2001).
Other direct revenue enhancements might be transaction costs reduction. The outsourcing company might permit its employees to claim their reimbursement statements together with other things through online mechanisms. Indirect revenue enhancements might be the building brand in other countries. For example, outsourced company structures the Logo Branding of its partner and this allows this company to display the logo and company name in all client and employee access page (Project Management Institute 2004). Furthermore, best technology use might another indirect cost reduction. In fact, this holds true for the small businesses that do not possess technology strengths like most recent tax table and the latest payroll software versions installed on their computers.
Question 2
Integrating a new payroll system in an organization comes with various risks. One of these risks is the financial loss through unauthorized or invalid payments that includes the fraudulent ones. This is a major challenge that is experienced by organizations when integrating new payroll system. The other risk is low morale among the employees as a result of the failure to make payments on time or promptly. Fines or censure by tax authorities due to incorrect payments or calculation is the other risk that is associated with an organization integrating new payroll system. In addition, the other risk that is associated with an organization integrating new payroll system is inaccurate payments and potential financial loss through the payroll records errors and delays (Adler 2001). Therefore, the project management team in all these cases needs to have identified the potential risk and prepared adequately prior to the integration through conducting problem analysis.
Question 3
The first task for completing a Gantt chart for outsourcing the payroll system of the company will be to list all the activities in the plan. This is where the company will show the first start date and estimate the length of time that this plan will take. The other task will involve heading up the graph paper containing the weeks or days through to the company’s task completion. The next task will be to draw a rough draft of Gantt chart where each task will be plotted showing its beginning on earliest possible time. The last task for outsourcing the payroll system in a company will involve preparing the last version of Gantt chart. Therefore, this will show how sets of sequential activities in outsourcing payroll system will link together. In addition, it will make it possible for the company to identify critical path activities.
The advantages and disadvantages of using Gantt chart differ from those of PERT and CPM when managing projects. Starting with the advantages, the Gantt charts allow one to assess the time that a project will take and give the sequence of tasks needed to be taken. On the other hand, PERT and CPM also help to calculate the expected time and shows the sequence of critical activities. However, despite them sharing these advantages, Gantt charts are useful in the management of dependencies between the tasks (Roberts 2013). Furthermore, while using Gantt charts it is possible for on to monitor the progress of a project and in case of a failure that was experienced somewhere, it is possible to take remedial action so as to bring the project at hand back on course. On the disadvantages, the weaknesses of PERT and CPM are much more than those of Gantt charts. For instance, PERT and CPM primarily focuses on activities time aspects neglecting the other concerns like cost and quality control, which is not the case in Gantt charts.
Question 4
The 3 feedback loops types which project manager can essentially implement are positive feedback loops, negative feedback loops, and neutral feedback loops. All these loops will be important for the users of new payroll system to air their positive, negative, or neutral views or feedbacks. Additionally, the project management can actually filter out irrelevant information by employing personnel who are highly qualified in matters related to workers affairs.
Question 5
The replacement of a payroll system that has been in use in an organization can have effects on the employees. Therefore, these employees are likely to manifest various behavioral types such as absence from work, poor performance due to lack of motivation, and lack of respect to one another and the management because they will feel somehow demoralized and frustrated. The three guidelines that project manager should use in mitigating the employee resistance to change are to get these employees to stop or modify their behaviors. Thus, a project manager should talk with his or her employees and instruct them to stop these behaviors since they negatively impact the performance of an organization. A project manager should also explain to them how the new system functions showing them its flexibility. The other approach that a manager needs to use is situation, behavior, and consequence approach (Roberts 2013). Under this approach, the manager will identify situations where employee behaviors in question are actually displayed, describe those behaviors, and lastly identify the consequences that are likely to occur.
References
Roberts, P. (2013). Guide to Project Management: Getting it Right and Achieving Lasting Benefit. New York: Wiley.
Adler, M. D., & Posner, E. A. (2001). Cost-benefit analysis: Legal, economic, and philosophical perspectives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Project Management Institute. (2004). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide). Newtown Square, Pa: Project Management Institute.
Roberts, P., & Economist Newspaper Limited. (2007). Guide to project management: Achieving lasting benefit through effective change. London:
