Continuous compliance in 2026 for HR & payroll

There is a particular kind of corporate embarrassment that arrives not with a bang but a spreadsheet.

The Coles and Woolworths underpayment sagas, which dominated business headlines and Fair Work investigations over recent years, were not the result of wilful fraud in most cases. They were the accumulated consequence of complexity: award conditions layered upon enterprise agreements, manual workarounds stitched together over time, and payroll systems that flagged problems only after the damage was done. For HR and payroll professionals watching those headlines, the lesson was uncomfortable and clarifying in equal measure.

Now, with the criminalisation of wage theft now law in Australia and the Payday Super reform set to take effect from 1 July 2026, the pressure on payroll compliance has moved from uncomfortable to urgent.

Natalee Leach, director of The Payroll Collective; Jason Low, chief executive of TAPS (The Australian Payroll Association); and Ben Kropman, director of solutions advisory APJ at Dayforce, will be speaking at a Zoom webinar on the topic above and more, hosted by sponsor Dayforce Australia on March 25 at 1pm NZDT. To find out details and to register, click here.

The stakes have changed

For years, superannuation guarantee payments have been made quarterly. From mid-2026, that changes: employers will be required to remit SG contributions every pay cycle, meaning organisations running weekly payroll could face up to 52 super payments per year. It is a shift that sounds administrative but carries significant operational weight.

"The Payday Super reform will potentially increase payment frequency from quarterly to up to 52 times per year for weekly pay runs, require real-time configuration of payroll systems, and elevate the importance of reconciliation and cash flow management," said Ben Kropman, director of solutions advisory APJ at Dayforce.

For larger organisations in particular, that increased frequency means errors that might previously have been caught and corrected before a quarterly deadline now surface faster and more publicly. Kropman noted that for complex and larger organisations, errors and process gaps can surface more often and more visibly, increasing the need for continuous compliance.

That phrase, continuous compliance, is worth sitting with. It signals a shift away from the end-of-cycle review model that many payroll teams have relied upon, toward something closer to an ongoing operating discipline.

Building from the ground up

The instinct for many organisations under compliance pressure is to reach for new technology. But practitioners who work closely with payroll teams say the more pressing need is often simpler and harder: fixing what is already broken before adding anything new on top.

"Manual processes, missing approvals, and poor system integrations often create data issues that lead to payroll compliance mistakes," said Kropman. "Getting your people, processes, and platforms in place can help build a stronger foundation and put them in a better position despite the increasing complexity."

That foundation work involves more than tidying up data. It requires establishing a compliance framework with clear accountability, one that evaluates current processes, develops policies, and assigns ownership across HR, payroll, and finance. Without that structure, Kropman explained, visibility into where an organisation actually stands remains limited.

"It can be hard to know where your organisation stands when relying on manual processes and disjointed systems," he said. "Using a single HR and payroll solution that can provide actionable insights can help give leaders better visibility into the business."

The argument for consolidating HR and payroll onto a single platform is partly about efficiency, but it is also about auditability. When pay data, time and attendance records, and employee change history all live in one system, the audit trail is coherent. When they are spread across multiple platforms, reconciling them after something goes wrong is both time-consuming and, as the large-retailer cases demonstrated, potentially very costly.

Compliance as trust

There is a broader reframing happening in how the HR profession talks about payroll compliance, and it is worth paying attention to. The traditional frame treats compliance as risk management: get it right to avoid penalties. That framing remains valid but insufficient given the current environment.

"The risks around payroll and non-compliance are too significant to take a reactive approach," Kropman said. With reforms like Payday Super increasing the immediacy of compliance obligations, he argued that strong foundations, visibility, and control are more important than ever.

The Payday Super reform, the criminalisation of wage theft, and the scrutiny that followed the underpayment cases have collectively made clear that how an organisation pays its people is now a matter of public trust, not just internal process. When entitlements are right, on time, and explainable, the relationship between employer and employee is stronger for it.

For HR and payroll professionals preparing for the year ahead, the practical starting point is an honest assessment of where their foundations actually stand, before the next regulatory deadline makes that assessment for them.

The webinar will take place virtually on March 25 at 1pm NZDT. To find out more and to register, click here.