Attitudes towards the delivery and management of multi-country global payroll at global organizations is significantly changing. A realization has set in that digital advancements are needed to manage and help with the problem-solving, challenges and complexity that is associated with global payroll.

Companies are mandated to expand and grow; they already have a lot of payroll countries to manage, and the expectation is that they will be entering even more new countries in the coming years as part of their growth and expansion plans. It is clearer than ever that they need a payroll business model and process that can keep pace with their growth initiatives and ambitions, without such a process, these companies may discover that payroll can be a blocker to the progress they wish to achieve, simply because it has been neglected or overlooked for a digital transformation.

In this article, we are looking at some of the reasons why there is a new willingness for digital advancement and next generation technology in the payroll world of work, and why this willingness is both long overdue and should be welcomed.

A solution to complexity

Payroll is complex, multi layered and nuanced. It is also very local and specific to each country it is delivered in. Local country labor laws, compliance and regulatory obligations plus individual company pay elements and unique pay and compensation packages, all mixed together can create a complex environment to manage payroll in.

It has been abundantly clear to payroll professionals for some time that excel spreadsheets and manual data processes are no longer sufficient or sustainable. But this information has not always been obvious to key decision makers and stakeholders within the organization or even the leadership teams.

It is now becoming clearer that global payroll has been neglected when it comes to digital advancement and new technologies. The business case for a global payroll control platform is becoming clearer and more obvious, and business leaders are now coming to an understanding about the consequences of doing nothing and what carrying on with the same old manual payroll processes would mean for the future of work. These processes offer no solution to the challenges and complexity of multi country payroll delivery and management, nor are they suitable for the payroll management of the future, especially if an organization has ambitious growth and scaling plans.

So, a complexity solution is required, one that clearly merits the need for a digital cloud-based platform that is designed specifically to deliver and manage multi country payroll. The implementation of this kind of new technology discards the manual processes associated with legacy payroll- there is no more need for excel spreadsheets and manual data inputs, the use of process automation technology in payroll can take care of all of these things for you. This way, the payroll process is much more efficient and accurate, as there are no mistakes being made that were previously resulting from human touch interference.

Empowering professionals

Just like the model and process of payroll delivery, the diligent and hard-working professionals who operate in this space have also been somewhat neglected over the last decade. Many have looked on enviously as they see their colleagues in sales and marketing work with the latest digital cloud tools, robotics, digital dashboards, system alerts, communication and collaboration tools.

Many have wondered out loud why such digital innovation are not available to them, especially when you consider that global payroll cost is usually the largest expense within an organization. Surely such a significant expenditure merits the best tools in the market to manage it and help optimize the entire process.

Digitizing payroll can empower global payroll professionals to do their jobs in a faster, smarter, and better way. It can also equip them with the latest innovative tools to find ways for process improvement and crucially, create much needed breathing space within each payroll cycle to focus on priority tasks such as error detection, reporting and analysis. Providing them with these digital tools can help improve their work environment and enhance the employee experience, while also arguably helping human resources with any retention issues that may have surfaced due to these payroll professionals not being equipped with the right work tools.

Tools together with the right skill sets can empower professionals to do their jobs better and also serve to boost accuracy and reduce errors within the process. Digital tools which display information in easily understood formats can help payroll professionals spot trends and anomalies that they would not be able to see if they spend all their time working in spreadsheets with manual data.

Digital tools in the form of real-time reporting and smart analytics also empower payroll professionals to become strategic advisors to the business as a whole, bringing valuable data, reporting and metrics to the table around country cost comparisons and specific pay element costs. Reporting can be invaluable when it comes to gaining valuable insight into the payroll process and can help assist leadership teams with decision-making.

Becoming growth ready

Another reason behind this new willingness for investment in digital tools and next generation technology for payroll processing is the desire to become growth ready and be in a strong position to quickly take advantage of new opportunities in new countries and territories.

The world moves fast, the competition sometimes moves even faster. Global companies with strong growth ambitions need to be able to move quickly and hit the ground running by hiring and paying new employees quickly and easily in the new countries that they want to be in. They need to do this to establish a market presence there and carve out new revenue generation opportunities- if they can’t pay employees on the ground, they will not be in a position to do this. As well as this, there has been a huge increase in the number of remote work employees since the pandemic, so being able to distribute payroll globally in an efficient way is significant, as companies can now hire employees from anywhere in the world.

Digitizing payroll and deploying next generation technology to deliver payroll will ensure that an organization has a technology infrastructure for payroll that is designed to be flexible and keep pace with growth ambitions, it helps to make an organization growth ready.

No leadership team wants to hear that the reason they are unable to take advantage of new opportunities is because the payroll process and technology they currently have is not sufficient to move at the speed they want to. But this is the reality at a lot of organizations today who have chosen to neglect payroll in the past: now it has become clear that if your desire is to be in a constant state of growth readiness, ready to move fast and take advantage of opportunities, then you also need to invest in your global payroll technology infrastructure to ensure it has the modern digital capabilities and next generation technology to move with you.

Payroll is a process that can hugely benefit from the implementation of next-generation technology. It can help remove all the complexity that is involved in payroll and make the whole process much more efficient and easier to manage. It can also empower payroll professionals as well as facilitate company growth and scaling.

For more information about our Global Payroll Control Platform contact us today.