Guide to creating a business case for global payroll transformation

August 31, 2022 | 5 Mins David Daly

Global payroll professionals have been asking for a digital upgrade for a long time now-the administrative burden created due to business expansion and companies moving into new territories and countries means that global payroll professionals are under increasing pressure to deliver their duties on a daily basis.

There is a strong requirement for a digital platform solution where they can leverage digital technology and innovative digital tools to help them manage and deliver global payroll across several different countries in a faster, smarter and better way.

Some of the more progressive organizations now understand the value of digitally upgrading the global payroll department, as they recognize the business-critical nature of payroll and how a payroll system failure or inaccuracies with payroll can be damaging and costly.

But leadership teams at some organizations are not reacting quick enough to the urgent need for change in global payroll delivery. Sometimes this can be attributed to the struggle to create and articulate a clear business case for investment. CFOs and other senior executives in charge of investment decisions need to fully understand the reasons why they should sanction an investment as well as become aware of the consequences of doing nothing.

In this article, we will provide a guide to creating a business case for global payroll transformation and outline some of the key topics you should be highlighting in your business case

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Start with why

This is perhaps an obvious place to start but it really helps when global payroll leaders, managers and professionals take the time to sit down and fully articulate the specific challenges they are facing with payroll delivery and management.

Once you are clear on exactly what you are facing, then you can begin to outline the reasons why your current process or technology is not sufficient to meet present and expected future requirements.

If the people approving investment in global payroll technology don’t understand the challenges you need to solve, and the reasons why the current process is failing to meet them-then it will be difficult for them to truly understand what is happening inside the global payroll department. They will be risk averse by nature and nobody invests in something that they don’t truly understand.

Outline your current state-number of countries, employees and local country payroll providers under management. Create a picture of the current process, without getting into too much detail, but enough to show how it is currently delivered. List all of the various challenges and then create a picture of the reasons why the current process is unsustainable. This is about showing people that there is a problem and making it clear that a solution is needed or there will be consequences.

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An eye on the future

All decision makers who approve an investment in technology stacks at a global organization want to feel that they are in some way future proofing the organization-essentially, making it ready for the challenges coming down the road.

If they have this information to hand, it will be a lot easier for them to make a positive decision in relation to global payroll investment. Sustainability, cost savings and productivity gains are the kind of things they want to hear about.

So, talk about the future in your business case. You’ll outline your current needs for multi-country global payroll delivery and management but also point out how the overall company strategy will impact workforce management in the next 5 to 10 years. You can then explain what will be needed in terms of global payroll innovation to cope with and manage this level of expected change.

Create a list of questions and then get really clear on your answers to these questions-ensure the business case contains these questions, so you can also get the people reviewing the document to start thinking along the same lines as you. If you can articulate some consequences of a lack of investment, then even better as this creates a real sense of purpose and urgency that can move to decision making process along.

In particular, it will be helpful to focus some content on the ability of the organization to scale and grow. Every company wants to grow, move into new countries and territories, launch new products and services, seize opportunities and create revenue streams. But, what if you don’t have a global payroll model and process that is capable of keeping pace with this ambitious level of growth? This can be alarming to hear and you will certainly get their attention if you clearly express how a lack of investment could be a choke point or blocker to overall company progress.

Our guide contains a list of key questions you should be considering when it comes to assessing current and future needs. These questions can play a key role in successfully articulating the core reasons for an investment in payroll digital transformation.

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Costs and cost savings

While decision makers for technology investments may be impressed by articulate wording and clever pitches, one thing that will always get their attention is costs. If your business case for investment represents an opportunity to save costs in the long term while also highlighting the unsustainability of the current levels of costs, then you will go a long way to getting their complete attention.

An investment that can boost productivity while saving money in the long run is one that has a clear chance of getting approved. Everyone wants to save money, and if they can be made to understand how long-term cost savings will come from their initial outlay on technology investment, then they will be a lot more comfortable green lighting a digital transformation investment in multi-country global payroll.

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Our guide contains a dozen questions that you can ask to help you assess what your current global payroll model and process is costing you now. There may be a little research involved to find out what all of these costs are, but you will find it to be a very worthwhile project as any good business case which aims to talk about long term value and cost savings will first need to outline what the costs are in the present moment. This will also help you create a before and after picture where you can show them where costs savings are likely to happen and how long-term value and a more sustainable payroll process can be put in place as a result of an investment.

Our business case guide is a great starting point if you are a global payroll professional who has been tasked with putting together some reasons to justify an investment in a technology solution for multi country payroll delivery and management. It will help you create a picture of where you are now, articulate where you want to be and outline the business case reasons why investment in global payroll technology solutions are fully justifiable and necessary.

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

Using Payslip, we can manage all our payrolls across nine in-country vendors on one platform. When the global Covid-19 pandemic arose, it was not an issue from a payroll perspective, and critically getting everyone paid. The Payslip platform enabled continuity for our international payroll service including the fast and seamless implementation of the Payslip Employment Self Service during this time.

Colin Smith Payroll Manager, GoTo

Payslip as a technology platform has added a missing piece in our payroll set-up. As an international company with offices in 16 countries, it’s important to us that every employee at GetYourGuide has the same great experience when accessing their pay data.

At the same time, we work well with smaller local payroll providers, supporting us with direct local expertise in their countries. We were able to combine those two elements by placing the Payslip platform in the middle, to simplify reporting and communication with local providers, and to have one simple employee-facing solution across all locations.

Julian Fichter Head of HR, GetYourGuide

With business and employee growth rates of above 50%, we rely on our vendors to deliver on time, every time. Payslip’s workflow automation, enables Phorest to manage our payroll provider process – data driven, real time and transparent. Payslip saves us time so we can focus on our business growth.

Ana Kelly International Payroll Manager, Phorest

Payslip positions your team for success, and allows you to onboard hundreds of people when you need them very quickly and efficiently, in the same way for each country. The uniformed approach empowered our payroll teams to keep pace with our business.

Payslip also made our payroll process entirely transparent, which is invaluable to our payroll teams as we continue to grow and scale at such a rapid pace.

Travis Saville HR Systems Lead, Wave

Payslip is firmly bedded into Kirby's now, and we've seen massive efficiencies in the way we are processing our payrolls across Europe. We hope to bed in Italy & Switzerland now in Q2 so onwards & upwards!