Compliantly managing global payroll can be a tedious feat—but it doesn’t have to be.
If your company has a different payroll provider in each country of operation, or if you're simply looking to expand your business quickly and efficiently while maintaining cross-border compliance, it might be time to consider streamlining your payroll process.
Partnering with a single payroll provider will help you alleviate the administrative burdens associated with managing a global payroll. It will also ensure your business remains compliant with local laws and regulations in each country of operation.
In this article, we'll explore the top four benefits of streamlining your global payroll system, including:
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Centralized payroll processing
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Ensuring cross-border compliance
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Consolidating global reporting
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Streamlining HR administration
1. Centralized global payroll processing
According to the EY Global Payroll Survey Report, 35% of companies don’t have a formalized payroll strategy in place, with 28% of companies reporting “very low” global standardization for payroll processing.
When there isn’t a uniform process, payroll can become siloed and disparate, especially when you operate in multiple countries. Consolidating vendors and finding a new payroll solution may seem like a daunting task but streamlining your payroll processes will help your business save time and money by reducing operational inefficiencies for your entire HR department.
One of the first steps to eliminating operational inefficiencies is to choose a payroll provider that provides access to valuable insights and data for your entire organization, all from a central location. You’ll also want to partner with a vendor that allows you to pay employees in any country, currency, or cadence. Not only will implementing a centralized payroll platform help your team save time, but it will also reduce the margin of error, as payroll will no longer need to be processed manually. In addition to saving time, a centralized payroll platform will help your business reduce costs. A survey by PwC shows that, on average, companies that outsource payroll save 18% more money than businesses that tackle it themselves.
But standardization doesn’t come with a flip of the switch and there are a few things your multinational business will need to do before it can reap the benefits of a streamlined payroll system. This will involve mapping your current payroll processes across different countries to see how payroll is being processed: is it being done manually? With a payroll vendor? Both?
Once you have a true idea of how your business's payroll is currently being processed, you’ll be able to move forward with streamlining it. It’s also important to keep in mind that streamlining your payroll systems is more effective when you partner with a provider that can process payroll in all the countries you currently do business in, as well as the ones you may be thinking of expanding to.
2. Ensuring cross-border compliance
When you operate across multiple jurisdictions, it can be extremely challenging for your HR team to keep up with the ever-changing laws and regulations in those areas. However, streamlining your global payroll processes and adopting a centralized payroll platform will provide the visibility you need to ensure your payroll operations are compliant in each country of operation.
Partnering with a single payroll provider that has local market experts in each country of operation will ensure that your business’s payroll is compliant, no matter how complex the local laws and regulations may be. With a team of dedicated in-country HR experts, you can easily manage all local payroll requirements and stay up to date on the latest statutory guidelines, tax requirements, and filing schedules, so you can rest assured that your employees are paid accurately and on time, every time.
3. Consolidating global reporting
By far one of the biggest benefits of streamlining your global payroll system is the ability to have a true global view of data. When you have different payroll processes across an organization, it can be challenging to consolidate your global payroll data and gain a more uniform view of how things are going across the business.
Partnering with a single payroll provider and streamlining the related processes will allow you to tap into harmonized workforce reporting. This can provide your multinational business with invaluable information like overtime costs and the cost of employee benefits across all jurisdictions of operation. This can help your business highlight potential areas for expansion, or where you may want to cut back on costs. With a centralized view of your global payroll data, you’ll be able to make the most informed strategic decisions for your growing business.
Related: Business questions you can answer with standardized workforce data
4. Streamlining HR administration
A streamlined global payroll system will allow more time for transforming other HR-related processes and maximizing the employee experience.
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Transform HR processes: By removing the need to process payroll manually, your HR team will have more time to focus on helping managers across the business stay on top of requests, benefits administration, time tracking and expenses, and more—ensuring these processes are as seamless and straightforward as possible.
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Maximize employee experience: With increased visibility into a company’s payroll data and more time to focus on other HR-related processes, your team will have the opportunity to maximize the employee experience across the entire organization. In practice, this could mean conducting interviews or surveys to garner more information about your employees' overall job satisfaction. Then, they can use these learnings to rethink certain business processes and perk offerings as a way to increase employee engagement and satisfaction.
Related: How payroll impacts the global employee experience
Streamlining your global payroll system
While there’s quite a bit that goes into the process of streamlining your global payroll system, the benefits of a transformation will pay off in the long run.
Our team can help assess your business’s unique needs and develop a plan to streamline your global payroll—learn more about Payroll 360 or contact us today.
Related: 5 key things to consider before undergoing a payroll transformation
