2018 brought about significant changes which affected the Global Payroll industry. The introduction of GDPR in May shook up all Organizations who hold personal data belonging to EU citizens. GDPR had a huge impact on payroll departments, changing the way important sensitive date belonging to employees is stored, processed and managed.
2019 will be an exciting year for the Payroll Industry with innovative technology such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) being at the forefront of operational improvements. With that in mind we have put together a list of the 3 key ways technology can help improve Global Payroll processes and generally make the life of the payroll professional that little bit easier!
1: Intuitive Reporting
An efficient Global Payroll process relies on a centralized system with immediate access to consolidated reporting. Without the use of technology to run and view reports it is near impossible to gain insights from multiple sources of data and produce transparent reporting in a timely manner. Introducing technology for payroll reporting empowers organisations to monitor associated costs across countries, track trends and fluctuations providing visibility across the full workforce enabling HR, Finance and Payroll to think smarter and act faster. Storing reports on a cloud-based platform avoids security risks associated with sharing data across different departments using email or shared folders.
2: Automation
When an Organisation goes through a rapid growth phase and expands internationally processes such as payroll can become disjointed, a lot of time is spent deciphering information from different sources making it very difficult for payroll professionals and finance teams to gain insights from multiple sources of data.
Utilizing technology such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate key components of the payroll process can increase efficiency, transparency and address key risk or friction areas which impose avoidable costs on the business. Essentially taking a manual business process and automating it ensures payroll operations remain stable through the future expansion of the organization.
3: Workflow Management
Integrating technology into the global payroll process creates effective workflow management, sharpening role and responsibility definition. Global Payroll software delivers clarity to an organisation over its payroll process allowing the assigning of task ownership, creating SLA’s, monitoring critical steps such as payments and producing valuable audit trails.
Other benefits technology brings to Global Payroll include:
- Positive Employee Experiences - Creating a secure web application for employees to access payslips and payment information.
- Integrations – Fast integration with payroll providers and ERP systems reducing manual workload and emails back and forth.
- Security – Facilitates compliance with data exchange and retention legislation such as GDPR
- Scalability – Solution that is flexible to grow with the organisation
- Data Storage – Capture key payroll information in one location, ensuring payroll is not impacted by personnel change or holidays.
As we close off 2018, now is a great time to take a look at your current global payroll process and ask some important questions. Is it as efficient as it could be? Are there manual jobs that could be automated? Is it secure? Do you have access to all the reports you need?