Growth and scale up activity are major priorities for multinational companies around the world. We are in the process of emerging from a global pandemic and many organizations are looking to make up for lost ground- a lot of investment or scaling related activity was put on hold during the pandemic as the business world waited to see how everything would play out.

Now that the landscape is a little calmer, and a new normal of hybrid working and remote work has firmly bedded in across the globe, leadership teams are now returning to scale up and growth strategies as they look to enter new countries and territories in order to create market share and new revenue streams.

As always, companies will require the resources in the form of people, process and technology to ensure that they are able to execute on any scale up strategy and achieve growth efficiency as they broaden their business into new countries. In this article, we will look at some of the reasons why a carefully selected global payroll process and model can become both a facilitator and partner for the kind of high growth they are seeking.

Growth requires people. People require payment.

On one level, it really is as simple as this-to grow into new countries and territories and carve out market share, you are going to need people on the ground to spread the message and sell your products and services. This may involve a recruitment drive and a broad mix of workforce types- remote workers, hybrid workers, contractors, expats, and contingency workers. Extended workforce management capabilities will be required here.

All of these different worker types will of course require salary payments and other business benefits to be set up and in place as soon as they sign their contracts. Company reputation is at stake here and it can be damaging to simply move swiftly into a new country and find that your global payroll capabilities cannot keep pace with your ambitions. In fact, this is a very quick way to lose new employees in these new markets you want to be in.

Global payroll managers, leaders and experienced professionals should therefore be consulted and involved in growth strategy plans. They have a lot of expertise to bring to the table and are especially mindful of some of the pitfalls to be avoided when moving rapidly into new countries. They can advise on what needs to be set up and in place from a payroll delivery and management perspective. They can also advise on the level of local country expertise that is going to be required to get the job done effectively. Local country partnerships will be needed as, due to the nature of global payroll operations, local country providers  will be the people who process the payroll and pay the global team of employees in these new countries. Above all, they can advise on the kind of digital technology platform that will be required to manage it all, especially when it comes to scale up growth and adding new countries.

It is therefore advisable to view your global payroll team and the global payroll model in place as a partner for hyper growth. Include payroll professionals in all discussions right from the start and develop a clear understanding of the kind of digital tools, technology stacks and local country expertise needed to hit the ground running from a payroll solutions perspective. Remember, without payroll, you have no employees.

Leverage payroll technology for growth

Growth activity, in the form of moving quickly into new countries and territories is very achievable with the correct supporting technology. Agile, flexible, and innovative technology will be required in a range of business units if multinational companies are to achieve ambitious growth plans.

From a payroll perspective, a global payroll control platform can be leveraged to ensure that you achieve growth efficiency. By this we mean, leveraging the automation and integration technology power of a digital platform to create a process where you develop a single way of working across countries. This means standardized payroll data and standardized payroll processes across all of the countries that you are currently in and also have ambitions to be in.

Digitizing your multi-country payroll processes and operating them from a secure cloud environment that is scalable in nature means that you can scale up activity as you grow, and a technology platform does the heavy lifting instead of a requirement for increased hires in the payroll department. This is leveraging payroll technology for growth efficiency and operating with a digital platform designed for scale up control.

When your payroll is digitized and running on a global payroll control platform, and you operate with standardized data and processes, then you are in a position to simply duplicate the process for any new country that you on board. Then you have scaleup control with speed and efficiency-you can simply switch on a new country and on board a new local country provider in a matter of days. Without this kind of platform technology, it can take several weeks or months to get up and running with payroll in a new territory. The world moves fast, and it is highly competitive out there, weeks and months might mean it is too late and the competition gets there ahead of you. This is a situation you want to avoid, so it is best to prioritize your payroll technology in a way that helps you view it as a partner for growth.