Implementing a new global payroll technology stack and adding new payroll countries to your multi country global payroll network is an important initiative being carried out by lots of different companies across a range of different industries around the world today.
Global payroll is an essential and business critical service-employees in international locations need to be paid accurately, and on time every month without fail. Multi-county global payroll tends to be complex- companies are mandated to scale and grow into new regions and territories, there is a compliance factor to be considered and no matter what strategy companies choose to take with their global payroll, there will always be a need for local payroll provider expertise to ensure payroll is processed correctly.
Understandably, this leads to a lot of moving parts and a level of complexity that tends to grow rather than shrink- all indications in the global economy point to this level of complexity only increasing in the next couple of years, particularly as global organizations everywhere get to grips with this potential knew hybrid working culture-which will see a mix of office based and remote work delivery, with employees quite possibly delivering work duties from a country different to where their employer is based.
We recently ran a webinar with our fintech client Wave, and the topic was best practices and guidance around how to approach a global payroll implementations project. As part of that webinar, we reviewed some of the great ways we helped Wave when they implemented the Payslip platform and thought it would be useful to share that customer journey and how we helped them overcome the various challenges they were facing with global payroll management and delivery.
Preparing for the future
The Payslip platform really helped Wave in two areas-it gave them the opportunity to apply structure and management to the current way they deliver global payroll and it also crucially, laid the foundations for their global payroll teams to be able to handle any future growth and scaling activity. This was massively important as Wave are a growing organization with big ambitions. They knew they needed to grow quickly into new countries and regions and had an important requirement for a global payroll technology stack that would facilitate this.
“It’s about positioning you for success in the future, and Payslip can help you to onboard, hundreds of people when you need them very quickly and very efficiently, in the same way for each country.”
Travis Saville, HR Systems Lead at Wave
Replacing manual with digital
The global payroll delivery process at Wave was very similar to a lot of multinational companies around the world in that it was too reliant on manual processes and excel spreadsheets. This kind of time-consuming activity is no longer sustainable- the volume of hours needed for manual entry is too much and there are major security issues when it comes to sharing sensitive global payroll data contained in spreadsheets via email.
Wave’s global payroll needed to undergo some form of digital transformation-manual entry and time-consuming data driven processes needed to be replaced with digital processes which were fast, efficient and accurate. With more countries needing to be onboarded and more employees to pay in different international locations, the manual work was only going to increase, so a technology solution was needed.
Payslip is a secure, cloud based digital platform designed specifically for the management and delivery of multi country global payroll. It comes with a range of digital tools such as system alerts and action trackers that make global payroll processing easier across multiple countries. This was the game changer that Wave were looking for and they were searching for a technology partner with global payroll expertise who could guide him through the whole process during a challenging period of change for their organization.
“…the efficiency, the speed of processing payroll, the accuracy when we remove the excels, the data protection around the process that Payslip technology offers, all of this is a big sell for your compliance internally and also a big thing for the finance function”
Travis Saville, HR Systems Lead at Wave
ICP relationships
Researching, sourcing and finding local in country providers to partner with on a long-term basis is a crucial part of global payroll management when moving into a new country. A multi-vendor strategy is inevitable and necessary- there is no one size fits all technology solution out there and no provider has coverage of all countries. Also, local employment and labor laws along with individual state regulations are simply too nuanced and specific-there is a need for payroll, tax and legal expertise every time an organization scales into new countries.
So, a company like Wave simply needs local country providers and then they need a technology stack to apply structure and management so that they are in a position to maintain ongoing visibility and control over a provider network that is likely to grow as they scale. The planning and implementation stage is crucial when it comes to ICP relationships.
“I think you can also ask ICPs if you've had a challenge in a previous country, ask them how they would solve that or how they might approach addressing that challenge. I think good ICPs are always willing to kind of guide you into the right path”
Travis Saville, HR Systems Lead at Wave
Wave needed to get it right the first time round as they were keen to establish relationships with local country providers that could last a very long time- nobody wants to change providers if they can avoid it, but Wave were pleased to be on the Payslip platform which was designed to facilitate the easy switching out of local country providers when a global employer feels a change is necessary.
Payslip enables global employers to unify and integrate multiple local providers onto a single platform, so Wave knew that as soon as they selected the local providers that were right for their business, they would then be able to manage them all from a single platform and this provided the level of control over global payroll that they wanted. There was also an attractive element of flexibility about all of this, as Wave found themselves in a position where they could pick and choose which payroll providers to work with and Payslip would then proceed to integrate with them. Payroll providers in more than 100 countries have adopted Payslip to deliver their in- country expert services to their multinational clients on our platform.
Harnessing the power of payroll data
One of the biggest challenges that global payroll departments face is how best to extract, analyze and leverage the valuable insight that is always located inside payroll data. The issue with many organizations is that the data tends to remain hidden- complex payroll processes combined with multiple disparate technologies systems make it difficult to access the data, never mind extract it out into digestible, easily understood analytics and reporting.
The Payslip approach is to first apply standardization to all data across all countries- immediately, all global payroll professionals across the countries are working with the same data formats. Secondly, the Payslip platform applies automation to any repeatable and recurring tasks such as payroll data uploads and validations.
Once this is in place, the suite of global payroll reporting tools available on the Payslip platform can then be leveraged to run multiple different reports which can be used to satisfy a range of different stakeholder inquiries around payroll data.
All of this enables the global payroll department at a company like Wave to truly harness the power of global payroll data in a way that allows them to add strategic value to the overall organization in the form of comprehensive multi country global payroll reporting and smart analytics. This helps elevate the payroll function from the misconception of a back office administrative function to an important strategic partner and growth enabler.
“We often have more insight into our employee data that goes beyond the cost of employing. So, I would encourage everyone to advocate for having that seat at the table, we have so much data at our fingertips, and we can provide so many great insights, that often our business leaders either overlook or don't factor into their decision making”
Travis Saville, HR Systems Lead at Wave
Wave is a great example of a digital native organization embracing a new technology platform to enhance and manage how they deliver global payroll across multiple countries. Payslip specializes in helping companies like this, our platform was designed to solve many of the pain points associated with global payroll delivery.
We help organizations on-board new countries and source local country providers- we enabled them to apply structure and organization around any multi-vendor strategy they may have, while also helping them put the necessary payroll structures in place to facilitate future growth and scaling which will likely result in a need for the rapid onboarding of new country providers.
“one of the things that I was immensely grateful to the Payslip team for doing is really pushing us on thinking about the steps within payroll, which I think prior to implementing Payslip, we really hadn't thought of”
Travis Saville, HR Systems Lead at Wave
Growth and scaling also tends to result in increased needs around international compliance- the digital tools available on our platform such as audit trails can help growing organizations stay on top of their compliance commitments.
Our global payroll reporting functionality provides both high level and detailed visibility around multi country payroll costs, allowing leadership teams to compare countries and pay elements so that they have a full understanding of how much it costs to place employees in specific countries and regions. If all of this sounds like something that could be useful to your organization, our team is ready and waiting to help you-get in touch today.
For information on the Payslip Platform contact us today.