Reporting and analytics are hot topics in the global payroll and human resources department right now. One of the reasons for this is that requests for reporting around payroll data and statistics is on the rise, particularly from leadership teams for business decisions.
We have entered a new era of work, big-data and workforce management. Recruitment strategies are changing as the world adapts to the new model of remote workers and hybrid working. There is now greater scrutiny on payroll information and data analytics, in a data-driven way that may not have been present before the pandemic began.
When the makeup of the workforce changes dramatically, as it has done since the pandemic, then there is a logical level of scrutiny placed on how new employees and the workforce is paid and when. The data surrounding payroll operations has a lot to reveal about the financial health & profitability of a multinational company as well as how well any recruitment strategy is working in practice.
In this article we are going to look at a few reasons while payroll analytics and reporting are so crucial for company insight and strategic direction.
Real-time payroll analytics information
Everything in business seems to be moving at a faster pace than ever before, so it should come as no real surprise that up-to-the-minute data is in popular demand. The problem is, getting up-to-the-minute data in global payroll is proving hugely challenging for a lot of organizations today. The reason for this is legacy technology that was not designed to deliver this level of detailed reporting, or the payroll provider who helps you get the employees paid cannot supply the details and consolidated reporting you need on payroll costs.
Chief financial officers, human resource managers and the executive leadership team do not wish to find themselves making crucial business decisions about the future strategic direction of the business based on weeks and months old data coming from the payroll system and human resources. This kind of data is simply not reflective of the current situation and cannot lead to the kind of confident, informed decision making that leadership teams are looking for.
HR professionals and leadership teams want data and reporting that is in a digestible format, with analytics and statistics from the most recent timeframe possible. Real-time consolidated multi-country global payroll reporting can reveal labor costs and compare them across countries in a single currency. This is the kind of next level reporting that is increasingly being demanded at the highest levels of organizations. Real-time is simply the only time they want to hear about when it comes to data. This kind of reporting can only be accessed if organizations discard their outdated legacy technology systems and implement more modern technology in the form of a global payroll solution that can support automation in their payroll software, and all be accessible via a single cloud platform. This way detailed real-time reporting and HR analytics can be available at a click of a button and the automation ensures that it is accurate and doesn’t include any payroll costs errors.
Talent and recruitment data
The war for talent is nothing new, it is hugely competitive out there. What is new is a general pivot in recruitment strategies across multinational companies around the world. Location is no longer the issue it once was, remote workers are now being considered in huge numbers and a hybrid working environment means recruitment policies need to be adjusted to reflect this.
The global hiring landscape has changed as a result of the pandemic, global organizations can now hire anyone from any location. The flip side of this is global employees and candidates can now apply for jobs all around the world and have a realistic chance of securing a position and delivering their duties remotely. Understandably, this has had a major impact on the ambitions of the talent pool as they look to organize their working lives around their personal priorities.
Global employers now need HR data for a strong picture of what the company looks like in terms of talent and retention data. Key questions they may be interested in are:
- What does it cost to pay our workforce?
- Are we paying our staff too much or too little?
- What is the nationality and gender breakdown of our workforce?
- Where has there been a spike in labor costs in recent months or years?
- Why is one country much more expensive to hire in than another?
- Do we have a gender pay gap issue?
- Can I see labor costs in a single currency?
These are questions for human resource managers, global payroll managers, payroll professionals and the wider leadership team looking to get a handle on costs and an understanding of where they stand in the area of talent recruitment, presently and for the future of the business. Every business strategy will rely ultimately on people to deliver that strategy, so leadership teams and stakeholders will always require a clear understanding of the company's ability to recruit and hire people and pay them effectively. Smart analytics and digital reporting that is detailed and consolidated can really help provide this understanding.
Financial forecasting
The financial operations team and the office of the chief financial officer are going to be particularly interested in global payroll data and financial metrics around costs. This is the team responsible for cash flow, financial forecasting and creating predictions & benchmarks around budget spend several years in advance.
If this team can access detailed and consolidated labor costs and multi-country global payroll reporting, then they will then be in a strong position to create predictive models around what it may cost to pay employees in specific locations around the world for a prolonged period of time. Payroll is often an organization’s largest expense, so any sort of detailed information around the costs of an organization’s payroll process will be very useful for CFOs and the surrounding finance team.
This team will also be interested in reports that help them drill down into specific pay elements such as pension, overtime, and bonus expenses. These are also key metrics that can be included in predictive models for future spends. This kind of information is crucial for CFOs to have – any form of easily digestible information that can be made available to them will be invaluable when it comes to financial planning and forecasting. Chief financial officers need to have access to this kind of information in order to successfully manage the costs and financial operations within their business.
Other information that can be supplied by global payroll reporting may also be very useful and insightful when it comes to financial forecasting and financial planning, for example, what if payroll reporting could indicate that it is financially advantageous to locate a large number of specific employees in a specific country? A CFO would certainly be interested in this kind of valuable data.
Having access to detailed payroll analytics and real-time reporting is crucial for organizations today. Reporting can provide real-time information that can provide analytics and statistics from the most recent timeframe, leadership teams can have a clear understanding of the company’s ability to recruit, hire and pay people efficiently, and the CFO can better create predictive models and forecasting.
For more information about our Global Payroll Control Platform contact us today.