The CFO at any multinational organization will have a duty of care to create long term value at the company they work for. To carry out this duty, they will continually seek out ways to improve processes in the most cost-efficient way possible.
The CFO will deal with a lot of internal stakeholders on a daily basis -the person controlling the finances at an organization is a much in demand individual as various department heads will be seeking investment in the latest technology that can help them carve out a competitive edge.
This means that a CFO and finance teams will have to consider a number of different investment proposals throughout the financial year. It is part of their job to assess which investment is the most worthwhile and which one can create sustainable long- term value.
In this article, we will examine the reasons why a global payroll department should be of interest to a CFO in terms of value creation. We will outline the reasons why there is a clear business case for investment in digital innovative technology to improve global payroll processing. And, we will highlight the reasons why global payroll can add long term value to an organization.
Payroll is business critical.
The first step in the process can often be acknowledging the business-critical nature of global payroll- it is sometimes overlooked simply because it is so obvious! Failing to pay employees on time and accurately on a regular consistent basis would have disastrous consequences for any organization.
Despite this, global payroll often does not top the list of business-critical services when conversations take place at multinational organizations. This is a strange occurrence considering global payroll is usually the single largest expense at a company. Nonetheless, it has been the case- although noticeably, last year during the peak of the global pandemic, it was generally acknowledged worldwide that global payroll delivery is deemed a business- critical service.
Simply by its nature then, a business-critical service adds long term value to an organization because the absence of it would have a detrimental and damaging effect. So, if a chief financial officer immediately recognizes the business-critical nature of global payroll, this can be the first step to diving deeper into what is happening in global payroll and understanding how and why the payroll operating model adds long-term value to an organization.
Reporting and Analytics
Understanding and evaluating large amounts of data is key to any leadership role at an organization, but arguably more so for a CFO, who is tasked with making important strategic and financial decisions based on a clear understanding of bottom-line data and metrics.
When it comes to company costs, comprehensive digital global payroll reporting can be of major value to a CFO in the finance function, who is looking to get a handle on where resources are being deployed, and where significant cost variances occur. This can be of valuable assistance with things like financial planning, profitability and cash flow forecasting.
The global payroll department can add long-term value to an organization by consistently supplying the CFO, business leaders and other members of the C-Suite leadership team with detailed, consolidated and comprehensive payroll country cost reporting.
Reporting capable of detailing individual country costs and running comparisons between countries, regions and territories can play a major role in financial planning and strategic decision making.
The global payroll department is adding value here by moving from a service provider to enabling long term business strategy via innovative reporting. A CFO who can gain access to these valuable reports, will immediately gain a deeper understanding of how the global payroll department adds long term value of a strategic nature, outside of its day-to-day global payroll processing duties.
Employee empowerment
Culture and employee empowerment will also be of interest to a CFO. Any digital technology platforms or digitization tools that can enable employees to do their jobs in a smarter, faster and better way tend to add long-term value to an organization.
This value can be witnessed in terms of employee morale, engagement and employee retention statistics. Investing in a global payroll platform that empowers global payroll professionals with digital tools while also enabling wider company employees self-service access to their personal and pay related data could prove to be one of the smarter business decisions that helps generate long term value for the organization as a whole.
When global payroll professionals are empowered with innovative digital tools and integrated platforms, global payroll accuracy and processing is immediately improved. Their ability to run, schedule and customize various consolidated reporting will enable them to respond to a wide range of reporting requests. The global payroll department becomes more agile and responsive by default and the organization benefits from a progressive and digitally focused business critical unit.
Digital transformation
We have outlined some of the reasons why a global payroll department can add long-term value to a company- now we will look at what needs to happen for a global payroll department to deliver on all this promise.
CFOs will likely be involved in the funding and finance activities of digital transformation projects - it is quite common for finance and human resources departments to approach them with a business case and request funding for a digital transformation.
Their business case will outline how such a digital upgrade will transform their department and benefit the wider business as a whole. The exact same thinking and business case is definitely applicable to global payroll also and it would be a missed opportunity to fail to digitally transform global payroll very soon after transforming those other departments.
A CFO would therefore have a number of reasons to sanction and approve a business case investment in global payroll. Some of the benefits in terms of long-term value to the organization would be:
- Digitally empowered and motivated global payroll professionals
- Improved payroll accuracy and compliance via digital tools
- Faster payroll turnaround processing times with automation technology
- Much more detailed and comprehensive reporting and analytics
- Development of a cohesive multi country global payroll strategy
- Self-service company-wide employee access to payroll and personal data
- Enhanced data security, data protection and global compliance levels
The list goes on but the opportunity for a CFO to create long-term organizational value via a business-critical global payroll department is clear.
Transform with Payslip.
To ensure a global payroll department is in a position to add long-term value, it is best to work with a payroll technology expert. The Payslip platform enables payroll departments to digitally transform their data, procedures and processes and avail of a range of innovative digital tools to help them streamline and process global payroll in a smarter way.
When a global employer integrates with the Payslip platform, they get to work with standardized data and processes which lay the foundation for comprehensive and consolidated multi country reporting. Automation and digitalization get introduced to the payroll process and multi country payroll delivery is quickly digitized and transformed into the kind of process capable of delivering long-term, sustainable value to a global organization. Talk to our team today and learn how quickly you can begin a digital transformation in your global payroll department.