The importance of thorough and comprehensive global payroll reporting is increasing all the time at multinational companies around the world. It is not only crucial for global payroll managers to gain high level visibility and operational oversight over their global payroll system and operations via reporting, but increasingly, leadership teams around multinationals are seeking more and more data & insight to help them make informed decisions.
In the past, global payroll data may not have been an obvious choice for insight and analysis, but it is now being recognized that genuinely insightful and truly valuable information can be found when analyzing global payroll data. The biggest challenge that many people encounter is that this crucial data is hidden within layers of complexity and legacy technology or that existing reporting functionality is not sufficient to extract it at the level in which it is needed.
Payslip recently conducted a webinar featuring our Global Reporter Tool and the manner in which it delivers consolidated multi country global payroll reporting. This webinar was attended by a large number of global payroll professionals at multinational organizations as well as leadership figures in the global payroll industry. During this webinar, we asked a series of questions and ran some polls to get a greater understanding of the needs and challenges faced by organizations when it comes to global payroll reporting. In this article, we will take a look at a selection of these poll responses and examine them in greater detail.
1. Current satisfaction levels with global payroll reporting
Our first question focused on how satisfied participants were with the current level of global payroll functionality they have access to.
Many reported to be dissatisfied due to having no access at all to international payroll reporting- this is pretty alarming, and the likelihood is that these individuals are relying completely on an outsource provider to supply them with their reporting. Understandably, this would mean that they are restricted entirely to the technology capabilities of their outsourcing provider.
The standout poll results here showed that almost half of organizations are being forced to manually pull reports from multiple different sources. This is restrictive, time consuming and awkward. It is difficult for global payroll professionals to be agile and responsive to specific reporting needs when data is scattered across a range of different payroll systems.
Non-standardized data spread across different payroll systems and platforms is a significant hurdle when it comes too quickly pulling real time multi country global payroll reports. The place where global payroll professionals want to get to is a single platform where self- serve functionality allows them to run any type of report they want, anytime they want to from any office location or remotely. This way, they are empowered to do their jobs better, reports are generated faster and they contain up to the minute real-time data.
The Payslip response
On the Payslip platform, automated inputs and standardized data & processes pave the way for global consolidated reporting. Our platform users can run a range of different multi country and multicurrency reports. These reports can focus on different areas of the payroll process and be filtered via country, entity, pay element or benefit, even individual employees. The platform lets you run crucial country cost comparison reports so you can compare global payroll costs across countries and regions - this is hugely valuable reporting information to anyone who is tasked with cost management at an organization.
The Payslip platform integrates with HR systems, HCMs and local country payroll provider software so all the data you need for consolidated reporting flows into a single platform. You do not have to spend hours extracting multiple different reports and attempting manual comparisons - instead all of the data you need is consolidated onto one single manageable platform featuring innovative digital reporting tools for a comprehensive reporting overview of your entire global payroll operations.
2. Global payroll reporting for strategic decisions
We also asked our participants if they made use of global payroll data in their high-level strategic decision-making.
We were not surprised to learn that 20% of participants had no awareness of whether their payroll data was utilized or not. 47% indicated that they do refer to global payroll data in some cases
This is indicative of a growing trend at multinational organizations who are now starting to consider previously untapped sources of data insight.
We believe that the global pandemic has created an even greater need for labor cost data as leadership teams within organizations look for information that can help them make decisions around which country is the best location for them to operate their core business services in. Information and statistics around salary costs, compliance requirements and available talent are quite useful indicators when it comes to a decision like this. Unfortunately, at many multinational companies, such payroll data is not easy to access- reasons for this include a complex ecosystem of multiple payroll providers, technology which does not provide visibility and detailed reporting or legacy technology that was simply not designed to facilitate the level of reporting now needed.
47% now clearly recognize the value of global payroll data when it comes to strategic decision-making
Comprehensive and consolidated multi country reporting can be used to provide leadership teams with strong analysis of labor cost figures and country comparisons.
A reporting solution
Payslip’s suite of reporting tools and analytics can help global payroll teams run real time multi country reports with the kind of visual display that means they are immediately ready for scrutiny and analysis at boardroom level. Payslip reports contain payroll cost information, country comparisons, trending statistics and predictive analytics, ensuring that business leaders are in possession of actionable business intelligence.
3. Type of global payroll reporting most valued
We received a broad and varied response to the question of which type of reporting was most valuable to a global payroll leader. The type of organization and nature of its business was always going to play a role in the response to this question, but it is always useful to see what leaders prioritize when it comes to global payroll reporting.
Cost analysis and country cost reporting featured strongly and this is no surprise - the focus on cost management at organizations around the world has become a key business priority and the global pandemic has added a real sense of urgency to requests for consolidated multi country reporting. Those who lack the technology to deliver this kind of reporting have found themselves struggling to supply these in-demand reports to leadership figures. The covid pandemic is far from a thing of the past and it's going to be with us for the majority of 2021 so the demands for this kind of reporting will not slow down and organizations need to invest in a digital transformation to ensure they are equipped to handle the reporting requests that are certain to come in 2021.
Payroll provider performance metrics scored quite highly with 67% of respondents stating this kind of reporting to be of major importance to them. Multinational companies are examining their payroll models in greater detail and questioning if these models are right for the future of their business. The performance of their payroll providers will play a role in this assessment. The Payslip reporting tools allow global payroll managers to run reports detailing the ability of local country payroll providers to meet SLAs and other key performance indicators. Such reporting can provide a strong indication of whether or not it is worthwhile to continue working with an individual provider or look at alternatives.
The standout response to this question was that 74% of those polled prioritized real-time reporting over anything else. This shows that organizations have a strong need for up to the minute information and real-time reporting that tells them what is happening with their global payroll processing and costs in the present moment. Dated or aged reporting is no longer sufficient to provide the kind of insight needed for decision-making. Global payroll cost figures need to be comprehensive, consolidated across countries and display real time accuracy. The ability to produce real time reporting makes the global payroll department more agile and responsive - they feel more confident in their ability to respond to requests from leadership teams for detailed and nuanced reporting. This is what it means to be a digitally enabled organization-digital reporting is delivered in real time and global payroll professionals are empowered and in control. Payslip’s Global Reporter tool allows you to run all reporting in real time and apply a range of different filters for specific results.
Our global payroll reporting webinar proved to be a popular choice and revealed some fascinating results. We are considering running a similar webinar again in the coming months so please leave your details below if you wish to be notified about it.