Leadership teams at multinational companies around the world will always be in need of the bigger picture and there will always be a requirement to supply them with the level of reporting and data they need to establish what this big picture is.
It may be a bit of a corporate buzzword, but there is also a strong element of truth to it. Bigger picture thinking and bigger picture clarity is needed now more than ever as global businesses emerge from a devastating pandemic and look to get back on a firm footing with some broader perspective.
Due to the pandemic, it is quite likely that there will be an increase in bigger picture thinking as companies look to map out processes and strategies for the next decade. To achieve this desired bigger picture analysis and strategic thinking, there is a requirement for in depth and consolidated reporting when it comes to the costs associated with some of their biggest internal deliveries and business critical services.
Cost management is just one aspect of bigger picture thinking, this is really about being in full possession of the data, analysis and insight needed to identify strengths and weaknesses across an entire organization and use data driven observability to establish action plans.
In this article, we will look at why CFOs and members of the C-Suite team are zoning in on bigger picture analysis. Plus, we will take a look at how global payroll data and reporting can be leveraged to provide essential bigger picture insights
It's all about the data
Without data, there can be no reporting and without reporting there can be no bigger picture analysis. So, we must begin by acknowledging that many organizations are unable to achieve the bigger picture analysis that they would like, simply because their technology infrastructure and reporting mechanisms in place do not support the level of detailed data extraction and insight they are looking for.
It is an interesting reality-pretty much everyone agrees that data is needed to support informed decision making but very few people focus their time, attention or efforts on putting in place the infrastructure and processes to ensure the relevant data can be extracted in a timely manner and delivered in digestible reporting formats.
The more common scenario is to ask for or demand essential reporting and then find out to your disappointment that the figures you want are not easily available or simply not available at all. This could be due to a lack of data prioritization at the organization, but it is usually more likely to be linked with legacy technology infrastructures in place that were simply not designed to deliver data insights and reporting.
Before the pandemic, this was rapidly becoming a source of frustration for the C-Suite and a CFO in particular, but in a post pandemic world, it is becoming unacceptable to not have fast and convenient access to business data points around expenditure, revenue and profitability.
Technology foundations
The data is always there, but the means to extract it and deliver it in helpful reporting formats is where the obstacle comes in. A lack of technology foundations or an over reliance on legacy, no longer fit for purpose technology stacks inhibit the processing and extracting of data. At the very least, they make it slow cumbersome and a lot of hard manual work. This is a hugely unsatisfactory situation to be in, but it is also a surprisingly common one. Simply put, the explosion in big data and the accumulation of large and complex technology platforms/stacks has not been accompanied by digital tools or internal processes around extracting this data for reporting purposes. It is almost as if it got lost in the rush and it was considered a thought for another day. In a post pandemic business environment, this other day has arrived.
If data availability is an obstacle and it is currently simply not available, then thoughts turn to the technology foundations that can make it available. This is about putting in place a level of infrastructure that can support data extraction and detailed reporting. Platforms and integration spring to mind here because so many business service departments are connected these days. A good example would be global payroll, human resources and financial operations. These three departments need to share data on a regular basis and work together internally like a cohesive ecosystem.
If a technology platform with suitable integrations is put in place to ensure two-way data flows between these business-critical departments, then there is a very good chance for data to be available for reporting purposes which can satisfy the needs of senior leaders across all three of these departments. This is bigger picture thinking that will result in bigger picture data and analytics. Business leaders like CFOs need to recognize the level of inter connectivity between these departments and prioritize investment in technology platforms that can do a lot of things while also facilitating the easy extraction of data and a supply of consolidated reporting.
Payroll data for big picture thinking
So, how can payroll data help with the bigger picture? Well, for starters it is usually the single largest expense at any multinational organization-therefore, who wouldn't want detailed and comprehensive insight into how much global payroll is costing an organization. Every CFO will want this kind of information when making business plans for the future.
But quality and easily understood global payroll data can be of major value to a range of different stakeholders. HR managers will always want a strong handle on how many people are employed and in what locations-especially when it comes to the mix a full time employed, part time and contractors. Gender breakdown, and increasingly gender pay gap equity reporting, is proving to be of enormous value to senior HR figures.
The office of the CFO will always contain a number of financial operations executives and stakeholders who can really benefit from rapid access to payroll related general ledger reporting. This can really help them get their own departmental reporting and analysis in order and there is a tendency to feed this information up the chain to the office of the CFO. These financial executives often require reporting that can offer them a real-time picture of payroll costs, by region, county or employee- this can be of major value when it comes to business planning objectives and strategic cost forecasting.
Global payroll managers will always want a firm handle on everything that is happening within their department-this is not simply about cost analysis; it could be the case that they want reporting to analyze the performance of their local country vendors. Or they may require reporting that gives them key performance indicators and metrics on the internal process of delivering multi country global payroll across several countries. The details matter so they will look for reporting that helps them view, understand and compare payroll costs, trends and variances by region, by country, by employee.
The C-suite may have ambitious plans to scale the organization into new countries and territories- global payroll reporting can provide key information on which countries may be the most attractive from a talent acquisition and cost management perspective. If a company's internal technology stack is capable of providing them with reporting like this, it can add genuine business value.
And finally, compliance managers everywhere are under increasing pressure to deliver accurate and transparent data and reporting that proves compliance in each individual country a business operates in as well as overall compliance on a global level. But the explosion in big data and companies scaling at a faster rate than ever before, outlining and documenting such levels of compliance is becoming increasingly complex and difficult to achieve. Digital reporting that proves local and international global payroll compliance is very much in-demand.
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