The role of the payroll professional has never really been understood in very clear terms. The importance of the role has generally been recognized because everybody understands the value of being paid accurately and on time. However, the nature of the role, the day-to-day duties together with the complexities and challenges faced by the global payroll professional have managed to remain somewhat vague and out of reach.
There are a few reasons for this-payroll professionals have generally operated in the background, quietly and diligently going about their business in a very effective manner. It has never been an attention seeking role and the process of payroll has generally been regarded as something that simply gets done.
In this article, we will examine in some detail the nature of the payroll professional and their role. We will also look at how the global payroll landscape today is changing this role and how evolving expectations have impacted on the skills and capabilities needed to deliver global payroll today.
The shadow professional
Payroll professionals have a very important job which plays an important role in company and employee morale. Just because many take the view that being paid on time and accurately is a minimum requirement, does not mean that the process of making this happen is easy or straightforward.
The payroll professional has to navigate a few challenges before that pay check lands in your bank account- these challenges include play run elements like salary, tax, deductions, benefits and other country specific elements. Payroll people require financial acumen, accounting skills, general ledger capabilities, compliance and regulation awareness along with a strong ability to spot anomalies and errors. Arguably above all else, the key requirement is consistency, each month and every month to ensure that payroll is delivered.
Payroll professionals tend to be good with numbers, have strong analytical skills and are also deeply passionate about ensuring that people get paid on time. In recent years, significant changes have taken place in the payroll landscape, especially the global environment. These have resulted in an important evolution in the role of the payroll professional. A recent survey by Nelson-Hall stated that
“Multi-country payroll will grow at nearly 5x the rate of single country services, with a ~24% share of the overall market by 2023”
Next Generation Payroll Services, NelsonHall HR Services, March 2019
In short, the role is now about a lot more than processing a payment. The payroll professional in a large multinational today takes on a several identities when delivering global payroll.
The Strategist
The new payroll professional has to understand the strategy of the business, how global payroll forms a part of that strategy and also how it can influence future strategy. Part of the job is to become familiar with the role of payroll in overall company strategy. Top level strategy may define what type of global payroll model is used in a business or may be the reason behind a large project to change it. Payroll professionals who understand the strategy will be in a better position to assess what tools, people and innovative technology they need to meet the strategy.
A global payroll manager is expected to supply comprehensive reporting to leadership teams, explain the figures and articulate what they mean for the company today and in the future. Business expansion plans will rely on payroll data to determine the value and likely employee costs of any strategic plans to scale into a new country.
The Analyst
This is the world of big data and payroll professionals today also operate in this new digital economy. Data needs to be gathered, structured, analyzed and interpreted. A payroll professional today must be comfortable with data, must know where to find it and be able to run consolidated multi country reports together with isolated, ad hoc reporting. Today, when you work in payroll, you must be able to analyze and interpret the data, not just calculate it. You must be able to extract meaning and value from the data while also being able to communicate this in a clear and concise manner if called upon to do so. Senior leadership figures may need help assessing or interpreting global payroll cost figures and a global payroll professional may be called upon to assist.
It is no longer just a case of processing payroll calculations, it has developed into a role where you need to be able to explain what the figures mean. Knowledge is needed around headcount costs, hidden employment costs, starter and leaver statistics as well as reporting filtered by region, gender, job function, employee or pay element.
The Compliance Specialist
While the global payroll professional will not ultimately be responsible for maintaining compliance, it does fall under the remit of the payroll team and the global payroll manager. The legal department and even the CFO will have a keen interest on the controls and measures in place to ensure payroll compliance. The reality is that global payroll professionals today help businesses expand and scale into new countries. To do this effectively, they need to understand these new countries and be familiar with regulation and compliance requirements.
Processing multi-country payroll at a large multinational today without an understanding of compliance is no longer feasible or sustainable in the long term. Leadership teams or legal professionals with queries around global payroll compliance are likely to pick up the phone and speak first to the internal team at the company responsible for processing global payroll. Payroll professionals today can expect to attend regular courses on compliance.
The Information Security Officer
Data security and cyber awareness are crucial touchpoints in just about every role at a multi-national today and global payroll is certainly not an exception. Important and sensitive information is held on file in global payroll departments today. The payroll system is often integrated with a HR or HCM system meaning there are data flows between these two systems containing information around salary, tax, bonus and other pay elements.
Concerns around data breaches and GDPR have become concerns of the global payroll professional too. They have a duty of care to protect employee personal data and payroll information so must show diligence and caution when transferring data files containing this information. The fact that a lot of payroll today is outsourced to external third-party providers makes it even more important for the payroll professional to take data security very seriously.
The Remote Worker
A pandemic has swept the globe changing the nature of global payroll delivery from a largely office- based environment into one of remote processing and delivery. The global payroll professional has become a remote worker and while it remains to be seen what the full consequences of COVID-19 will be when it comes to global payroll, it is very possible that payroll is something that is delivered remotely on a regular basis in the future.
The payroll professional therefore needs to be comfortable working in a cloud-based environment or a shared service environment where they can access files and procedures remotely, switch tasks between people across countries and on board a new vendor quickly. All of this represents a change in how they access payroll data as well as how they communicate with colleagues, third party suppliers, managers and direct reports. Remote working involves a new level of patience, resilience and adaptability. It has become part of the changing role of the global payroll professional.
The Digital Specialist
Spreadsheets and manual data entry may still play a role in the delivery of payroll, but most people recognize that this is a very old fashioned and inflexible way of doing things. More and more payroll departments are looking at a digital transformation and upskilling their payroll professionals to ensure they're comfortable working with innovative software and digital tools.
There are huge advantages in digitalization when it comes to speed, efficiency and risk management, but the switch cannot simply happen overnight. The payroll professional needs to evolve into a digital specialist- this involves commitment, digital training, comfort with technology tools, a vision of the future and a mindset that recognizes how digital processes represent the future of global payroll delivery.
The Multi-tasker
Global payroll is a fast-changing landscape and global payroll professionals find themselves switching between multiple different tasks on any given day. They can be checking calculations, reviewing files delivered from in country providers, running scheduled consolidated reports, checking key compliance controls and responding to employee requests for their personal or pay related data.
A new request for a specific report could come in at any time from a leadership team or they could hear from the CFO who is interested in learning about the potential costs involved in scaling into a specific country. THE CIO maybe interested in learning about the data security measures in place at global payroll and what the team is doing to protect vital employee data. They also have to respond to queries from colleagues or outsourced providers in different countries and time zones who may even speak a different language.
They check and confirm payroll calculations, locate files in the cloud, onboard new starters, remove leavers, adjust pay run elements for things like bonuses and respond to extraordinary events like government welfare changes in response to COVID-19. There is a lot going on and a lot more coming down the pipeline with things like AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Payslip is helping
Payslip has a lot of global payroll expertise and we talk to and network with global payroll professionals all the time. We built our platform in response to the need for innovation and many of its features have proven very useful when it comes to managing the changing role of the global payroll professional. It helps payroll people operate in the cloud environment, get comfortable with automation, standardized data and processes and switch tasks instantly across countries.
Payroll professionals can schedule, edit and run regular consolidated payroll reports. The automation features help reduce risk and manual input. There is an employee self-service portal enabling employees to access their data 24/7 and ensuring that each employee in the business receives the same level of service regardless of location. This cuts out the need for time consuming queries into the payroll department. We help payroll professionals become comfortable with innovative cloud-based technology and tools- these are also tools that will be called upon when the global payroll team is asked to provide crucial data that participates in shaping the overall strategy of the business.