It’s no secret that the pressure is mounting for businesses today. From remote working to increased international expansion, not to mention ever-changing regulations and the ongoing war on talent, it’s never been more important for your payroll to keep up.
This is especially true for businesses undergoing a period of growth, whereby you will most likely be under mounting pressure to reduce operating costs whilst expanding into new territories.
Plus, with payment errors becoming more common while employees are becoming more demanding, efficient payroll is key to business success. Read on to discover how to ensure yours is as efficient as possible…
The problem with payroll
The truth is that traditional payroll models have long been plagued with inefficiencies and silos. Often, organisations with employees in multiple locations find themselves working with different payroll partners in each different location.
While this means that they can be completely sure about compliance in each location, it also means that these companies are dealing with fragmented systems and data scattered across multiple locations.
The result? Inefficient, time-consuming payroll processes, as well as an increased chance of human error, compliance breaches, and data security risks.
It’s no wonder then, in a world where employee experience is more important than ever before, that many businesses are turning to outsourced solutions to ensure their payroll is as efficient as possible.
5 ways to make your payroll as efficient as possible
1. Consolidate your data in one place
Many HR and payroll teams end up spending hours bringing together payroll data from disparate systems, either due to legacy systems or local managers choosing different vendors in different locations.
This is especially true in international organisations where payroll information is often stored in numerous systems across multiple locations, making it difficult to retrieve and analyse data and meaning that precious time is spent reconciling data between these different systems.
If you are dealing with disparate payroll systems and multiple integrations in different locations, outsourcing your payroll and using a single platform to integrate your data together in one place means that you can easily access and share safe, secure, and accurate payroll data, as and when you need it.
Having total visibility of your payroll data means you can simplify processes, eliminate mistakes, and ultimately ensure that your payroll is as efficient as possible.
2. Eliminate errors and reduce risk
At the end of the day, getting paid on time and correctly is the most important thing for your employees. Mistakes such as underpayments and late payments have a significant impact on staff morale and employee retention.
These mistakes don’t just have an impact on overall business efficiency, but they also have a knock-on effect in terms of the cost of correcting these errors, as well as the added expense of employee churn.
With global companies on average outsourcing their payroll to five different providers, it’s no wonder that mistakes are being made. However, by outsourcing your payroll and introducing a unified global payroll system, you can eliminate these errors, save a significant amount of time rectifying mistakes, and increase business efficiency overall.
3. Use your data for in-depth insights
Reliable data can empower you to make smart decisions and increase efficiency in all aspects of your organisation, including payroll. In fact, according to a study by Deloitte, data collection and analysis will become the basis of all future business models by 2030.
However, despite this, most companies simply don’t have the payroll data they need to inform the strategic direction of their company, with 74% of companies still running multiple systems across multiple geographies.
Outsourcing your payroll and having total visibility of your data allows you to use that data to make smart business decisions, improving your processes for the future and ensuring that your payroll strategy is as efficient as possible across all locations. Which leads us onto our next point…
4. Create reports to monitor trends
If you are going to have a successful and efficient payroll strategy, you need data to inform your strategy.
From accurate modelling and forecasting enabling you to facilitate growth, to being able to see what your employees are earning so you can keep on top of trends, accurate reporting is essential to successful payroll.
By outsourcing your payroll and consolidating your reporting and analytics, you will be able to ensure you have instant access to reliable payroll data, enabling you to pinpoint expenditures and highlight any inefficiencies
Doing so will not only reduce the amount of time needed for accurate payroll reporting - therefore feeding up your employees’ time to focus on other elements on the business - but it will also empower you to make further efficiencies and make decisions faster using current, accurate information.
5. Use a specialist payroll provider
Finally, the best way to ensure that your payroll is as efficient as possible is by teaming up with a specialist payroll services provider.
For most companies, payroll isn’t a core business activity. So, if your business is currently expanding it makes sense to entrust your payroll to a team of professionals with the knowledge and expertise to handle it - especially if you are expanding internationally and need to tailor your payroll to meet the specific regulations and requirements of each country.
Whether you are currently running your payroll internally or are managing one or more providers across different locations, when you work with an expert payroll partner, they will be able to help you optimise your payroll processes to ensure they are as efficient as possible and help you to facilitate business growth.
Boost the efficiency of your payroll with activpayroll
At activpayroll, our global payroll services help business to enhance their efficiency and manage successful international expansions, enabling you to avoid expansion pitfalls and develop an efficient, compliant payroll system for all your business needs.
Our global payroll centralised and local payroll services span over 140 counties and provide payroll solutions in every continent, so you can rest assured that with activpayroll, you’re in safe hands.
If you’d like to find out more about how activpayroll can transform your global payroll and increase efficiencies within your organisation, contact us today to learn more.