Sharon Tayfield and Neil Pinches delivered an engaging seminar, "The Journey from Exploration to Implementation for a Global Payroll Solution" at this year's Payroll Congress. The duo provided an end-to-end journey through the project lifecycle, making it the perfect guide for payroll professionals looking to onboard new global clients.

A self-confessed "Congress virgin," Pinches shared his problem-solving triggers that often impact a successful global onboarding project. The audience learned to rank these important triggers to create an objective plan to deliver successful project outcomes. Stressing the importance of understanding "the what, the where, and the why" of a new project, payroll professionals were encouraged to research gap analysis to understand the current state and ideal future state and then identify available options, such as in-house vs outsourcing, tech vs service partner, and SaaS vs fully-managed.

Attendee Georgia Tabish, Senior Payroll Analyst at TPCI, said she learned the importance of having a plan, giving feedback, and continually working to improve payroll processes from the workshop.

“This work can't be done only once, it has to be continued going forward," Tabish said. "Having definite Key Performance Indicators can help you catch errors and spot new trends with how your payroll is going."

Meanwhile, Tayfield helped payroll professionals to understand the importance of "the what, the where, and the why" of a new global payroll implementation project. She encouraged us to ask questions to understand what resources may be needed and to identify what processes may need to change, what suppliers need to be involved, and how these aspects may impact your ideal solution. 

Attendee Randy Rasmussen, the North American payroll manager for eBay, said that it was impressive to learn about all the moving parts that are needed to implement a global payroll process. Rasmussen said eBay may add a similar process in the future, and the workshop gave him a good idea of the work that would come along with the move.

"There's a lot of things to look out for," he said. "It's key to get buy-in from all the stakeholders early on, and then keep that momentum going all along the way."

Interspersed with relevant quotes from Benjamin Franklin, Neil Armstrong, and J.R.R. Tolkien, Tayfield and Pinches emphasized that the success of any project depends on aligning it successfully with your target operating model, which means planning and confirming budgets, engaging stakeholders, and communicating changes. The speakers also highlighted the importance of assessing potential partners using four pillars—payroll, technology, support, and contract—and creating a risk matrix to mitigate risks.

The speakers explained the importance of continuously measuring, monitoring, and refining a solution to ensure value is always at the forefront of our minds. Tayfield's statement, "The only bad question is an unasked one," reinforced the importance of maintaining a consistent approach to research and inquiry. Always keep refining, then repeat the steps, refine, and repeat again.

Tayfield and Pinches provided a comprehensive framework guiding the audience through the project lifecycle. The seminar gave the audience a roadmap to achieve global payroll implementation success, making it an educational platform for all payroll professionals in attendance.

Reviewed by Nick Day, Founder of JGA Recruitment, specialist global payroll recruiters and host of The Payroll Podcast. Nick will be interviewing global payroll professionals in the expo on Wednesday for both PayTalk and The Payroll Podcast so please pop by if you would like to be featured!