On the surface, the world of payroll can be deceivingly tranquil. But beneath the surface, payroll professionals work tirelessly to navigate multiple deadlines and responsibilities to ensure compliance, accuracy, and timely employee payments. The seminar "How Payroll Leaders are Overcoming the Challenges of Global Payroll" presented by Lisa Weckman, Vice President of Product Management at Ceridian, highlighted the struggles faced by payroll professionals globally.

 Despite the rapid technological advancements seen in recent years, the payroll industry is having difficulty keeping pace and must adapt faster. Some organizations still rely on batch-based processes dating back 80 years, resulting in 80% of a payroll professional's time still being manual. Add to this the challenges of managing compliance, multi-jurisdictional payrolls, forecasting accuracy, inefficient processes, enterprise risk and administrative burden, and the situation can be overwhelming for payroll professionals.

 However, there is hope. According to Weckman, businesses could support payroll professionals to scale and expand globally by embracing change and implementing software that can manage multi-currency wage calculations and local labour laws, and process payroll data securely and timely. Weckman provided the following four best practices to consider: centralizing global compliance and coordination, using a single platform, utilizing localized support, and implementing a compliant solution with intuitive self-service controls.

 Weckman highlighted that the future of global payroll would be driven by trends such as automation, cybersecurity, remote working, localized employee experience, payroll analytics, and on-demand pay. By accepting that automation is coming and adopting new technologies, payroll professionals can break free from outdated batch-based processes and confirm payroll as a strategic function that adds value to the business.

 Weckman’s presentation provided valuable insights into the payroll industry's challenges concerning global payroll. She reminded the audience that it is up to us to overcome these challenges; we need to be open to change and embrace technology and innovation to ensure we all processes can handle this new—and rapidly changing—world of work. However, it is up to us to advocate for the changes we want to see.

Reviewed by Nick Day, Founder of JGA Recruitment, specialist global payroll recruiters and host of The Payroll Podcast.