Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/124894
Payroll It's a Mad, Mad World But despite the challenges, global payroll outsourcing can save time and money—without making you barmy. By Russ Banham Virtually every global company wants it—or thinks they want it—yet knowing what they want and then making the business case for it is fraught with challenges. The "it" is multi-country payroll outsourcing. Who can blame the conflicted? As Julie Fernandez, global payroll lead at intermediary ISG, pointed out in a recent panel session on the subject at HRO Today's European Forum, "We've talked with companies that are in 85 countries and have 85 payroll vendors, and they suddenly realise that they have the same vendor in many different countries, under separate contacts that are separately managed. Their intuition said, `There's just got to be a smarter way.' " [12] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | WINTER 2013 That smarter way—global payroll outsourcing—has much to commend it, from a single, central source of employee systems of record and other data, to a single, harmonised process to quickly get this information for decision-making and other purposes. But, the challenges to effectively marketing the idea of global payroll loom large. Frequently, HR confronts resistance at the individual country level, widespread difficulty insofar as articulating a compelling business case to C-suite decisions makers, and the reality of well-established relationships with current payroll providers that are performing just fine, thank you very much. If these issues consume clients, they also consume outsourcing intermediaries and, by extension, the provider field.