There are many nuances to growing an international business and it’s usually difficult to hit the ground running when scaling into a new country. This is especially true without an effective global payroll process and innovative technology in place to onboard and pay new employees accurately and on time.
Often, companies will run into issues with finding reliable local country expertise and local payroll providers — different cultures, languages, systems and protocols all weigh in here. Companies must determine if the local software is compatible with existing payroll technology and what is needed to stay compliant with local employment laws.
Expanding the number of local payroll systems to be managed —
on top of including more data and employees — adds further complexity and challenges around visibility and control. By not leveraging updated payroll technology, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks and affect the company’s growth. Updated payroll technology is crucial for scaling a business into new regions.
Regulation and compliance are strong blockers to progress when entering new countries. There are innovative payroll technology platforms that allow companies to set up digital compliance calendars for key compliance dates in order to stay on top of this. They can also provide a transparent audit trail that helps organizations meet compliance and regulation responsibilities in new countries. Some updated payroll technologies are vendor agnostic, which means that the global employer is not restricted to specific in-country payroll providers. If the business has built relationships with payroll providers who can provide them with services in this new country, too, then they can integrate with this flexible platform and bring preferred vendors with them.
Many companies, including startups, will likely have a clear mandate from their board to expand and break ground in new countries and markets — venture capital firms are investing in these companies and are expecting them to grow. The process will have to happen quickly in order to grasp revenue opportunities and market share, so there is usually pressure from the board for the company to deliver.
With a new office comes new employees and people on the ground in new countries to get the service and/or product up and running, these employees need to be paid accurately and on time. A strong, agile and responsive global payroll function needs to be in place —
one that can quickly move into new territory. Only a global payroll process that is supported by innovative digital technology is in a position to do this.
