Payroll reporting 'missing' for majority of businesses

A concerning new research report from Everest Group reveals that the majority of businesses are critically lacking in payroll reporting capabilities, hindering informed decision-making and putting operations at risk. The report, titled “Reaping the Benefits of Unified Pay Solutions”, found an alarming 80% of payroll leaders surveyed are unable to effectively use payroll reporting data to guide strategic decisions about their operations.

The stark findings emerged from a comprehensive research study that involved surveying over 100 senior leaders in payroll, finance, and HR roles across organisations.

The goal was to understand the complexities and challenges businesses face in managing global payroll operations. A glaring issue is the lack of visibility plaguing payroll functions – a full 45% of leaders admitted they don’t have clear line-of-sight into their payroll processes and activities.

This deficiency in reporting transparency could directly prevent payroll teams from delivering on their top priority for 2024 – ensuring accurate and timely pay processing for employees. Underscoring the high stakes, the report also showed that improving the overall employee experience is a core focus for 8 out of 10 respondents in the payroll field.

Matt Hillier, EVP Product at CloudPay, aglobal payroll provider, warned that without robust reporting capabilities, overstretched payroll teams will struggle mightily to meet their objectives this year. “This absence of robust reporting capabilities not only hinders operational and strategic visibility, but also limits an organisation’s ability to spot trends, patterns and anomalies within payroll data,” he cautioned.

The research exposed significant regional divergences in how businesses approach global payroll models. While 47% of North American companies utilize a streamlined global payroll system, just 6% in the Asia-Pacific region and 27% in EMEA have consolidated to this unified approach. The regional fragmentation is indicative of the difficulties payroll teams face in implementing global solutions due to nuanced compliance requirements across different jurisdictions.

Everest Group argues that businesses must adopt joined-up global payroll and payment solutions providing unified visibility in order to maintain operational consistency and competitiveness in today’s dynamic workforce environment.

“Those that are unable to adapt will not only feel the impact in terms of inefficient operations, but also in diminishing their brand’s competitive standing in attracting top talent,” Hillier warned starkly.

While the report shows adoption of comprehensive unified pay solutions is still nascent at 33% of respondents, the researchers found encouraging signs.

Samarth Kapur, Everest Group’s Practice Director, noted “these early adopters are already experiencing positive outcomes. In many cases, the actual benefits realized have even exceeded initial expectations.” This suggests unified solutions could fundamentally transform how organizations manage payroll.

As the research lays bare, payroll operations are growing increasingly global and complex, intensifying the need for modern, transparent reporting capabilities. The severe lack of visibility into payroll data highlighted in this Everest Group study underscores an urgent imperative for businesses across sectors – they must modernise outdated payroll systems.

Implementing unified pay solutions offering centralized reporting and global oversight may hold the key to maintaining compliance, optimizing operations, and retaining competitiveness in the future of work.

Comments are closed.