For this guide, Gartner scanned the Human Capital Management (HCM) technology market to identify widely known vendors that offer advanced payroll solutions across a minimum of two countries.
According to Gartner:
Multicountry payroll transformation projects have received significant investment over the last year to facilitate post pandemic recovery and support hybrid work scenarios. Application leaders should streamline their payroll delivery model to achieve compliance, efficiency and optimal EX.
Covid-19 period exposed inefficiencies in payroll processes
The research giant added that the past 18+ months was a period when “process inefficiencies and a lack of unified real-time employee payroll data have been exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic in organisations with disjointed payroll operating models.”
Zalaris has long made its mission to tackle this disjointedness and support companies in unifying their global HR and payroll systems. The company currently offers payroll administration software and managed services to more than 300 customers and across 150+ countries. With Zalaris PeopleHub, clients can have a one-stop HR platform – one user interface for their global HR and payroll systems to view all their data, stemming from across systems, in one place.
“Multicountry payroll is complex for any company to navigate, and costs can be high from potential miscalculations and fines if non-compliant. Our job at Zalaris is to help our customers simplify their cross-border payroll processes, putting all their information in one place, in real time, for greater visibility and transparency across,” said Hans-Petter Mellerud, Founder and CEO of Zalaris.
For leaders who are about to embark on a HR technology transformation and/or a multicountry payroll project, there are a few key recommendations from Gartner to take onboard:
- Invest in a unified multicountry payroll strategy to address and mitigate risks around statutory compliances and regulations, and to optimize operational costs in the long run.
- Develop an employee experience (EX) strategy to improve self-service and pay related inquiry resolution as part of the hybrid workplace strategy.
- Evaluate vendors on their ability to use hyper automation to improve payroll data accuracy, reduce process latency and automate payroll rule configuration.
- Select a provider that is vigilant on regulatory changes mandated by the authorities and respond to them proactively to be compliant with more frequent and more complex government directives.
- Prioritize the technical robustness and availability of proprietary technology platforms to process data, while evaluating managed service providers and payroll outsourcing vendors.
Simplification and automation are key trends in the HCM tech world, according to Zalaris
In a complicated corporate environment, our experience is that customers aim to simplify and automate. They do not want their HR systems to be separate from their payroll; rather they want it integrated, and they want it to work – seamlessly and from anywhere.
– Mellerud.
For Zalaris Payroll, the focus has been on helping clients maximise productivity through a single cloud-based payroll platform, as well as to improve their efficiency by ensuring accurate and timely payroll to staff. Global visibility of the data has also emerged as an area of importance, as companies increasingly transcend borders and operate across continents. Through a central payroll system with a single global provider, Zalaris Payroll users will have access to the same, accurate and consistent data no matter where they are.
It’s about giving customers real-time visibility in an increasingly complex payroll environment, which is why we’ve made it our priority to ensure that with our solution, companies are always-on, always safe and always compliant, no matter how global or complex the organisation,
– Mellerud.
For more information, view Gartner Market Guide for Multicountry Payroll Solutions here.
Market Guide for Multicountry Payroll Solutions, Ranadip Chandra, Ron Hanscome, Sam Grinter, John Kostoulas, 2 August 2021. Gartner does not endorse and vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consists of the opinions of Gartner’s research organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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