Have you ever wondered why Finance is often kept at arm’s length when it comes to outsourcing to a global payroll provider? All too often, a party which will have considerable involvement with supporting payroll processes is kept in the dark during the assessment and decision processes.

The main reason this is still the case at many organizations is because the business units involved – and by extension, the business processes – are siloed. This can make procurement processes disjointed and inefficient, and if that way of working is ingrained within the organization, it can be very hard to effect any change to global payroll management.

Nevertheless, when bringing employee data, applications and users together in a unified global payroll solution all relevant stakeholders, from Payroll to Finance/Accounting, and from Human Resources and Procurement to People Operations and I.T. must be included. That’s why Finance – particularly corporate controllers and analysts – should be heavily involved in constructing the RFI and RFPs of any new solutions, and help ensure the new solution is a force for good across every area that it serves.

Why involving Finance is beneficial for all

It isn’t just the Finance team that stands to benefit from being brought into the conversation: it can also be positive for the payroll team, and for the wider organization as a whole. Ultimately, facilitating a wider conversation can help you:

Understand finance’s needs

Without Finance having a seat at the table, vendors may not be able to address any of the pain points and blind spots that are specific to Funding and Payments and may only consider organizational and payroll needs from a payroll management perspective. This is a common reinforcer of siloed global teams and processes, and a major inhibitor of making the right choice of a comprehensive, unified solution.

Fully achieve project aims

Payroll teams are responsible for paying employees on time and accurately, and involving Finance to build the right solution around payments is critical to this. It’s also important to remember that many of the priorities for payroll – outsourcing responsibility and expertise to mitigate and minimize risk, and ensuring global payroll compliance – will be shared by the Finance team. Both teams therefore have a vested interest in making sure that any chosen vendor, such as a fully managed global pay partner, can ensure both accurate and timely payments.

Better assess vendor capability

Finance can make a major contribution to the assessment of whether a prospective payroll service provider is suitable, especially for international payroll. Thanks to their deep understanding of tax laws, tax regulations and compliance requirements, they are very well-placed to work out the ability of a provider to cover these areas, as well as other key factors like minimizing losses through currency fluctuations.

Accurately forecast ROI

Similar to the previous point, Finance can also help evaluate the total cost of ownership, including hidden fees, and compare it against the company’s budget. They can assess a vendor’s effectiveness in streamlining processes, reducing errors and cutting costs, and whether their pricing structure aligns with financial forecasts. All of this is important to building a compelling business case for the new payroll system.

Drive holistic business change

To enable a meaningful and lasting change in culture, it’s vital to engage all relevant parties such as Finance as early in the process as possible. This is the case whether payroll operations sit within Finance or not: if it does, then Finance should be leading the conversation anyway; if it doesn’t, Finance still represents a vital part of the pay chain. Either way, looking for a global payroll service that can demonstrate the value of a unified platform is key to satisfying the demands of all parties.

Maximize investment value

A unified pay solution can benefit individual employees by enabling more seamless payroll and payment experiences, and the possibility to access innovative self-service solutions like Earned Wage Access.

As an example of what’s possible, CloudPay partner Ralph Lauren has adopted our EWA solution CloudPay NOW: 60% of global employees use it, making it their most popular employee benefit, and a major contributor to employee satisfaction, and global talent retention and acquisition. This underlines the need to bring all relevant parties into the conversation, because virtually everyone within an organization stands to benefit when solutions are aligned.

In summary: how can Payroll encourage Finance teams to be involved?

The above will likely represent a major shift for both Payroll and Finance teams across the global workforce – even for those who are open to the ideas of collaborating more closely. In order for Finance teams to successfully contribute to payroll platform selection, three things have to happen:

• Finance has to understand the value and benefits of their involvement early, so that the full benefit of any solution is realized, and so all requirements are considered.
• Finance should be given the agency to understand their role and make contributions to the discussion, rather than just being considered an afterthought.
• Finance should be incentivized to be proactive with insights and input, so that everyone gains from an informed selection and decision-making process.
  
  

Only with this enablement can the selection of a unified pay solution work for payroll, work for finance, work for employees and work for the organization as a whole. In short: the more people that are involved, the more people that stand to benefit.