In this issue our contributors explore how clarity, pragmatism and trust can help global payroll professionals remain agile and capable.
04:05 GLOBAL PAYROLL THE GLOBAL HIRING GAP When Expansion Outpaces Operations
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THE FUTURE OF THE PAYROLL PROFESSIONAL Preparing Payroll Professionals for a More Strategic Future
THE PAYROLL TRUST GAP
HELD TOGETHER BY TRUST Trust Is the Most Critical Factor That Separates Good Companies From the Rest
Reliability Is the Benefit Employees Actually Want
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Best Laid Plans
within payroll operations. Angela Wagner’s Preparing Payroll Professionals for a More Strategic Future offers practical steps for future-preparedness, and in Held Together By Trust sees Ayşe Nazmiye Uça reflects on building trust through consistency. Progress in global payroll demands a sensible balance between intent and reality. By staying clear- sighted, questioning assumptions, and strengthening the trust that connects people, processes and systems, we can build approaches that are not just well-planned, but actually workable in practice. And when our best laid plans hit a stumbling block, we can trust that we have the tools and support to work around it and keep moving forward.
T his month in 04:05 , as we juggle some a recent report which highlights a perennial challenge for global payroll professionals: strategies that appear robust on paper can behave very differently in practice. And we remind ourselves that plans don’t necessarily fall apart because they’re poorly considered, but unforeseen circumstances will, without fail, trip you up if you aren’t prepared! unexpected challenges, the GPA explores Thankfully, our contributors have some insightful lessons aligned to themes which feel particularly resonant right now: trust and pragmatism. In The Payroll Trust Gap and What It’s Costing You , Barry Flanagan examines the consequences of fragile trust
Melanie Pizzey
Melanie Pizzey GPA CEO
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16 APAC LAW IN REAL LIFE
40 GLOBAL BETWEEN THE LINES Zennie Sjölund is a well-known and highly respected voice in global payroll 48 GLOBAL BUILDING TRUST AT THE GPA PAYROLL SUMMIT 2026 A day packed full of insight, lively discussion and practical guidance for payroll and HR professionals, bringing together a community navigating rapid change, increasing complexity and rising expectations 56 AFRICA AFRICA’S DATA PROTECTION LANDSCAPE How the 44 African Countries adopting data & AI protection laws affect payroll
Employees can now talk about their pay if they choose, but that does not mean differences disappear 20 GLOBAL HELD TOGETHER BY TRUST Trust is the most critical factor that separates good companies from the rest 26 GLOBAL THE PAYROLL TRUST GAP Reliability Is the benefit employees actually want 32 APAC WHY PAYDAY SUPER WILL EXPOSE PAYROLL WEAKNESSES Starting 1 July 2026, Payday Super will require Australian employers to pay superannuation alongside every wage
THE GLOBAL HIRING GAP Nearly half of companies report that they have been unable to onboard international talent due to compliance challenges
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64 GLOBAL THE RISE OF THE SINGLE GLOBAL PAYROLL STACK Workforce management has become one of the most complex and consequential functions inside an organization
REGULARS
07 GLOBAL NEWS Interactive global payroll news 82 GLOBAL DIARY OF AN HR MANAGER 84 GLOBAL GPA TRAINING Join our experts through the process of running payrolls in different countries 86 APAC ASIA BRIEFING Overview on Asia news 88 GLOBAL GPA WEBINARS The latest global and in-country payroll topics and trends 90 GLOBAL FIND A VENDOR
72 GLOBAL PREPARING PAYROLL PROFESSIONALS FOR A MORE STRATEGIC FUTURE The future of the payroll professional
A comprehensive list of suppliers to the global payroll industry
The GPA , 49 Greek St, Soho, London W1D 4EG. Tel: +44 (0)203 871 8870 Melanie Pizzey - CEO and 04:05 Executive Editor: melanie@gpa.net Rich Robins - 04:05 Designer: hello@megandmore.co.uk Hayleigh Blinkhorne - events/vendors/advertising: hayleigh@gpa.net General enquiries/mentor scheme/training : - info@gpa.net Michael Baer - US contributor: mike@gpa.net Nilufer Gul - GM APAC/Australia: nilufer@gpa.net Tel: +61 (0)413 749 714 CONTACTS
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Global Payroll News Stay updated with news on global payroll trends, automation, compliance, AI integration, financial wellness, accurate payments, addressing wage discrepancies and more.
UK
US
Greece
Canada
Employers must report ethnicity and disability pay gaps Read more... Australia
IRS flags content creators skipping
Top payroll official resigns after AG’s report on Phoenix Read more... Global
Further minimum wage increase to combat rising costs Read more... Malaysia
tax payments Read more... Qatar
Workers missing out on unpaid superannuation Read more... Uganda
Eid Al-Fitr holiday dates for public and private sectors Read more... Global
TransFi exceeds $1 billion processed payments Read more...
New MIDA expatriate system in effect Read more... South Africa
VIEW OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD EMEA APAC AFRICA AMERICAS MIDDLE EAST GLOBAL
Workers worldwide are anxious about job security Read more...
Low earners will benefit from PAYE
Clampdown to tackle shrinking taxpayer base Read more...
threshold rise Read more...
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The Global Hiring Gap: When Expansion Outpaces Operations
Report author: Beth Longman Beth Longman is Content Lead at Multiplier, driving a global content strategy that turns complex insights into impactful storytelling.
G lobal hiring is a core requirement in the contemporary business climate. This fact is overwhelmingly supported by a new report from Multiplier, which found that 37 per cent of organisations already operate with global teams,
and a striking 98 per cent say international hiring is critical to their future growth. On paper, the way forward is clear. But, in practice, when they try to progress their plans many organisations are coming up against the same obstacle: compliance.
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Nearly half of companies (46 per cent) report that they have been unable to onboard international talent due to compliance challenges. This gap between intent and execution shines a light on a broader issue within global workforce strategy. Though talent may be global, the infrastructure
that supports employment, payroll and tax remains fragmented and largely local. For payroll and HR teams, this creates a structural constraint. Hiring internationally is not just a question of sourcing candidates; it requires the ability to legally
employ, pay and manage workers across multiple jurisdictions, each with its own regulatory framework. Without that foundation in place, global hiring strategies quickly stall. This is where the current bottleneck becomes most visible. While
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demand for international talent continues to grow, according to Multiplier , only 8 per cent of organisations say they feel fully compliant with global labour laws and tax requirements. That leaves the majority operating with varying degrees of risk or relying on workarounds that may not scale. Additionally, the rationale behind global hiring has seen a significant shift. Cost reduction, which was once the primary driver, now carries far less weight. Only 9 per cent of organisations cited it as their main motivation. Businesses are prioritising access to skills instead. Global hiring is increasingly being used to fill capability gaps, particularly in areas such
as artificial intelligence, digital transformation and financial automation. These are specialist roles that are often in short supply domestically, making international talent pools an essential part of workforce planning. In fact, 96 per cent of organisations report improved talent quality through international hiring. That reinforces the idea that global hiring is now about more than efficiency; capability and competitiveness have become part of the picture. Compliance complexity is becoming a bottleneck at a critical turning point, just as the global hiring race pivots toward skills and away from cost savings. This could
hold companies back in the race to become AI- enabled. The Role of AI AI has been central to this shift. It is accelerating hiring processes, enabling organisations to source candidates more quickly, screen more effectively and manage growing volumes of applications. It also supports payroll and HR teams by automating repetitive tasks and improving access to data. edged sword. While it enables organisations to move faster, it exposes weaknesses in underlying processes and infrastructure too. Inconsistent data, fragmented systems and unclear compliance frameworks become more visible as organisations attempt to scale automation across multiple jurisdictions. This is particularly relevant in payroll, where accuracy and compliance are non-negotiable. AI can But AI adoption can be a double-
But AI adoption can be a double- edged sword. While it enables organisations to move faster, it exposes weaknesses in underlying processes and infrastructure too.
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“Global hiring has evolved far beyond its original drivers, but the narrative around it hasn’t caught up. We wanted to uncover what’s really happening beneath the surface; what we found is a shift towards skills-first hiring, alongside a widening compliance gap that many companies are still underestimating.” - Beth Longman
enhance efficiency, but it cannot compensate for gaps in governance, data quality or regulatory understanding. As a result, organisations that have failed to address their foundational processes may find that AI amplifies existing challenges rather than resolving them. Barriers to Success Compliance is among the most significant obstacles, requiring ongoing attention across labour law, tax obligations and reporting requirements. Payroll adds further complexity, with more than half of organisations citing tax compliance as a key challenge, together with vendor management and currency fluctuations. These factors are often
compounded when payroll is managed across multiple systems or providers, limiting visibility and increasing administrative effort. Immigration constraints also remain a factor, with 33 per cent of organisations identifying visa and mobility requirements as a barrier to accessing global talent. Even with the rise of remote work, cross- border employment still depends on navigating legal and administrative
processes that vary widely by country. Taken together, these challenges make it evident that organisations are attempting to scale global hiring within infrastructure which was not designed for that level of complexity. In response, many are investing in more integrated approaches. Employer of Record (EOR) solutions, for example, allow organisations to hire internationally without
Taken together, these challenges make it evident that organisations are attempting to scale global hiring within infrastructure which was not designed for that level of complexity.
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The Awards celebrate and reward technical excellence, professional development and teamwork within the Global Payroll industry. The Global Payroll Awards are an annual event proudly organised by the Global Payroll Alliance. The Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of businesses and individuals within the payroll community. The Awards have been running since 2016 and sell out with over 300 payroll professionals in attendance every year. Contact us to find out how to get involved with the 2026 Global Payroll Awards. Get involved
Enter This event is not limited to payroll teams in the UK, it will celebrate technical excellence and professional development amongst companies and their payroll teams operating internationally.
Attend Join us at the only award ceremony in the world for professionals involved in global Payroll, this year on 4th June 2026, in Barcelona, Spain.
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04:05 GLOBAL
managing exceptions. For payroll professionals, this reinforces the importance of balancing automation with oversight. Technology can improve efficiency and scalability, but it must be supported by clear processes, reliable data and an understanding of local requirements. Geographically, hiring strategies are also evolving in response to these dynamics. While Asia remains an important region in global workforce planning, North America has now emerged as the most popular destination for international hiring. This reflects both access to talent and a broader shift towards positioning employees in key markets rather than purely cost- driven locations. However, despite these strategic developments, operational complexity can throw stumbling blocks in the path of progress. Today’s global hiring landscape is ultimately
defined by a distinct imbalance. Organisations are more open to hiring internationally, driven by the need for skills rather than cost, but many are still constrained by compliance challenges and fragmented infrastructure. Closing that gap will require more than incremental change. It will depend on building systems that can support global operations from day one, combining technology, governance and expertise in a way that enables organisations to operate consistently across borders. This places payroll and HR teams firmly at the heart of global workforce strategy. As organisations expand internationally, the ability to manage compliance, ensure accurate payroll delivery and support employees across multiple jurisdictions will be a defining factor in whether global hiring strategies succeed in practice. DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE
establishing a local entity, simplifying compliance and accelerating market entry. The ongoing growth of this model reflects its relevance, particularly for organisations seeking to expand quickly while maintaining control over employment risks. There is also growing interest in centralising payroll operations. By consolidating vendors, standardising processes and improving data integration, organisations aim to create greater consistency across their global workforce. This approach can improve visibility, reduce duplication and support more informed decision- making at a global level. Despite these advances, technology is only part of the solution. While AI and automation are now more frequently embedded in payroll and HR processes, human expertise remains knowledge and practical experience continue to be critical in ensuring compliance and essential. Regulatory interpretation, local
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The evolving role of payroll in Australia’s compliance landscape
In this white paper, developed by the GPA in partnership with Yellow Canary, we examine how payroll compliance in Australia has shifted from an operational concern to a core governance issue in the wake of wage theft reforms. Drawing on insights from Yellow Canary’s 2026 State of Payroll Compliance Report, we look at why organisations are increasingly expected to provide defensible evidence that employees are being paid correctly. We outline practical approaches to strengthening payroll governance, including proactive audits, clearer ownership of upstream decisions, and the role of human oversight in validating systems and assumptions to support consistent, evidence-based compliance.
Sponsored by
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Welcome to Law in Real Life , where the rules are written in ink, but real life writes its own script. Forget the training manual. Forget the perfect manager or fair pay for fair work. In the real world, rosters sometimes go rogue, rights get overlooked, and payslips just don’t add up. Until real voices finally say, “Enough!” Law in Real Life
Author: Nilufer (Nilly) Gul Nilly Gul is the GM, APAC at the GPA. She’s passionate about payroll and all the people who make it work. With experience in global payroll sales, recruitment, compliance, process improvement, and relationship management, Nilly understands the industry from every angle. She’s all about creating spaces— events, programs, and conversations—where payroll professionals can connect, share, and grow. Her mission? To make payroll a career people choose, not just fall into.
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These are fictional stories based on true workplace drama, straight out of the tangled world of Australian payroll and employment law. You won’t find HR-approved happy endings here. Just people navigating red tape, broken systems, and those awkward
conversations no one wants to have, but everyone needs to hear. Find out what happens when policy meets personality… and things start getting real. It’s not just about compliance. It’s about The Business Case L eyla works for a well- known organisation as an Account Manager It is the kind of place people are proud to say they work for. A big name. Prestigious. The sort of company people assume must have everything running properly inside.
Within the team, Leyla has a reputation. If a client relationship starts to fall apart, she is the one they send in. If a contract is about to be terminated, she can usually turn it around. More than once, she has taken an account that was on the edge of being lost and not only saved it but grown it so it ends up worth more to the organisation than it was before. empowerment. About what happens when silence costs too much and someone finally asks a question that changes everything. Because this isn’t a spreadsheet. It’s not a case study. It’s real life at work. And what counts doesn’t get counted unless we speak up.
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Weeks pass. Nothing. When she follows up, he says he is still waiting for an answer. A few more weeks go by. Same answer. Still waiting. Still with HR. Still being reviewed. This goes on for months. Every time she asks, the response is polite but vague. It is being looked at. It has not been forgotten. These things take time. After about six months, her manager stops her in the corridor one afternoon and says, almost in passing, “You know that thing we talked about… it got knocked back.” That thing. Not the business case. Not the
After five years in the role without a pay increase, Leyla decides to ask for one. Not casually. Not emotionally. Properly.
Over the years, her role has changed, even if her title has not. The job description under which she was hired no longer matches what she actually does. She handles bigger clients, more complicated situations, and more responsibility than she did when she first started, but her salary has stayed exactly the same. After five years in the role without a pay increase, Leyla decides to ask for one. Not casually. Not emotionally. Properly. She prepares a business case. She compares the job she was hired to do with the job she is doing now. She lists the contracts she has saved, the revenue she
has protected, and the extra responsibilities she has taken on over time. She sets out clearly how much of an increase she is asking for, and why she believes it is justified. When her manager reads it, he looks genuinely impressed. He tells her it is one of the best cases he has seen. He says he will take it to HR and senior management and get back to her soon.
A few weeks later, she hears something else. Other people in the team are getting salary increases. Some are being promoted.
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work she had done. Not the results she had delivered. Just that thing. She had already started to expect the answer would be no, but the way it was said still hit hard. Not because she did not get the increase, but because it feels like none of the effort mattered. A few weeks later, she hears something else. Other people in the team are getting salary increases. Some are being promoted. Some of them have been with the organisation for less time than she has. Some of them are earning more than she is. Significantly more. That is the moment the question changes. It is no longer, Why didn’t I get the increase? It becomes, How is this even possible? Most people assume there must be rules that stop this from happening. That if someone is doing more, achieving more, or bringing in more value, their pay must reflect that.
Employees can now talk about their pay if they choose, but that does not mean differences disappear. Which means situations like Leyla’s are not unusual.
In reality, the rules do not always work that way. Employers have to meet minimum pay requirements and follow workplace laws, but there is no general rule that says people doing similar work must be paid the same unless the difference breaks a specific law. There are rules about discrimination, and there are reporting requirements around pay gaps, but those rules usually look at patterns across an organisation, not what happens to one person in one team. Employees can now talk about their pay if they
choose, but that does not mean differences disappear. Which means situations like Leyla’s are not unusual. A role grows. Responsibilities increase. Results improve. But unless something forces the issue, the pay does not always move with it. From the outside, it looks like a prestigious organisation where everything must be fair. From the inside, it can feel very different. Sometimes, the people who hold the business together are the same ones still waiting for an answer about that thing they talked about.
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Held Together By Trust Trust is like marbles dropped into a jar. Keeping promises, being transparent, taking responsibility, standing by someone in a difficult moment. Each of these is a marble placed into the jar.
Author: Ayşe Nazmiye Uça is the Founder and Chairman of the Turkish Payroll Association and established Turkey’s first payroll outsourcing company 26 years ago. Her company, Datassist, leads the market in technology-centered payroll services, catering to Fortune 500 companies and major Turkish corporations. Datassist excels in Regulation Technologies (RegTech) and continues to expand through strategic investments and business partnerships, aiming to offer comprehensive services in an evolving market. In 2024, Ayşe ranked 20th among Turkey’s top 100 female founders by Fast Company magazine, based on company turnover. Her life purpose is to shape organizations, create new opportunities, and guide her employees toward achieving their career goals.
T rust is the most critical factor that separates good companies from the rest. It affects everything from employee commitment to performance and serves as the strongest
support for the organization in times of crisis. Every marble placed in the jar through kept promises, transparency, and responsibility forms the real value
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of a company’s culture.
Every marble placed in the jar through kept promises, transparency, and responsibility forms the real value of a company’s culture.
If I ask what separates a good company from a bad one, what would your answer be? With more than thirty years of experience, I can say that ISSUE 22 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
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it has nothing to do with salary, benefits, or a nice office. The mortar that holds all the bricks together is trust. Research supports this. For people looking for a job, salary, benefits, and career opportunities matter, but the most important factor is trust. In lists of the best companies to work for, trust between employees and managers always comes first. According to Standard & Poor’s research, the level of trust between manager and employee is one of the strongest indicators of whether a workplace is truly a good one.
A leader who does not trust themself will struggle to trust others and cannot create a real sense of trust in the team.
In companies where trust is strong, the average yearly income of employees can be up to three times higher. Research shows the same result again and again. Salary and career opportunities matter, but trust is what makes the real difference. In companies known as great places to work, trust between people is always the common point. At this point, Brené Brown’s work becomes
important. In her book Dare to Lead, she describes trust as the basic building block of every organization. Trust is not something nice to have if possible. It is something you cannot do without. Someone who does not trust themself cannot create trust in others. How convincing is it when a person who does not love themself says “I love you”? In the same way, it is very hard for a manager who does not trust themself to create trust inside a company. There is a saying from Africa that explains this well. If a naked person offers you a shirt, be careful. The reason others trust us starts with the trust we have in ourselves. A leader who does not trust
How convincing is it when a person who does not love themself says “I love you”? In the same way, it is very hard for a manager who does not trust themself to create trust inside a company.
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themself will struggle to trust others and cannot create a real sense of trust in the team. Real trust does not come only from success. It comes from going through difficulty. A person who has never struggled, never fallen, and never stood up again cannot understand how deep trust really is. Light and dark exist together. Without the dark, the light has no meaning. Without struggle, trust does not grow strong roots. When trust is missing, every part of the organization slowly wears down. Relationships become weaker, cooperation becomes fragile, and the whole structure becomes difficult to repair. Trust in an organization is a bit like a game of Jenga. You build it piece by piece, slowly and carefully, and for a long time, everything seems solid. But once the balance is lost, the whole structure can fall much faster than it was built.
Trust also has another important quality. It cannot be created by command. You cannot say, let’s build trust now. You cannot tell people, trust me, and expect them to believe you.
What looks strong in the moment often depends on many small pieces placed long before. Trust also has another important quality. It cannot be created by command. You cannot say, let’s build trust now. You cannot tell people, trust me, and expect them to believe you. Brené Brown explains this with that strong image of the marble jar. Over time, the marbles collect, and trust grows. But when trust breaks, you cannot fix it with tape. And maybe the most important thing about trust is this. It is not built in the middle of a crisis.
Imagine your company is going through a crisis. The one thing that will help you get through it is trust. But you cannot build that trust in two days. When the crisis arrives, it is already too late. The jar must have been filling for a long time. Trust does not appear suddenly. It grows through small actions, small words, and small moments of consistency repeated every day. In the end, trust does not appear in a moment, but it can disappear in one. And maybe the most important question for any leader is this. Are we putting marbles into the jar every day, or are we emptying it without noticing?
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Boundaries Knowing your limits and respecting the limits of others is one of the foundations of trust. Boundaries create clarity and mutual respect. Reliability Doing what you say you will do. Being consistent and predictable. People trust you when your words and actions match. Accountability Admitting mistakes, listening to feedback, and not getting defensive. Taking responsibility builds trust, especially when things go wrong. Confidentiality Keeping shared information private. When people open up, they need to feel that what they say will stay safe with you. Integrity Doing the right thing, not the easy thing. Trust grows when people see that your actions match your words. Non-judgment Letting people speak without fear of being judged. Trust needs an environment where people feel safe to be honest. Generosity Assuming good intentions. When people feel that you trust them, relationships become stronger. 7 Behaviors That Build Trust in an Organization According to Brené Brown, trust is built through seven basic behaviors. Each one makes trust real in relationships and in organizations.
These seven behaviors show that trust is not just a word. It is something built every day through consistent actions. Source: https://brenebrown.com/resources/
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Pour homme. Pour femme. Pour Pay Day.
Discover the allure of global payroll and mobility at www.activpayroll.com/love
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The Payroll Trust Gap and What It’s Costing You Every month, payroll delivers a signal to every person in your organisation – not just as a number, but as an answer to a question employees never stop asking: Can I trust this company?
Author: Barry Flanagan Barry is Vice President, Payroll GTM, at Remote. Prior to joining Remote in 2024, Barry was a founding member of Immedis, the cloud- based global payroll technology platform, where he served as Chief Customer Officer through its acquisition by experience across employment, tax, and payroll services, having started his career at Deloitte, and is a Chartered Accountant, Chartered Tax Consultant, and Chartered Company Secretary. UKG. He brings over 20 years of
W hen it works, payroll is invisible. That invisibility is the point. Consistent, accurate pay is quiet proof, delivered on a recurring schedule, that your organisation does what it says it will. But when it fails, the damage runs deeper than a processing error. It reaches the employment relationship itself.
We surveyed 6,260 professionals across seven countries to understand what actually drives confidence and trust at work. What we found should reframe how every finance and people leader thinks about this function: pay transparency and reliability are the new bedrocks of culture and retention.
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unlike perks, it cannot be dressed up “
How you pay people – how reliably, how transparently, how consistently – is a signal about your organisation’s operational character. And
Reliability is the Benefit Employees Actually Want The conversation about employee experience has been dominated for years by perks - flexible working, wellness budgets, learning allowances. Our research suggests that conversation has been missing something more fundamental.
41% of employees say greater reliability and clarity of payments would have a stronger impact on their job satisfaction than additional perks. When asked what matters most to them about how they are paid, their answers were unambiguous: timely payments matter to 42.5% of respondents, and accuracy to 32.3%.
This reframes payroll from a compliance obligation into a brand asset. How you pay people – how reliably, how transparently, how consistently – is a signal about your organisation’s operational character. And unlike perks, it cannot be dressed up. Either payroll runs on time or it doesn’t. Either the number is right or it isn’t.
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Fragmentation is the Enemy of Trust
Employees are not asking for more. They are asking for consistency. Miss payroll twice, and no culture programme recovers it. Pay Transparency Has Moved From Expectation to Regulation The EU Pay Transparency Directive is reshaping reporting requirements across Europe; organisations with 100 or more employees will be required to report on gender pay gaps, and employees will gain the right to request salary comparison data. Multiple US states now mandate salary ranges in job postings. The direction is clear: closed pay cultures are not simply a talent risk, they are a compliance risk.
Our research quantifies what’s at stake. More than half of all employees surveyed would consider leaving their roles if their salary concerns were ignored. Among workers aged 16 to 24, that figure rises to 70%. The organisations that treat this moment as a burden will spend the next five years catching up. Those who treat it as an opportunity will build something more durable: a workforce that understands how pay decisions are made, trusts they are being applied fairly, and doesn’t need to leave to find out if the grass is greener. That level of transparency is only possible if your payroll infrastructure can support it. And for most global organisations, it currently cannot.
As teams become more distributed,
payroll is often the only consistent experience every employee shares, regardless of location, role, or seniority. Which makes what happens inside most global payroll operations particularly damaging. The typical response to international growth is to stitch together a patchwork of local vendors, spreadsheets, and disconnected systems. Each new country adds a layer: a different tax framework, a different reporting format, a different point of contact when something goes wrong. The result is a payroll function that is structurally incapable of delivering the consistency your employees expect. The consequences are not just operational. When a developer in Berlin waits three days for a pay query to be resolved because their manager has to chase a third-party
More than half of all employees surveyed would consider leaving their roles if their salary concerns were ignored. Among workers aged 16 to 24, that figure rises to 70%.
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Priya is a hero She can’t fly! but every month, she makes sure everyone gets paid, on time and without error. Payroll professionals are the quiet force that keeps businesses moving, yet their vital work o en goes unnoticed. Vistra changes that. Our tech and in-country experts help payroll teams avoid risks, gain peace of mind, and manage global workforces with confidence, processing 11M+ payslips a year across 170+ countries.
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vendor, and a designer in New York gets an answer in an hour, you are not managing one employee experience. You are managing two. That gap compounds quietly, and it surfaces in engagement scores, attrition data, and exit interviews long before anyone connects it back to payroll. Fragmented systems don’t just create risk. They create inequity. From Infrastructure to Strategy Fixing this requires more than better software. It requires a shift in how organisations classify payroll as a function. Start by measuring it differently. Most payroll audits ask a single question: Did we pay on time? The organisations building genuine trust ask harder questions: How often are manual adjustments required
More importantly, you can make and keep the same promise to every employee, regardless of where they are.
after a pay cycle? Which regions have the highest error rates? Do international employees feel as informed and supported as domestic ones? When you unify payroll into a single operational layer – one source of truth for compliance, payments, and reporting, something changes. The function stops being a monthly fire drill and starts generating insight. You can see where friction exists. You can act on it before it becomes attrition. More importantly, you can make and keep the same promise to every employee, regardless of where they are. The Bottom Line Payroll is the most fundamental contract
between an employer and an employee. It is not the most exciting item on a CFO’s agenda, and it rarely makes it onto a people strategy roadmap. But our research is unambiguous: it is one of the most powerful levers available for building an organisation people trust. The companies that will attract and retain the best global talent are not necessarily those with the most generous packages. They are the ones whose operational foundations are strong enough to honour their commitments, every month, without exception, in every country they operate. That is not a payroll problem. That is a leadership decision. Download Remote’s 2025 Global Payroll Repor t
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Starting 1 July 2026, Payday Super will require Australian employers to pay superannuation alongside every wage. The change brings increased scrutiny to payroll processes, uncovering hidden weaknesses that can escalate into compliance failures, operational headaches, and costly financial exposure. Expose Payroll Weaknesses Why Payday Super Will
Author: Amanda Jones Amanda is a payroll compliance specialist with over 12 years of experience in payroll operations and consulting. She previously worked in a leading consulting firm’s payroll advisory team, supporting organisations to navigate complex payroll environments. At Yellow Canary, Amanda focuses on delivering payroll compliance solutions, with deep expertise in configuring system integrations. She brings a practical, experience- led perspective to payroll compliance, regularly contributing insights that help organisations navigate complexity and strengthen governance.
P ayroll has always been complex. Behind every pay run are calculations, allowances, shift penalties, bonuses, and commissions: all of which must be accurate. Even in well-managed systems, errors can go unnoticed
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These challenges are not unique to Australia. Globally, payroll teams face the same principle: as reporting frequency increases, hidden errors become visible, even in well-controlled processes. “
for weeks or months, often only surfacing during audits or quarterly reconciliations. With Payday Super, these errors are revealed much earlier. By requiring superannuation contributions with every pay cycle rather than quarterly, payroll comes under sharper scrutiny. Mistakes that may have gone undetected for months can now surface within the pay cycle, increasing operational pressure
and exposing gaps in systems, processes, and the management of penalties under Australia’s Superannuation Guarantee (SG) Charge, a government-imposed fine for missed or underpaid super contributions. These challenges are not unique to Australia. Globally, payroll teams face the same principle: as reporting frequency increases, hidden errors become visible, even in well-controlled processes.
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Complexity Magnifies Risk Calculating Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) accurately is central to superannuation compliance. OTE generally includes payments for an employee’s ordinary hours of work, such as base wages and certain allowances, loadings and bonuses that relate to those hours, but excludes overtime and expense reimbursements. Because OTE forms the basis for super contributions, even small errors in its calculation can have significant consequences. While standard wages are straightforward, allowances, loadings, shift penalties, overtime, and commissions create layers of complexity. Misapplied pay codes or incorrect classifications can trigger errors across multiple pay cycles, requiring time-consuming corrections. For example, an employee working weekends who receives both casual loading and a shift penalty could be affected if one component is misclassified. This error can influence wage calculations and super contributions for that pay run and subsequent reconciliations. Multiply this across dozens of employees and multiple pay cycles, and the potential for cumulative errors rises sharply.
Modern awards and enterprise agreements add another layer of difficulty. Payroll teams must interpret clauses regarding penalties, loadings, and entitlements correctly. Even minor misinterpretation can result in underpayments that now directly affect super contributions and must be corrected promptly. Contractor classification adds further risk. Workers misclassified as independent contractors may miss super contributions entirely, particularly where the extended definition of ‘employee’ under superannuation law applies. This can leave organisations exposed to retroactive payments and penalties. Payday Super brings this risk forward, with misclassifications more likely to surface within the pay cycle rather than remaining undetected until quarterly reporting. Operational Pressure Points Every pay cycle brings new operational pressures. Payroll teams must coordinate across HR, finance, and IT to make sure timesheets are accurate, approvals are completed on time, and systems process payments correctly. What used to be a quarterly reconciliation is now a continuous process, requiring careful timing and coordination.
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Payroll has become a strategic differentiator for global organizations. With increasingly distributed workforces, growing competition for talent, and evolving compliance standards, how businesses manage payroll now influences their ability to scale and meet employee expectations. By 2026, payroll will no longer solely center on accurate and timely payments. It will be a source of trust, intelligence, and competitive advantage. The global payroll market is projected to reach $18.72 billion in 2026, with a
CAGR of 4.88%. Such growth reflects how payroll systems are adapting to business needs, driven by AI and automation. These technologies are taking payroll from an administrative task into a strategic function which delivers insight, agility, and resilience. Cloud platforms, real-time data access, and personalization tools are central to workforce satisfaction and modernization. AI is pivotal to this shift. It automates compliance checks, forecasts costs, reduces errors, and manages administrative workload, while payroll teams focus on oversight, insights, and culture.
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Payroll must also manage increasing data complexity. Multiple awards, enterprise agreements, and pay codes, combined with overtime, allowances, and shift penalties, create layers of calculation that must be accurate for every pay cycle. Even minor inconsistencies in input data can trigger exceptions that ripple across multiple employees and pay runs. Employee diversity adds another layer of operational demand. Casuals, part-timers, and contractors each have different entitlements, requiring payroll teams to apply rules precisely to every individual. High volumes of employees with varying conditions make each pay cycle a complex puzzle to solve efficiently. Finally, system limitations can heighten pressure. Older payroll software or manual processes struggle with higher-frequency contributions, increasing the likelihood of bottlenecks, delays, or additional administrative steps to support accuracy. Turning Compliance Pressure Into Strength Payday Super’s more frequent contribution requirements may feel demanding, but they also create an opportunity to strengthen payroll operations. By
implementing structured pay audits and consistent workflows, teams can catch misclassifications, incorrect allowances, or unusual adjustments before they affect a pay run. Standardised processes ensure that late timesheets, rejected payments, and retroactive adjustments are handled consistently rather than ad hoc, reducing administrative stress and preventing errors from compounding. Integrating payroll with cash flow planning helps organisations meet frequent super obligations without disrupting other financial commitments. Transparency is another advantage. Detailed, audit-ready reports give payroll teams clear visibility across all pay cycles, provide regulators with evidence of compliance, and support internal confidence in payroll accuracy. Teams that embed these Employee diversity adds another layer of operational demand. Casuals, part- timers, and contractors each have different entitlements, requiring payroll teams to apply rules precisely to every individual.
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verification checks, and structured workflows to make sure pay calculations and super contributions are correct each cycle. Audit-ready reporting further strengthens compliance and reduces the risk of errors compounding over time. Historical errors can escalate quickly. Small mistakes that are not identified early can ripple across multiple pay runs, affecting compliance, payroll accuracy, and employee entitlements. Maintaining repeatable procedures and transparent reporting allows teams to detect and resolve issues promptly, reducing operational strain and exposure to financial or regulatory consequences. For payroll professionals globally, frequent pay cycles increase scrutiny and surface previously hidden issues. Teams that focus on people, combine reliable systems with structured processes and proactive verification, and maintain audit-ready reporting are best equipped to maintain accuracy, defend compliance, and manage operational pressures effectively. By embracing these practices, payroll teams can turn compliance pressure into operational strength: safeguarding employees, protecting the organisation, and building a payroll function that is resilient and ready for future regulatory changes.
Even well-configured systems require accurate data, verification checks, and structured workflows to make sure pay calculations and super contributions are correct each cycle.
practices into daily operations not only reduce risk but build a payroll function that is more reliable, resilient, and capable of managing complex employee structures and evolving legislation efficiently. Lessons for Payroll Professionals Globally Australia’s Payday Super demonstrates a principle relevant to payroll teams worldwide: as pay cycles become more frequent, gaps in systems, processes, and data are revealed much faster than under quarterly reporting. Organisations everywhere face similar pressures as payroll cycles accelerate and regulators demand timely, accurate compliance. Payroll systems are only as effective as their setup and supporting processes. Even well-configured systems require accurate data,
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THE QUESTIONS ARE: Is your team struggling to efficiently manage Payroll enquiries? ◦ Are you confident in your team's training in Award and Agreement Interpretation? ◦
Kickstart your journey to Mastering Award Interpretations and handling Payroll enquiries with ease!
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Z ennie Sjölund is a well-known and highly respected voice in global payroll. Based in Sweden, she has 25 years of experience in the payroll industry, with a particular focus on payroll intelligence, emerging trends, and the evolving role of payroll in modern organizations. She is the founder of Zennie Advisory Group, an advisory firm focused on payroll, compliance, governance, and business development, and co-creator and co-host of the podcast LöneZnack. Between the Lines Zennie Sjölund
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