04:05 GLOBAL
Payroll’s Own History Payroll has travelled its own considerable distance. From the early days of manual wage calculations and paper records, it emerged as a recognised business function before becoming the complex, globally connected discipline we know today. What was once largely administrative now sit at the beating heart of every organisation. Payroll has evolved alongside the workforce it serves, reflecting many of the social, technological and organisational changes that have shaped the past century. Working patterns changed. Employment rights and protections developed. Organisations expanded beyond national borders. Technology transformed both work and the way people are paid. New currencies, payment methods, regulations and expectations around reward added layers of complexity.
Payroll records the consequences of it all. A business that moves from a predominantly local workforce to an international one has a very different payroll to the organisation it was two or three generations earlier. An employer responding to new employment rights must reflect those changes in what its people receive. An organisation embracing new technology, new working arrangements or new expectations around transparency and reward will ultimately see those decisions reflected in its payroll. organisational change. The way an organisation pays its people can tell us something about how it operates, the workforce it employs and the value it places on the relationship between employer and employee. But there is another side to that story. Payroll leaders may inherit the consequences of decisions made elsewhere, but they have the unique opportunity to influence those decisions themselves. Making Inheritance Intentional Every payroll professional inherits something from the generation before them. In that sense, payroll offers a remarkably revealing view of
But there is another side to that story. Payroll leaders may inherit the consequences of decisions made elsewhere, but they have the unique opportunity to influence those decisions themselves.
10 I 04:05
GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 27
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online