Broken Lock by Michael Rosenstein is licensed under CC BY 2.0
61% of multinational corporations confirmed they still transmit confidential employee information via email. Additionally, nearly half of all respondents to the survey said they still use the inherently insecure medium of email for payroll-related communications. This figure rose to nearly two-thirds (61%) for those organisations operating in six or more countries, as revealed in the latest 2016 Global Payroll Survey commissioned by TMF Group.
Data security, or lack of
Despite strides in implementing more secure data transfers, nearly a quarter of respondents (23%) said that they do not modify their procedures for cross-border communications for security purposes. Deborah Williams, Head of Global Business Services, TMF Group commented “It clearly follows that the greater the number of countries in which any organisation operates, the harder it becomes to co-ordinate payroll activity. However, the number of large organisations still sharing payroll data over email—and the inherent risk that carries for a business—was quite a surprise.”
Globally secure
The challenge of maintaining global consistency of payroll reporting and management while staying secure and compliant with local requirements was also explored. Respondents were asked to rate the degree of difficulty of several key global payroll activities. The five areas rated as most challenging were:
- Working with multiple payroll suppliers across different locations
- Ensuring payroll operations are compliant with local rules and legislation
- Creating management reports from disparate cross-border payroll data
- Authorising and controlling the payroll process
- Following multiple and varied payroll approval processes
For an organisation to balance its need for centralised global reporting, while also meeting local in-country requirements, can prove a complex challenge. Williams added, “The complication of working with multiple payroll providers in multiple languages and currencies and it is easy to see why over half of the organisations are looking to engage technology-based solutions to deliver payslips or pay advice to their employees in future.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
