During the Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI) webinar “Decrypting the Main Global Payroll Complexities,” two global payroll leaders discussed best practices when creating processes to manage the hiring, firing, and paying of employees on a global payroll scale.
Anne Clifford, Global Head of HR and Payroll at TMF Group, and Maxine Gardner, Global Payroll Director at Lenovo, explained that as payroll legislation continues to change, labor laws and policies can sometimes become extremely complex when handling compliance issues, reporting requirements, and managing union relationships.
With the information compiled by TMF Group from its 2019 Global Business Complexity Index, the multinational professional services firm was able to quantify the complicated and unpredictable nature of business environments across 76 jurisdictions.
Clifford said that in her experience, the most common complexities her clients face when hiring employees in different jurisdictions depended on the history of the country.
“It’s that history that really drives that complexity and what you’re looking for in the skilled workforce,” she said. “It’s really important to understand some of the other components that go on when you’re hiring your workforce.”
For example, in Spain, labor regulations allow an employee to work 80 hours of overtime only in one year.
“Spain values the worker being able to have time at home with the family,” Clifford said. “Also, in Spain, they have a very expensive social security system. Therefore, the government doesn’t want employers hiring only 10 workers to do the work of 15 workers.”
For Gardner, the biggest discrepancies she’s encountered in compensation and benefits among the jurisdictions she’s worked with are vast, particularly when it comes to paid time off and maternity leave.
“In the U.S., there isn’t as much leave as there are in the EMEA countries,” she said. “Sometimes that can cause some issues.”
Clifford adds, “Regulators and businesses have also supported (more leave), whether it’s maternity or paternity as we’re not seeing more of. Those are the benefits that seem to be valued.”
She also said she’s starting to see more companies in the United States starting to compensate their employees with daily payrolls. She even has a client that has started paying its employees with cryptocurrencies.
“We are starting to see a lot of this in the marketplace,” Clifford said.
During the webinar, attendees took a poll asking them what non-traditional benefits were the most desired among employees at their companies. A resounding 79% answered “work from home/remote.” Second was other “onsite amenities” such as a gym and child care with 8%, followed by “relocation opportunities,” and “equality in paternity leave” at 5%.
“Decrypting the Main Global Payroll Complexities” is available as an on demand webinar until 23 October 2020. Earn up to 1 RCH or .1 CEUs for attending this webinar.
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Kiko Martinez is the Associate Editor for Membership Publications at the American Payroll Association (APA) and the Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI).