By Frank J. Mendelson
Editor’s Note: Borja Perez is Vice President of Products and Payments at CloudPay. Perez began his career at PwC, a global consulting and tax services specialist, before working for other global organizations, including IBM. He has worked with CloudPay since 2020. Presently, he is involved in shaping the modern pay experience for the global network of businesses with whom the firm partners.
How did you get started in your career?
I started my career as a consultant at PwC; my role focused on implementing SAP HR and payroll solutions for multinational firms based in Spain. From there, I began work on international projects, leading to helping a payroll firm build out their function that enabled businesses to adopt global solutions. Before starting at PwC, I had little knowledge about the industry. The subject was never focused on in depth during my college degree or master’s degree, at least not in the U.K. or United States where I studied.
What do you believe are the most important qualities of effective leadership?
I believe that we follow inspirational leaders, not processes or companies. This is the crux of effective leadership. You need people to believe in you and believe in what you’re trying to get them to do so that they buy into it.
Your team needs to be engaged with wider objectives and an effective way of achieving this is to clearly explain the business strategy, the thinking behind it, and empower people to use their own skills to tackle the issues facing them. As a leader, you must allow people to make mistakes and get things wrong. After all, we are all human.
Sometimes you need to support your staff in areas of their lives that are non-work related. We don’t know what challenges people are facing in their personal lives and providing help when it’s needed is a core part of leadership. We all work around KPIs, budgets, and revenue streams but it’s important not to lose the human side of your professional relationships and recognise that everyone can’t give 100% every single day. Mental wellbeing is a major issue at the moment and if there’s anything I can do as a leader to help my employees to perform better at work, but more importantly to be happy, then I will try to do it.
How would you describe the communication challenges of a global payroll leader?
If we go back a decade or so—or even pre-pandemic, before the growth of remote and hybrid working— I was already managing a team of 25 professionals working in different locations. I was in Spain and had colleagues across the globe, as far afield as China and Australia. Thus, I faced challenges adapting to different cultures and recognising that a conversation you’d have with an Italian team member would be different than one you might have with someone in Japan, for example. This isn’t just down to language but also cultural relativism, and I learned that adapting your messaging is a key facet of effective leadership. Some cultures are used to certain working styles and what they expect from a leader can vary dramatically, so ensuring you can adapt and be flexible is very important.
What do you think is the changing role of the payroll professional?
The roles of payroll professionals vary for those working with domestic payroll and those operating with multinational and global businesses. Professional roles within the latter tend to force you to act more strategically, because you know that a change in policy in one country can have a huge impact and knock-on effect in budget, numbers, and in operations globally.
Payroll is often the biggest expense for firms, and navigating compliance for maybe 100 different countries can create significant challenges. Professionals running global payrolls have an even greater focus on ensuring data is accurate and their roles are beginning to incorporate more new technologies for predictive analytics and other similar fields. They also need to monitor global economic changes at a closer level as market fluctuations in one part of the world can have significant ramifications for operations in another. This means projective calculations must be precise due to inflationary shifts and other external factors.
Payroll professionals are also working more closely with other parts of the business, notably HR. In domestic payroll, it’s generally acceptable to provide advances to some employees. But if—for example—10% of your global workforce wants one and that is driven by inflationary pressures, then it becomes a big problem. Payroll experts today need a more strategic approach than they have needed historically because they provide greater value to their employers.
What emerging trends in global payroll are demanding your attention and how will they exert impact?
The main trend across all business—not just payroll—is the impact of work-from-anywhere policies and the knock-on effects of currency fluctuations in different markets that increase the need for adaptive, flexible payment models. This is the new normal and the next generation of talent entering the workforce expects employers to offer modern employment models.
The other major trend is artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential for leveraging its power in payroll. The main opportunity is that emerging technologies and platforms can free up working time for the more strategic tasks and obviously deliver even greater levels of accuracy. There is also the potential to use other chatbot platforms for areas like employee support which are still developing that could have a major positive impact on overall wellbeing.
How can a payroll department provide support on a strategic level to corporate finance, human resources, and other departments?
Payroll teams can save their businesses money by using external service providers and advising HR teams on alternative payment models. If organisations provide payroll with the platform and position to be involved in strategic decision-making, it becomes easier to support wider strategies and departmental objectives; particularly if we leverage the power of the available data.
This can help to identify solutions that can save all organisations money and make them a more attractive proposition for potential employees, however there is still some way to go. The industry must find ways to highlight the value it can offer and shift perceptions away from the outdated view of what payroll is really like.
What are the biggest challenges for payroll teams and what is emerging to address these challenges?
The biggest challenges relate to legislative changes across the globe. A good example is the changes to overtime policy in France, which the industry is having to adapt to. There are also the evolving expectations of the modern workforce to manage. As I explained previously, professionals now seek instant access in all aspects of their life, and payroll is no different. There is also the rise of cryptocurrencies and a greater movement of talent globally, but for now, remaining compliant with varying employment and tax legislation is the top challenge.
What strategic advice would you give to a company moving from a domestic to a global payroll?
This is a major undertaking for any business, and any guidance depends on the size and footprint of the organisation and its specific requirements. My best advice is to find the right partner; embarking on this transformation on your own is extremely challenging and requires a high degree of internal change management to ensure the working culture aligns with the changes that are likely to follow. The business needs to be open to change and this is a task that internal payroll teams can find overwhelming without the right level of support.
What are some essential practices and strategic choices to manage risk and compliance?
Compliance needs to be your absolute priority; we would always advise businesses to integrate data security by design and embed it into the overall architecture of the business and its payroll function. The risks are always growing, and firms are dealing with managing private and personal data. Attempting to patch things up and look for short-term solutions will never end well, and security, therefore needs to form a key part of all your processes.
What are some pieces of wisdom regarding effective and efficient work that you gained from your on-the-job experience?
To be effective and efficient, you need a clear idea of your goals and aims. From there, you can build a working plan. You must be able to organise yourself to build in time for complex tasks that can be delivered with the expected quality. The key is to work smarter, not harder, and being well-organised enables you to do so.
In my role, I lead a team of professionals, and the same concept applies to developing others. It’s preferable to empower staff to come up with their own solutions, and I always try and focus on explaining the “what” rather than the “how.” Explaining in detail how problems should be solved isn’t efficient and will only stunt your team’s creativity.
What advice would you give to a new employee in payroll?
There is no better time or opportunity to move into payroll than today. The sector is starting to adopt the same level of innovation seen in other fields, but it still has a long way to go. Traditionally, payroll is viewed as a relatively static industry. However, it is transforming into an increasingly attractive profession, due mostly to innovation and creative problem solving.
Let’s face it: The sector has largely been run the same way for the past 30-40 years with the same steps and payroll processes in place. It presents the biggest opportunity to innovate across all areas of the business world, and that’s an attractive proposition for younger generations. More organisations are adopting pay-on-demand models that provide instant access to pay. In the same vein as food delivery, simply push a button and your pay is delivered immediately.
The next workforce generation expects this in other areas of our “one-click-driven” society, and the payroll sector is adapting to this emerging need. Modernising the payroll market presents an attractive opportunity for younger people considering their career choices. It is still a guarded secret, but we are beginning to see greater awareness of the opportunities among emerging generations and that can only be a good thing for the market. My advice, therefore, would be to look to innovate and break out of the traditional payroll world and to engage more effectively with other parts of the business that you work with to identify where and how to innovate.
How do you incorporate professional development into the lifestyle of a full-time job?
You don’t have to follow traditional professional development pathways related to business. In fact, you can find sources of inspiration from anywhere, be it books, TV, online tutorials, sporting events, and more.
In my role, I must do a lot of research, so I use the internet a great deal. I try to read articles on numerous subjects and follow influential people in our space to keep up with the latest trends. I then delve deeper and do my own research. You don’t only have to learn and develop yourself using formal avenues and sources of information. We have digital tools at our fingertips, meaning you can learn anywhere and anytime, rather than waiting for dedicated opportunities to arise. Every day is an opportunity to learn new things.
How do you personally manage to balance work and pleasure?
My schedule works for me, but it might not be for everyone. I try to focus on my health and overall wellbeing before 9:00 a.m., and then on work until whenever I need to stop. Sometimes that’s 5:00 p.m., but sometimes I don’t stop until 11:00 p.m. If I’ve got a busy day, I try and avoid getting stuck looking at emails and focus instead on the strategic priorities of my day. I silence all my mobile devices as they provide a potential distraction. I apply the same principles to my free time; I am solely focused on what I am doing at the time and stay offline.
I have spent a large proportion of my career working across time zones, so I am accustomed to adapting my working hours. I’m used to the structure of doing European work in the daytime and then reporting across the Atlantic in the evening.
In the past, my biggest mistake was responding to emails after I had finished working. It’s important to disconnect, so I try and block out my time effectively. This allows me to focus on whatever I’m doing, both in and out of work.
What books are on your recommended reading list?
I do not read many business books, but I do consume a lot of sailing content, particularly related to big regattas like the America's Cup or anything related to competition at sea. I also enjoy anything by Patrick O’Brien, the author of “Master and Commander,” and numerous other novels. His books inspire me. There are many parallels between sailing and the business world; you need confidence to inspire others and provide a destination and means of getting there for your team. You can’t share your concerns or fears with them and there are similarities in how you confront those situations with your colleagues and dealing with different characters. I try to apply the types of methodologies outlined in these books in my working life.
I also watch a lot of documentaries on a range of subjects but particularly enjoy learning about leaders and other inspiring figures who face challenging situations.