Introduction
In our digital age, small businesses are leveraging technology to hire diverse talent around the globe and are growing at a higher-than-ever speed. And while this scenario presents a wealth of exciting opportunities, it also comes with its fair share of challenges.
One of the largest is managing a payroll that has rapidly become global. If your small business is struggling to establish a solid, reliable, and efficient global payroll management strategy, this guide is for you. Keep reading to learn more about global payroll, its benefits, and how you can select the best online payroll service for small businesses.
What is global payroll?
The term “payroll” refers to all the tasks and activities involved in paying your entire staff, including full-time and part-time employees, contractors, vendors, and more. If your company has only employed local employees, you probably find that payroll is a relatively simple activity.
Nonetheless, if your business has decided to start recruiting international talent, you will soon realize that things can get very complicated quickly. This is what the expression “global payroll” indicates — the management of all your payable employees across international borders.
Some of the main complexities of global payroll depend on the fact that different countries often have different laws around payroll, taxes, benefits, employee leave, etc. Moreover, these rules and regulations can change significantly over time, requiring businesses to stay up-to-date constantly.
The risks of not getting payroll right are many. For example, your company might be at risk of legal action, which may almost certainly harm its relationship with its remote employees. Considering all the time, effort, and resources that small businesses like yours have put into accessing and securing the best global talent, it would be incredibly frustrating and damaging to not fulfill their expectations around payroll.
This is one of the many reasons why handling global payroll alone doesn’t work. It would be best if you had the expert support of a committed partner like Skuad, who can take on all payroll-related responsibilities on your behalf.
With a global payroll services provider by your side, you can hire remote workers and pay them correctly and on time. You won’t need to keep up with complex, ever-changing local regulations, as your trusted global payroll partner will do that for you.
Top benefits of global payroll
Setting up a robust, efficient, and automatic payroll system through a global payroll provider like Skuad can help you achieve several things, including:
- Accessing a vast pool of talent from around the world enables you to identify the right opportunities for your company’s requirements.
- Ensuring that your remote staff gets paid exactly the right amount in a timely and accurate manner. This includes calculating any extras such as taxes, social security, benefits, bonuses, holiday, and other types of leave.
- Adhering to local rules and regulations around payroll, thus drastically minimizing the potential risk of incurring fines, lawsuits, or other issues.
- Creating and delivering a positive experience for all your remote employees, regardless of where they are based or how complex their local payroll system might be.
Tips for choosing the best payroll company for small businesses
Now that you know why global payroll is so important and what benefits it can help you achieve let's discuss how your small business can source the best global payroll services by selecting the right payroll provider. Here are some top tips.
Read reviews and testimonials
Reading reviews is something that many small companies often forget to do. Nonetheless, it's also one of the best ways to find a great service provider. So, start scouring the internet for ratings, customer testimonials, scores, and other achievements, while comparing and contrasting different providers.
Don’t limit yourself to Google Reviews; look at Glassdoor and Trustpilot, as well as the company’s social media accounts. And remember, those star ratings are only reliable if they come from numerous reviews. A provider with a five-star rating but only one review might not be as great as one that scored 4.6 based on thousands of reviews.
Check their complete list of services
Not all global payroll providers were created equal; some offer services you might never need, whereas others specialize in exactly what you are looking for. Therefore, before choosing one provider, please look closely at their service offering and review it against your company’s needs.
Generally speaking, a good, global payroll provider will often offer services such as payroll calculations, taxes, and deductions. But some of them might also support more specific services, such as contractor payment and management. Browsing the provider’s website should suffice to clarify what the provider offers and whether that matches your needs and expectations.
Look for customized packages and options
Regarding service offerings, it’s also essential to mention that a truly dedicated global payroll services provider will also offer the possibility to craft customized packages that meet your unique requirements. However, consider that this might not be immediately obvious by looking at the provider’s website. More often than not, you will need to get in touch with them directly and enquire about the possibility of having a tailor-made package.
Customized packages also enable you to pay only for the service(s) you will be using instead of tying you to a standard membership that might include services you have no interest in. Plus, as your small business continues to grow and its requirements change over time, your custom package will grow, evolve, and scale accordingly.
Make sure they provide great customer support
Customer support is always one of the fundamental markers of a great company, which also applies to global payroll providers. When you read reviews and ratings, watch out for mentions of the quality of customer support.
Keep an eye on the user experience
Usability and ease of access are two other features that you'll want to focus on when choosing a global payroll solution. While your global payroll provider will take care of all the admin tasks associated with running international payroll, your staff — and yourself — will want and need access to that information on an ongoing basis.
Therefore, always prioritize automated payroll systems that are intuitive and user-friendly. Also, ensure that they are mobile-ready. In some cases, you might also benefit from using a solution with in-built self-serve functionalities. This can help to boost the employee experience by empowering your staff to take actions such as viewing their paychecks, updating their personal information, and so on.
Consider scalability
Where your small business is now might not be where it is in a few years. One of the core reasons you’re working with a global payroll provider is that you are planning to grow your company internationally.
This means that you’ll want a payroll solution that can grow and scale with you — not one that is static and inflexible. Plus, you won't want to switch to a different provider once your requirements evolve. When choosing your global payroll provider, consider whether it will be easy to add new countries to your payroll and offer legal coverage for an ever-growing number of locations.
Make sure they offer solid legal compliance
Legal compliance is one of the vital elements of an effective payroll solution. You will need to pay your employees the right salary at the right time and ensure that aspects such as taxes, benefits, leave, and other special circumstances are considered.
Therefore, the right global payroll provider for you has a solid and up-to-date understanding of all the legal requirements in the country — or countries — where your remote workforce is located. But there’s more. Joining forces with a trusted payroll provider like Skuad will also help to protect your business from potentially catastrophic situations, including data theft and loss, which can have a huge impact on payroll management.
The takeaway
Growing your business by tapping into exceptional international talent can help set your small business up for global success. Nonetheless, the challenges associated with international business expansion are many, meaning that companies choosing to grow on their own might face huge hurdles that they struggle to overcome.
This is why it’s wiser to team up with a global payroll provider. These companies offer a range of payroll-related services to small businesses like yours, enabling them to focus on supercharging their international growth, knowing that payroll is always handled in the best, most efficient, and compliant way.
At Skuad, we are the best payroll company for your small business. We run a global HR and payroll platform that can help companies like yours process payroll worldwide at a fraction of the cost — and with zero hassle.
Contact us today to find out how we can support your international growth.
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