How top companies run international payroll in the ever-changing business environment

To further uncover what the business leaders’ needs are in terms of payroll partners and how they choose the right one, we have looked inside our own company and discussed with our experts, Jana Boštíková, Head of Payroll Department, Mazars in Czech Republic, Outsourcing HR & Payroll Leader, Mazars in CEE and Ioana Vlad-Rădulescu, International Payroll and Compliance Director, Mazars

What should we understand by international payroll and what are the benefits of cross-country collaboration?

Payroll is typically one of the first services a company needs when entering new markets in the international background. Thus, the overall payroll journey is similar to this business line’s long history within our organisationas well.
In terms of coverage, only two-three years ago, payroll used to represent roughly 30% of Mazars‘ total outsourcing service line revenues. However, in the last couple of years, there has been a spike in the demand for international payroll services, that now represents approximately half of Mazars’ global outsourcing revenues, which makes it the core outsourced service at the moment.

Ioana Vlad-Rădulescu: Responding to this rising outsourcing demand, how we conducted our day-to-day work was our top priority. Hence, we had to look back at literally everything inside our processes, from identifying what is our staffing model to what part of the big, international HR and payroll market we play a key role in and act on it.
This analysis provided valuable insights that helped us understand how to better serve our clients in a one-stop-shop approach, and also decide what is the best technology mix to empower our expertise.
In this respect, in CEE, for example, our latest C-suite Barometer showed that leaders are looking to transform their businesses with the help of technology-driven solutions and also through sustainability-centered approaches, so these elements became a must-have in our strategy as well.

Jana Boštíková: Cross-country collaboration must imply a common payroll strategy, including the right tools for effective communication and data sharing. Building experienced teams of professionals, coordinated by a central management will provide clients with top expertise and better insights, strengthened by international exposure to different payroll challenges.
Teams working in a cross-country environment usually merge the experience and know-how of each individual local context so that innovation can arise and produce the most suitable solutions.
For us as well, while continuing to expand our geographic footprint and serve international companies, our main focus goes on deepening collaboration between cross-country teams. On top of that, we believe that remaining ever-learning and willing to innovatively solve clients’ challenges makes our expertise the right asset in international payroll for any company that aims for growth by process optimisations.

Find out more in the document below.