Payroll Benchmarking Survey Report

Deloitte Global Payroll
Benchmarking Survey
Sponsored by APA
and GPMI
Contents
Executive summary 03
Demographics 05
Operations 12
Outsourcing 19
Accuracy, efficiency, metrics 24
Service delivery 35
Next-gen 41
Employee experience 47
02
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Executive summary
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Executive summary
Overview
The Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey was open to Deloitte clients, American Payroll Association (APA) members, Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI) subscribers, APA
Congress attendees, and other Deloitte alliance partners. The survey was taken through the lens of three geographic levels with three distinct sections offered. Respondents could
choose any combination of global, region, and country. For each grouping selected, respondents were given the opportunity to answer all questions for each individual grouping where
they had employees, unless specified otherwise. Respondents could also choose to just take the demographic section or could include one or both of the other two sections. This year’s
survey focused on questions associated with payroll across seven categories.
Survey could have been taken through the lens of Within the 3 distinct sections, data points were captured across
3 levels 7 categories
Globally
Regionally
Country Demographics Operations Outsourcing
Three sections could have been taken

Individually
Accuracy, efficiency, Service delivery Next-gen
Demographics (Organization, Geography, and metrics
Industry, Employee Population Size and Technology),
Benchmarking (Operations, Outsourcing,

Accuracy, efficiency, and metrics)
Employee experience
Innovation (Service Delivery, Next-gen Technology

and Employee experience).
Note: All percentages in graphs are shown relative to the respondents per the given question.
Percentages may not always sum to 100 due to rounding.
03
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Executive summary
Executive summary
(continued)
Overview
This year’s survey captured responses from more than 750 distinct organizations across 55 countries spanning several different industries, ranging in employee size from a few hundred to
several hundred thousand, and included over 100 questions. Explore the results of the Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey. Where logical, we’ve broken down the responses by
industry, geography, employee population size and organizational structure to make the data relevant for different companies, providing insights into the similarities and differences
among them. One key theme from the survey from a global payroll perspective is the growing importance of developing a global payroll strategy (e.g. 88 percent of respondents either
have a payroll strategy or have plans to develop a strategy).
Crucial takeaways from the Global Payroll Survey

Seventy three percent of organizations outsource some aspect of payroll and while organizations are generally satisfied with their current third-party payroll providers, they believe there
are many areas for improvements from compliance to technology capabilities:
The top five areas for improvement:
Next-gen
Self-Service Reporting
Compliance Accuracy Technology
Capabilities Capabilities
Adoption
And although many organizations outsource, the need to retain payroll expertise in-house remains high. Thirty percent of respondents who outsource report manual entry / loading
payroll inputs and entering manual adjustments as two of the most time-consuming aspects of payroll processing. The good news is manual loading inputs and improving accuracy limiting
the need for adjustments are two of the areas ripe for next-generation technology. Leveraging next-generation technology can free up payroll resources to focus on more strategic
activities and process improvement.
The bottom line

Organizations understand the importance of having a global payroll strategy that includes sourcing (e.g. consolidated 3rd party payroll providers), an internal service delivery model
regardless of their sourcing strategy, and robust technologies, including next-generation technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA). Although many organizations still don’t yet
have complete visibility into their global payroll operations, they are starting to see a path and are getting closer.
04
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Demographics
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Section 1
Demographics
Overview
This section provides an overview of the organizations
that participated and allows us to analyze the
responses across four dimensions (industry, employee
population size, geography, and organizational
structure). This section sets the foundation for the types
of organizations that participated and how they are
structured and staffed.
35% 12% 11% 11%

Consumer and Technology, Financial Life sciences
industrial products media, and services and health care
telecommunications
10% 12% 8%
Professional Public sector Energy and
services resources
05
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How many active

employees do you have?
The employee population of respondents ranged

25K+ 9% between a couple hundred employees to a couple
hundred thousand employees, with an average of about
10K–24.9K 12%
6,700 employees.
5K–9.9K 10%
1K–4.9K 16%
500–999 9%
Less than 500 44%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
U.S. vs. Non - U.S.
Deloitte is seeing a growth

in the contingent workforce
How many active workers Non - U.S. 62% 21% 16%
across geographies.
(e.g. regular active
When managed well, a
employees, retirees,
contingent workforce allows
contingent/temporary,
for agile responses to
and inpats/expats)” do
changing market conditions, U.S. only 81% 6% 12%
you have?
lower overall labor costs, and
more organizational flexibility.
Regular active (FT and PT) Retirees Contingent/temporary/contractors/consultants Inpats/expats
06
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Typically, the larger the employee population size, the greater the number of employees payroll resources can support through economies of
scale. The respondents with an employee population size between 1K and 4.9K are operating at a low efficiency rate.
How many full-time

By employee population
equivalent (FTE)
resources support 25K+ 25
payroll-related activities?
10K- 24.9K 18
5K- 9.9K 9
1K- 4.9K 17
500 -999 5
Less than 500 8
0 10 20 30
By region
EMEA 29
North America 15
APAC 9
LATAM 4
0 10 20 30 35
07
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For those respondents who have

employees in one country and manage
Centralized,
payroll from multiple locations, there is an
managed from
How do you manage opportunity to centralize. We only have
a non-US country
responsibility for employees in
payroll processing? For those respondents who manage one country and 2%
manage from Centralized,
payroll locally by country, there is an managed from
multiple locations
opportunity to consolidate vendors, the United States
technologies, and/or processing locations. 5%
22%
While each country has country-specific
regulations, as long as they are on the Locally, each
country manages
same vendor and/or technology, the
its own payroll
differences are not substantial enough to processing
warrant in-country processing any longer.
6%
We only have
employees in one
country and Regionally, each
manage from a region manages
central location payroll processing
for its assigned
53% countries/territories
12%
08
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20%
9%
How many of each

type of system does
your organization have?
Payroll Time and

systems Attendance
systems
91%
80%
1 2 or more 1 2 or more
Ninety-one percent of respondents utilize only one type of Eighty percent of respondents utilize only one type of
payroll system, while 9 percent utilize two or more systems. Time and Attendance system, while 20 percent utilize two or
This trend is consistent globally; however, in LATAM, about 17 more systems. The financial services industry has the fewest
percent of respondents use two or more systems. number of time and attendance systems, with only 9 percent
of respondents using two or more systems.
09
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80% Eighty percent of By region

respondents have only one
insourced payroll technology,
North America 81% 19%
How many insourced while about 20 percent utilize 2
payroll technologies or more insourced
do you have? payroll technologies. APAC 80% 20%
20%
EMEA 78% 22%
1 2 or more
LATAM 67% 33%
1 2 or more
By region
17% 14% 10%

Already using 16%
Is your organization 20%
3% 10%
currently using or Implementation in progress
10% 4% 15%
considering the
use of cloud-based 57% Yes, within the next three years
35% 27% 30% 8%
technology to support
16% No migration plans
payroll functions?
Seventy-four percent of respondents are already 61%

using or are implementing a cloud-based technology. 49% 49% 50%
APAC EMEA LATAM North America

10
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60% 57%
50%
40%
Who owns your
timekeeping system? 30% 24%
20%
12%
10% 8%
0%
Payroll The business Shared services Finance
Timekeeping is largely By employee population By region

owned by payroll, the
second most popular 25K+ 68% 12% 14% 6%
owner is the business. This
trend is fairly consistent
10K - 24.9K 35% 37% 24% 4%
and distributed across
50%
the regions. 55% 56%
5K - 9.9K 77% 9% 12% 2% 62%
1K - 4.9K 58% 28% 7% 7%
500 - 999 63% 25% 9% 3% 14%
Less than 500 38% 43% 3% 16% 25%

26%
17%
22%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
11% 10%
17%
14%
9% 8%
4%
11
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Operations
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Section 2
Operations
Overview
• There has been a shift in the market on where Payroll reports.
Organizations are moving Payroll from reporting to Finance to either
reporting to HR or reporting to a shared service where a shared service
could report to either HR or Finance.
• Accuracy and efficiency metrics continue to be largely tracked by Payroll.
• While late or inaccurate employee, manager, and HR transactions are

typically the number one reason for payroll errors, payroll organizations
continue to struggle with measuring and monitoring.
• A typical payroll organization employee has 12 years of experience, seven

and a half years at their current organization, more than three years
of advanced payroll system experience, and about five years of post-
secondary education, and typically works 25 hours of overtime per month.
• Resources supporting payroll spends the most amount of time running

payroll and the least amount of time on process improvement.
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While Payroll has traditionally been evenly split between 2%

reporting to Finance and reporting to HR, we are seeing a
trend in the market where organizations are moving Payroll
Where does the from reporting to Finance to either reporting to HR or
payroll function report reporting to a shared service, where a shared service could 24%
in your organization? report to either HR or Finance. Organizations today are 38%
focusing more on end-to-end employee digital experience
over operational efficiency, and Payroll is an area closely
linked to HR, and the employee experience.
36%
HR Finance Shared services Other
60% Regardless of where

Payroll reports, there
51% is a continued
50% shift in the
market to a shared-
40%
38% service model.
36%
31%
30% Reporting to
24% shared services
20% has increased 64
14% percent since 2018.
10%
4%
2%
0%
HR directly Finance directly Shared Services Other
(via HR, finance, other)
2018 respondents 2020 respondents

13
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60%
53%
Where does the 44%
payroll function report 40%
in your organization?
20%
3%
0%
HR Finance Other
By region
22%
31% 33%
45%
52% 78% 67% 67%
North America LATAM EMEA APAC
HR Finance Other
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North America still has Payroll reporting to Finance in greater than 50 percent of organizations overall.
By industry
Where does the
payroll function report Financial services 85% 11% 3%
in your organization?
Technology, media, and Telecommunications 54% 41% 5%
Energy and resources 50% 50%
Consumer and Industrial products 50% 49% 2%
Professional services 40% 54% 6%
Life sciences and healthcare 40% 56% 4%
Public sector 29% 67% 4%
HR Finance Other
As organizations increase in size, Payroll reports to HR.
5K+ 1K - 4.9K <1K

2% 4% 3%
37% 61% 40% 56% 57% 40%
HR Finance Other
15
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90%
85%
What metrics do you

track internally While upstream transactions are typically
60%
and externally? the number one reason for pay errors,
missing and late HR, employee, and manager
41% 41% transactions are the least tracked.
30%
23%
14% 13%
0%
Internal payroll Internal-to- External-to-payroll External-to-payroll External-to-payroll External-to-payroll
accuracy payroll cost vendor service HR transaction employee transaction manager transaction
and efficiency -level agreements timeliness timeliness timeliness
By region
26%
North America 28% 72%
Do you charge the

EMEA 26% 74%
cost of payroll back to Yes
the business who owns No
LATAM 20% 80%
the labor?
74%
APAC 19% 81%
Twenty six percent of respondents charge the cost of payroll back to the business
including added cost for exception processing.
North America had the highest percentage of respondents who charge payroll back
to the business at 28 percent.
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12 How do payroll
organizations acquire and
Years of experience
onboard the right talent?
Who is the typical 7.5 • Typically requires about four to six
payroll organization Years at current organization months to onboard credentialed
3+
employee? payroll talent
Years of advanced payroll • Talent shortages can be mitigated

system experience with next-gen technologies and
targeted outsourcing
~4 • Growing payroll talent through
Years of post
training is critical, especially for
secondary education
entry-level positions
25
Overtime hours worked
per month
~20
Hours of training per year
More than 25 percent of respondents

Run payroll 27% indicated that their payroll staff spends
On average, what the most time on running payroll (with
Reconciliation, audits, and controls 24%
percent of time does reconciliation, audits, controls, and data
your payroll staff Data entry 20% entry not far behind) and are largely
spend on the following Answering employee and other inquiries manual. Payroll is an area ripe for RPA
14%
activities each month? given the amount of time spent largely
Other 13% on manual work freeing up payroll
Technical support and file management 10% resources to spend more time on more
strategic activities, including process
Process improvement activities 8%
improvement activities.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
17
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Payment errors as a percent of total payroll payments 89%

What are the key
performance indicators Days to resolve payroll errors 54%
(KPIs) that payroll
operations regularly
tracks and monitors? Average overall cost of producing a payslip 41%
Not applicable—no defined KPIs 39%
Untimely payroll payments as a percent of 38%

total payroll payments
In our 2018 Payroll Operations
Survey, 56 percent of respondents Timeliness in submission of statutory returns 36%
indicated they either did not define
any KPIs or they defined them, but
did not monitor or track. With this Cycle to process payroll 33%
survey, the percentage is basically
the same, but we’ve seen a Percentage of accurate statutory returns 27%
significant increase in tracking KPIs
related to accuracy and timeliness.
Manual/voided/stop payments as a percent of 27%
Respondents from both our 2018
total payroll payments
Payroll Operations Survey and
our Deloitte Global Payroll KPIs are not monitored or tracked 18%
Benchmarking Survey listed payment
errors as a percentage of total
payroll payments and days to resolve Cost of payroll processe as a percent of total payroll cost 18%
payroll errors in their top three KPIs
tracked and monitored.
Percent of payroll payments that include pay adjustments 16%
Cost of payroll systems as a percent of total payroll cost 11%
18
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Outsourcing
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Section 3
Outsourcing
Overview
• Seventy three percent of organizations outsource some aspect

of payroll.
• Organizations leveraging a payroll provider for managed services

are using an average of six payroll providers, with the highest
concentration in regions outside of North America.
• Organizations are generally satisfied with their current third-party

payroll providers, with 21 percent of respondents indicating they
are very satisfied.
• The most-cited improvement areas for vendors are related to

compliance, accuracy, and self-service capabilities.
• Larger organizations (more than 5K employees) are largely

using SLAs to track and monitor third-party payroll provider
performance (81 percent)—but smaller organizations (fewer
than 1K employees) are largely not (59 percent do not).
• Fifty eight percent of respondents have been with their payroll

provider for more than five years.
19
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Seventy three percent of organizations outsource some aspect of payroll, with financial services, energy and resources, and
technology, media, and telecommunications organizations being the most likely to outsource.
Do you outsource any By industry

aspect of payroll? The life sciences and
Financial services 89% health care industry and the
public sector are the least
Energy and resources 84%
likely to outsource due to the
specialized nature of payroll
Technology, media, and telecommunications 83%
for each industry—complex
timekeeping for life sciences
Consumer and industrial products 79%
and health care, and a high
level of contingent labor and
Professional services 65%
complex retirement plans for
64%
the public sector.
Life sciences and health care
Public sector 32%
Although 73 percent of organizations outsource some aspect of payroll, the need to retain payroll expertise in-house remains
high. Outsourcing can reduce the administrative and transactional components of payroll administration, but payroll specialists
are still needed to drive policy and decision-making.
Which geographies do
you outsource payroll?
By region
100%
81% 78%
69%
63%
50%
0%
EMEA APAC LATAM North America
20
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How many managed

service payroll
providers do you use
per region?
3.7
6.3
4.2
5.0
EMEA, APAC, and LATAM continue to be regions where vendor consolidation is a challenge, partially due to variation in
country-specific regulatory requirements, but largely due to payroll vendors’ inability to cover each country footprint with
one technology.
How many third-party On average, respondents use almost four third-party payroll

technologies. Organizations are managing a portfolio of strategically
payroll provider
selected vendors with regional expertise. Many have accepted that
technologies do there is not a single global vendor and technology that can support
you have? their entire footprint.
21
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21% 61% 12% 6%
What is your overall level

Very satisfied Satisfied Unsatisfied Very unsatisfied
of satisfaction with your
outsourced third-party
payroll provider?
While 82 percent of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with their current third-party payroll provider, a significant
portion of respondents (most notably those with fewer than 1K employees) do not currently track SLAs. Not tracking SLAs makes
it more difficult to assess vendor performance (for example, satisfaction).
5K+ 12% 7% 81%

Are service-level
agreements (SLAs)
established and
monitored with
1K– 4.9K 19% 31% 50%
your third-party
payroll providers?
<1K 59% 11% 30%
No Yes, but not for all Yes for all
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Compliance 81%
Accuracy 71%
Which of the following do
you consider the top areas Self-service capabilities 63%
of focus or improvement
Reporting capabilities 61%
relating to payroll
provider services? Technology integration 58%
Customer service 56%
Timeliness 55%
While organizations are largely Cost savings 54%

satisfied with their current third-
party payroll provider, respondents Correction and adjustments 43%
believe there are many areas
Productivity improvements 36%
for improvement, from quality
measurements to compliance. Upgrading or modernising technology
29%
Consolidation of vendors 26%
Quality measurements 21%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Fifty eight percent of respondents have

On average, how been with their third-party payroll provider
many years have your for more than five years. By reevaluating
58%
current third-party contracts on a more frequent basis, 8%
payroll provider organizations are more likely to ensure their
outsourcing services vendor is continuing to meet their business
contracts been in place needs and offering competitive rates.
34%
or in production?
5+ years 3-5 years 2 years or less

23
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Accuracy, efficiency, metrics
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Section 4
Accuracy, efficiency, metrics
Overview
Processing payroll in-house is typically
the lowest-cost solution. Organizations don’t outsource to lower
cost; it’s typically to decrease risk, avoid building the capability in-
house because it’s hard to manage, or because of
technology limitations.
Thirty eight percent of off cycle payments are caused by

upstream processes. Many payroll organizations struggle with
resolving up stream issues.
Respondents indicated that manually entering or loading inputs

is the most time-consuming aspect of processing each payroll.
Organizations can consider implementing robotic process
automation (RPA) to automate time-consuming, manual tasks to
decrease overall processing time.
24
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Full enterprise standardization 45%
How standardized Standardized within location or country 26%

would you say your
payroll business Moving towards enterprise standardization 15%
processes are?
Standardization within business unit 9%
Minmal or standardization 6%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

80% Enterprise standardization increases
70% with employee population, as 56 percent of
18%
60% respondents with 5K+ employees indicate
50% their payroll processes are fully standardized
40% 56% 11% across the enterprise, as opposed to only
30% 9% 33 percent of respondents with 1–4.9K
20% 33% employees.
10% 27%
0%
5K+ 1K - 4.9K <1K
Full enterprise standardization Moving towards enterprise standardization
By region
North America has only 46 percent
APAC 70% 9% 18% 3% enterprise standardization as compared
with APAC with 70 percent.
EMEA 67% 16% 13% 2% 2%
North America 46% 28% 17% 4% 4%
LATAM 44% 11% 33% 11%
Full enterprise standardization Moving towards enterprise standardization Standardization Location or Country
Standardized within business unit Minimal/No standardization
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Average number of off-cycle payments annually per employee
0.3
On average, how many 0.3
manual, off-cycle 0.23
payments do you
0.2
produce each month?
0.11
0.1
0.03
0.01
0
Global North America LATAM EMEA APAC
Respondents from North America processed the most off-cycle payments annually per employee at 0.3 while respondents from
EMEA processed about 1/10 of that. Global respondents averaged .23 off-cycle payments annually per employee.
Average number of off-cycle payments annually per employee by industrial
Technology, media and

telecommunications 1.08
Life science and healthcare 0.33
Financial services 0.17
Public sector 0.05
Consumer and
industrial products 0.04
Energy and resources 0.02
Professional services 0.02
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There has been an 18 percent

decrease in waiting until next
on-cycle for payroll corrections.
Recognizing there may
be exceptions, in the
majority of cases, how do 38% 6% 33% 23% 0%
you determine whether to
Case-by-case basis Next on-cycle Policy or practice As required by law
process payroll corrections
with an off-cycle Given the shift to focus on employee Regardless of
payroll run rather than experience versus process efficiency, amount
or percentage
waiting until the next organizations are likely accommodating
regularly scheduled employees by running an off-cycle
on-cycle payroll? payment or payroll run.
37% 24% 23% 13% 3%
Case-by-case basis Next on-cycle Policy or practice As required by law
Regardless of
amount
or percentage
The descriptions of each method are included below:
Case-by-case basis are payment Next on-cycle are payment corrections Policy or practice are payment As required by law are payment
corrections that the payroll department that the payroll department plans to corrections that the payroll department corrections that the payroll department
plans to process after the issues are process with the next normally scheduled plans to process based on the company’s plans to process only if it is required by law.
reviewed. No specific guidelines as to the payroll. No off-cycle payrolls are processed standard policy or practice for processing An example would be a termination in the
amount or a particular company policy for payment corrections. off-cycle payrolls. state or province that requires final
are followed. Instead, the issues are payment to an employee to be paid by a
reviewed, and then a decision is made to certain time.
process an off-cycle correction.
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What are the most

common reasons for Underpayments
processing off-cycle
payments? Missed or inaccurate 12%
HR update
20%
Terminations
Bonus or award
30%
10%
Terminations, as expected,
are the leading cause of
off-cycle payments, as they are
required by law in some states
(such as California). Missed or
Overpayments
Thirty eight percent of off cycle inaccurate T&A
Retroactive
payments are caused by upstream
processes. Many payroll
17% payments
organizations struggle with resolving
up stream issues. 8%
2%
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$30.00
$25.00
$21.39
$20.00
$15.00
What is your overall

$10.00
cost per payslip? $6.31
$3.70
$5.00
$-
North APAC EMEA
America
Overall United States
>25K $2.14 >25K $2.16
10K - 24.9K $8.22 10K - 24.9K $4.80
5K - 9.9K $20.70 5K - 9.9K $14.60
1K - 4.9K $16.38 1K - 4.9K $16.43
500 - 999 $30.98 500 - 999 $26.47
<500 $33.60 <500 $28.39
$0 $10 $20 $30 $40 $0 $10 $20 $30 $40
As employee population sizes increases, the cost per pay slip decreases, commonly due to economies of scale.
29
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$250
$193
$200 $171
$150 $137
What is your cost per $110
employee served for $100
managed services?
$50
$-
Insourced Managed services Comprehensive Overall
Many organizations believe they can reduce cost by outsourcing payroll. Processing payroll in-house is typically the lowest-cost solution.
Organizations don’t outsource to lower cost; it’s typically to decrease risk, avoid building the capability in-house because it’s hard to
manage, or because of technology limitations.
Managed services by geography Managed services by employee population
LATAM $530 >25K $80
10K - 24.9K $214

EMEA $483
5K - 9.9K $678
APAC $146 1K - 4.9K $577
North America $117 500 - 999 $1,133
<500 $678
United States $112
$0 $500 $1000 $1500
30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
$250
$200 $193
$171
What is your cost $150 $137
per employee served $110
when insourced? $100
$50
$-
Insourced Managed services Comprehensive Overall
Insourced by geography Insourced by employee population
>25K $65
EMEA $198
10K - 24.9K $188
APAC $138
5K - 9.9K $280
North America $106 1K - 4.9K $465
500 - 999 $709

United States $100
<500 $971
$0 $100 $200 $300
$0 $500 $1000 $1500
* Regions not included did not provide a statistically significant sample
31
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North America EMEA APAC LATAM

From the time you 3%
4%
begin working on a
regular payroll to the 10%
10% 12% 15% 12%
More than 9 days 12% 17%
17%
15% 25%
time it is confirmed, 28% 14% 25%
6 to 9 days 28%
how many days does
25% 22%
it typically take to 4 to 5 days
25%
37% 34%
complete the process ? 2 to 3 days
17% 33%
50%
Fewer than 2 days 15%
Overall, more than 30 percent report it takes more than four days to complete payroll processing. More than 30 percent report it takes more than four days to complete payroll
processing. Respondents in North America have the shortest duration, with less than 8 percent responding more than six days, where EMEA and APAC have more than 34 percent
going more than six days. This is likely because EMEA and APAC respondents largely outsource payroll using a managed or comprehensive service model, which typically requires an
elongated processing time.
Oftentimes, the pay frequency factors into the duration, where monthly allows for a longer runway, as compared with biweekly.
Regions outside of North America largely pay

North America 49% 13% 20% 18% their employees monthly, which commonly
Which pay frequencies aligns to an employee contract. Largely due
LATAM 4% 70% 22% 4%
do you currently to the complexity of the Fair Labor Standards
process as part of your EMEA 5% 91% 3% 1% Act (FLSA), the United States largely pays their
regularly scheduled employees biweekly to align with the definition
APAC 6% 82% 8% 4% of a work week and to simplify the calculation
payroll runs?
of overtime.
Biweekly Monthly Semimonthly Weekly
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Manually entering or loading payroll inputs 30%
What is the most

time-consuming aspect
of processing
each payroll?
Entering adjustments 20%
Manually entering or loading payroll inputs

Reconciling inputs to source 19%
EMEA 45%
Loading and correcting T&A 19%

APAC 45%
LATAM 40%
Reconciling gross to net 8%
North America 20%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Entering employee demographic data manually 4%

EMEA, APAC, and LATAM respondents
indicated they had more than 40 percent of
their effort tied to manual data loads. This 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
is not unusual because these regions typically
have a higher volume of payroll vendors with a Respondents indicated that manually entering or loading inputs is the most time-consuming aspect of processing each
lack of consolidation and standardization. payroll. Organizations can consider implementing robotic process automation (RPA) to automate time-consuming, manual
tasks to decrease overall processing time.
33
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
How many
employees do Number of employees per payroll FTE
you have per Respondents from APAC and North America average the highest number of employees served per payroll FTE at about 1,100:1, while LATAM and EMEA
payroll FTE? lag behind significantly, averaging about 320:1. Payroll operations within organizations in the United States outpace those across the rest of the world by
almost 600 employees per payroll FTE.
By region U.S. vs. Non - U.S.

1,800 1,800
1,390
1,425
1,112 1,200
1,200
760 813
600
600
341 311
-
-
Global North America APAC LATAM EMEA U.S. Non - U.S.
By industry By employee population

Technology, media, and telecommunications 1,436
25K+ 2,091
Public sector 1,433

10K - 24.9K 932
Life sciences and health care 1,412

5K - 9.9K 903
Consumer and industrial products 1,363

1K - 4.9K 271
Financial services 918
500 - 999 321
Energy and resources 870
Less than 500 32

Professional services 669
0 500 1000 1500 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
34
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Service delivery
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Section 5
Service delivery
Overview
Survey respondents confirmed the growing importance of
developing a global payroll strategy—88 percent of respondents
either have a payroll strategy or have plans to develop a strategy.
This is almost a 40 percent increase from 2018 respondents.
Technology limitations are the most pressing service delivery issues

which respondents face today. Organizations are working to alleviate
these technology limitations through transforming their HR and
payroll organizations.
Sixty eight percent of respondents indicated that their

organization is currently going through either an HR or payroll
transformation.
35
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
100% Since 2018, there has been almost a 40 percent

88%
increase in organizations who have or have plans
Does your organization
to develop a payroll strategy. Organizations are
currently have a payroll
understanding the importance of putting such a
strategy or have plans 49%
50% strategy in place to not only reduce payroll costs, but
to develop a
also migrate towards a global HR and payroll strategy.
payroll strategy?
0%
2020 2018
15%
18% 11%
4%
33%
<5K 5K-24.9K 25K+
49% 74% 96%
Yes Yes, strategy in development No
As organizations expand into several countries, Of respondents with more than 25K
it is necessary to have a overarching strategy for employees, all either have or have
payroll governance and service delivery. plans to develop a payroll strategy.
36
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Organizations understand the value of transforming HR and payroll services. These transformations manifest through vendor consolidation,
implementing new payroll workforce management solutions, or reevaluating outsourcing models.
What are the major
initiatives going on in
your organization now
that impact your 23% 45% 32%
payroll function?
HR transformation
Payroll transformation
Sixty eight percent of respondents are currently going
Other
through an HR transformation or a payroll transformation.
Organizations that are currently going through either an HR or Payroll transformation by industry
HR and payroll transformations are most

34% 25% 13% 8% 7% 6% 5% prevalent among respondents who operate
in consumer and industrial products;
Consumer and industrial products Energy and resources financial services; and technology,
Financial services Life sciences and health care media, and telecommunications.
Technology, media, and telecommunications Public sector
Professional services
37
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
By industry
Financial services 68% 10% 19% 3%

What service delivery
model do you primarily
Technology, media,
follow for payroll? 42% 26% 10% 23%
and telecommunications
Life sciences and health care 31% 7% 31% 31%
Consumer and industrial products 13% 42% 18% 27%
Professional services 12% 29% 59%
Public sector 6% 13% 81%
Energy and resources 20% 60% 20%
Regional Global Local Hybrid of Regional, Local
Financial services and Technology, media, and telecommunications are most commonly delivering payroll regionally. Financial
services organizations have been moving away from local support and have been consolidating services in regional centers. As Technology,
media, and telecommunication organizations expand, they are building shared service center payroll capabilities rather than relying on in-
country support for payroll.
38
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Technology limitations are the

most pressing service delivery
Currently, what are issues which respondents face. Technology limitations 67%
your biggest payroll
service delivery and Respondents are working to
processing challenges? alleviate these technology
limitations through transforming
Resource capacity 13%
their HR and payroll organizations.
Of those respondents who

identified technology limitations
as their biggest service delivery Change management 8%
issue, 56 percent of them are
located in North America.
Organizational structure 6%
Cost 6%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
39
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
United States only
Who is primarily
responsible for 5%
answering payroll 8%
inquiries from
employees?
29% 59%
In the United States, in-country payroll resources

Payroll in-country
handle payroll inquiries.
Outside of the United States, payroll inquiries are the Regional or global shared services
responsibility of a regional or global shared service
center.
Non - U.S HR in-country
The outsourcing of payroll to third-party providers is
minimal. Organizations still view answering payroll Third-party provider
inquiries as a value-added service.
11%
9%
59%
5%
75%
40
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Next-gen
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Section 6
Next-gen
Overview
This section provides an overview of the organizations that are leveraging or considering leveraging next-gen technology
for the 4 key areas below:
Robotics and automation Engagement platform uses metadata, Cognitive engagement

is an enterprise-scalable tool used for rule- tags, and catalogs to transform utilizes predictive decision-making and
based and end-to-end process automation. information into knowledge aligned to natural-like engagement with humans to
employee groupings. execute activities.
Artificial intelligence Cognitive automation and insights

is a platform that completely replicates human executes processes with semistructured
interactions and decision-making, leveraging inputs and utilizes machine learning to
human-like capabilities such as listening, enhance business rules over time.
reading, writing, and analyzing based on data.
41
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Respondents indicated that both their payroll and HR functions are using next-gen technologies the same amount, with 15 percent
indicating their payroll function is currently using them, compared with 14 percent for their HR function. Responses also indicate that
Is your HR or payroll 48 percent of respondents aren’t sure or currently do not have plans to use next-gen technology in their HR function, as opposed to
organization using or 41 percent when responding for their payroll function.
considering the use of
next-gen technology?
Payroll 15% 11% 27% 5% 31% 10%
14% 10% 24% 3% 29% 19%

HR
Currently using Within the next year Between one and three years More than three years Currently not planned Not sure
42
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
While less than 20 percent of organizations are currently using next-gen technology, over 40 percent are planning to use it
within the next three years.
Organizations use next-gen technology to
50%
Is your HR organization improve employee experience, compliance,
43%
using or considering and efficiency.
40%
using next-gen
technology? 30%
Larger organizations with higher transactional
26%
volumes can more easily quantify the cost
19%
20% 17% benefits of next-gen technology, which is likely
13% why they have double the percent using or
10%
10% planning to use.
0%
5K+ 1K-4.9K <1K
Within 3 years Currently using
Fifty nine percent Of respondents that indicate

are considering Engagement platform 66% their HR organization is
leveraging robotics and considering using next-gen
Which next-gen
automation. Robotics technology, 66 percent leverage
technology is your
and automation allow Robotics and automation 59% an engagement platform.
HR organization
for organizations Engagement platforms allow
considering?
to increase the for organizations to increase
effectiveness of their quality, efficiency, and employee
Artificial intelligence 14%
back office through experience.
consistently
Fourteen percent of the
executing processes.
Cognitive automation 9% organizations are considering
and insights using next-gen technology are
utilizing artificial intelligence,
many of which are leveraging
Cognitive engagement 7%
artificial intelligence in tandem
with engagement platforms,
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% which allows organizations to
transact and interact directly
with information.
43
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
60% Forty nine percent of respondents with more than

5K employees indicate they are planning to use next-
49% gen technology in their payroll organization within the
Is your payroll 50%
organization using next three years.
or considering using 40%
next-gen technology? More organizations are currently using or planning to
30% use next-gen technology to support payroll than before.
25%
22% However, payroll organizations are late adopters of
20%
20% 16% next-gen technology.
10%
10%
0%
5K+ 1K–4.9K <1K
Within 3 years Currently using
Seventy two percent of respondents indicated they are considering an engagement platform, while 63 percent are considering robotics
and automation but have not defined a path for getting there.
Next-gen technology allows for

Engagement platform 72% payroll organizations to become
Which next-gen more efficient and effective from
technology is your the front office to the back office.
Robotics and automation 63%
payroll organization A common misconception is that
considering? Cognitive automation organizations need
and insights Cognitive automation “good data” to leverage next-gen
11%
allows for employees and insights technology. However, next-gen
to be self-sufficient technology such as robotics
in resolving payroll- Artificial intelligence 10%
and automation allow for the
related inquiries. creation and maintenance of good
Cognitive engagement data to leverage other next-gen
10%
technologies.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
44
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Automate manual processes 48%

Which payroll
activities use next-
gen technologies?
Consolidate data and load 32%
Answer employee questions 28%
Reconcile data inputs to source 27%

Forty eight percent of
respondents that use next-gen
technologies indicate they use it for
automating manual processes. This
Reconcile gross to net 25%
allows for a significant increase in
payroll compliance and efficiency.
Reconcile taxes 21%

While an integrated system
would eliminate the need to
leverage next-gen technology
for automatically comparing two Reconcile data outputs 19%
systems, there is still no single
HR and payroll technology that
can cover global organizations
with a large country footprint, Compare two systems 19%
especially where the employee
population size is small within
some or all of the countries. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
45
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
By industry
Industries using next- 40%
gen payroll technology 37%
35%
30%
25%
22%
21% 21%
20% 18%
17%
15% 16%
15% 14% 13%
12%
11% 11%
10% 9%
5%
0%
Consumer and Energy and resources Life sciences and Professional services Public sector Technology, media, Financial services
industrial products healthcare and telecommunications
Automate manual processes Answer employee questions
Respondents within financial services Respondents across the industries are fairly
have a clear edge over other industries in comparable in using next-gen technology
using next-gen technologies to automate in answering employee questions, with
manual processes, with a 15 percent consumer and industrial products having a
lead over the industry with the next highest slight edge.
usage.
46
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Employee experience
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Section 7
Employee experience
Employee experience summary
• Respondents in APAC indicate they provide 99 percent of their
workforce electronic online pay slips, while respondents
in North America indicate they provide only 92 percent of their
workforce electronic online pay slips.
• Respondents in North America offer the highest percent of mobile

self-service at 62 percent, while LATAM lags behind at 27 percent.
• Sixty seven percent of respondents indicate they are utilizing

contingent workers, while less than 6 percent indicate they are
paying contingent workers through payroll.
• Only 7 percent of respondents indicate utilizing a daily pay group,

61 percent of this group pays their daily pay group
through payroll.
47
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
By region
What percent of your

workforce currently
receives electronic, 45 %
online pay slips? 99% 97% 95% 92%
52 %
North America LATAM EMEA APAC
Online pay slips are widely adopted By industry

globally across all regions, with
respondents indicating that more Technology, media, and telecommunications 99%
than 95 percent of their
workforce currently receive
electronic online pay slips. Public sector 98%
Within North America, the

consumer and industrial products Financial services 96%
industry lags behind other
industries, with only 88 percent of
respondents employees receiving Energy and resources 96%
electronic pay slips. This is likely due
to a large retail population where
Professional services 96%
employees may not have access to a
computer or mobile device.
Life sciences and health care 94%
Consumer and industrial products 88%
48
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
By region
Mobile
What percent of your North America
62%
Desktop
workforce currently 83%
uses mobile self-service
for payroll (such as 60%
EMEA
time entry, time-off 95%
requests, and viewing
pay slips)?
35%
LATAM
98%
48%
APAC
98%
The majority of employees are continuing to leverage desktops and laptops to manage or access payroll activities (such as time entry,
time-off requests, and viewing pay slips, etc.). However, in EMEA and North America, more than 60 percent of employees are
leveraging mobile platforms.
By industry
The industries utilizing mobile
self-service for payroll activities
are technology, media, and 77% 75%
telecommunications, with at least 67%
60%
77 percent employee adoption. 48% 48%
35%
Technology, media, Public sector Life sciences Consumer and Professional Financial Energy
and telecommunications and health care industrial products services services and resources
49
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sixty seven percent of respondents indicate they utilize contingent workers. There is not a current trend in leveraging a payroll system to
pay contingent workers. Forty percent of respondents are using an accounting group and 34 percent are using a third-party provider
If you have a to pay contingent workers.
contingent worker
40% 34% 19% 6% 1%
group, how do you pay
these workers?
Accounting group Third-party provider Not sure Current payroll system Labor management system
Will the gig economy, a labor

Although a majority of respondents are utilizing contingent workers, only
market characterized by the
15 percent are anticipating engaging more contract workers or are
prevalence of short-term
currently analyzing their workforce needs, indicating the 15 percent are
contracts or freelance work,
looking to expand their contingent workforce.
as opposed to permanent jobs,
affect the way you engage
workers in the future?
Only 7 percent of respondents Respondents indicate only

If you have a daily indicate they utilize a daily pay 16 percent of their workforce
pay worker group, group. Of these respondents, 16%
7% currently utilizes daily pay cards.
how do you pay these 61 percent handle these There is an opportunity to use
workers? payrolls through their
93% alternative pay models to better
What percentage use current payroll systems. address the pay needs of gig and
pay cards?
contingent workers.
84%
50
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
91%
89%
View payslip 88%
Which payroll 94%
employee self-service 82%
transactions do you Update home address
81%
50%
offer online? 76%
76%
77%
Enter time 38%
71%
76%
APAC, EMEA, and North America Request time off
87%
38%
highly leverage employee self-service. 66%
LATAM has the greatest opportunity
to improve their overall self-service 68%
Update banking elections
capabilities. While North America 13%
76%
offers the greatest amount of payment
modeling, each region has the 65%
opportunity to increase this service to 70%
View annual tax documents 25%
their employees. 80%
20%
30%
Update tax elections 0%
76%
21%
Update voluntary deductions 13%
0%
41%
6%
6%
None offered 13%
4%
0%
2%
Payment modeling or simulation 0%
15%

51
Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey | Acknowledgments
For further information

Deloitte Consulting LLP and Deloitte Tax LLP provide a broad range of human resources transformation and employment tax services. These services are designed to accommodate
both large and small employers across an array of industries and geographical markets. Our services are tailored to our client’s specific needs. Using established methodologies
and strategies.
In addition, Deloitte provides services using a multidisciplinary coordinated approach with Human Capital including HR transformation and employee benefits; payroll tax and
accounting; and risk management. This multifunctional approach allows us to provide a dynamic perspective to our clients’ payroll issues through technical experience, thought
leadership, and innovation around core business issues: financial management, risk management and compliance, operational excellence, and transaction effectiveness
For more information on the survey or Deloitte’s Global Payroll and Workforce Management Solutions Practice and Services, please contact:
Brian Proctor Susan E. Leal

Principal | Global Payroll & Workforce Management Managing Director | Global Payroll & Workforce
Solutions Practice Leader Management Solutions Advisory Lead
Deloitte Consulting LLP Deloitte Consulting LLP
Mobile: +1 216 571 6998 Mobile: +1 504 491 4407
[email protected] | www.deloitte.com [email protected] | www.deloitte.com
Tina Juliana - Survey Lead Razeen Lakhani - Project Manager

Senior Manager | Global Payroll Solutions – Implementation Manager | Global Payroll & Workforce
Sub-Lead Management Solutions
Deloitte Consulting LLP Deloitte Consulting LLP
Payroll Benchmarking Survey Lead Payroll Benchmarking Survey Project Manager
Mobile: +1 719 238 5024 Mobile: +1 504 491 4407
[email protected] | www.deloitte.com [email protected] | www.deloitte.com
For a copy of this report, please visit our website at:

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/human-capital/articles/payroll-operations-survey.html
For survey specific questions, please email our US Deloitte Global Payroll Benchmarking Survey
mailbox at: [email protected]
You can also visit our website at www.deloitte.com
52
Acknowledgments
On behalf of Deloitte and our sponsors, the American Payroll Association (APA) and Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI), we would like to thank everyone who contributed their
time, experience, and insights by participating in the survey.
We would also like to thank and acknowledge those Deloitte colleagues who contributed to the overall survey initiative in a big way, including acting as subject matter advisors (SMAs),
designing, developing and running the survey, producing reports, planning speaking engagements and conference participation, writing articles, developing and running our marketing
campaign, and much more: Razeen Lakhani (Project Manager), Cheryl Ouellette and Sapna Ohri (Functional Lead and Support), Charles Williamson, Sayed Gayoor Ahmed, Sumit
Kerara, Akanksha Arora, Satish Kumar Nelanuthula (Technology Lead and Support), Maralou Billig, Alexa Bertrand, Tapasya Bhandari, Karen Grothouse and Saabira Mohamed (Risk and
Internal Process Lead and Support), Jeffrey Gross, Krithika Vidya Madiazhagan and Harish Mummadi (Marketing and Communication Lead and Support), Nick Sanchez and Tyler Hatton
(Data Analysis and Survey Report Leads), Lindsey Elliott, Cheryl Wickstrom and Naina Sabherwal (Presentation Support), Elisabeth Lee and Sukanya Sarkar (Marketing and Design), Rod
Hernandez, Arian Danian, Ronnie Gunstanson, Scott Delmar, Kathryn Charlton, David Zackery and Theresa Valentine (Payroll SMAs). A special thanks to Tyler Hatton and Nick Sanchez
for creating this report.
This publication contains general information only and is based on the

experiences and research of Deloitte practitioners. Deloitte is not, by means of
this publication, rendering business, financial, investment, or other professional
advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional
advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that
may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that
may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor.
Deloitte, it’s affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss
sustained by any person who relies on this publication.
Copyright © 2020 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

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Deloitte Global Payroll

Country Demographics Operations Outsourcing

Three sections could have been taken

Benchmarking (Operations, Outsourcing,

Innovation (Service Delivery, Next-gen Technology

Crucial takeaways from the Global Payroll Survey

The top five areas for improvement:

The bottom line

35% 12% 11% 11%

How many active

The employee population of respondents ranged

Less than 500 44%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

U.S. vs. Non - U.S.

Deloitte is seeing a growth

Regular active (FT and PT) Retirees Contingent/temporary/contractors/consultants Inpats/expats

How many full-time

Less than 500 8

For those respondents who have

How many of each

Payroll Time and

80% Eighty percent of By region

LATAM 67% 33%

17% 14% 10%

Seventy-four percent of respondents are already 61%

APAC EMEA LATAM North America

Timekeeping is largely By employee population By region

1K - 4.9K 58% 28% 7% 7%

500 - 999 63% 25% 9% 3% 14%

Less than 500 38% 43% 3% 16% 25%

APAC EMEA LATAM North America

Payroll The business Shared services Finance

• Accuracy and efficiency metrics continue to be largely tracked by Payroll.

• While late or inaccurate employee, manager, and HR transactions are

• A typical payroll organization employee has 12 years of experience, seven

• Resources supporting payroll spends the most amount of time running

While Payroll has traditionally been evenly split between 2%

HR Finance Shared services Other

60% Regardless of where

2018 respondents 2020 respondents

North America LATAM EMEA APAC

Energy and resources 50% 50%

Consumer and Industrial products 50% 49% 2%

Professional services 40% 54% 6%

Life sciences and healthcare 40% 56% 4%

Public sector 29% 67% 4%

As organizations increase in size, Payroll reports to HR.

5K+ 1K - 4.9K <1K

37% 61% 40% 56% 57% 40%

What metrics do you

Do you charge the

Years of advanced payroll • Talent shortages can be mitigated

More than 25 percent of respondents

Payment errors as a percent of total payroll payments 89%

Not applicable—no deﬁned KPIs 39%

Untimely payroll payments as a percent of 38%

Cost of payroll systems as a percent of total payroll cost 11%

• Seventy three percent of organizations outsource some aspect

• Organizations leveraging a payroll provider for managed services

• Organizations are generally satisfied with their current third-party

• The most-cited improvement areas for vendors are related to

• Larger organizations (more than 5K employees) are largely

• Fifty eight percent of respondents have been with their payroll