As remote work reshapes how companies build teams, global hiring has moved from an exception to the norm. Developers in India, designers in Estonia, and project managers in South Africa can now collaborate seamlessly, enabled by digital tools that have collapsed geographical barriers. Yet while hiring across borders has become relatively frictionless, payroll systems have struggled to keep pace.
According to Sandra Crous, Managing Director at Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace, the gap between modern hiring practices and outdated payroll infrastructure is increasingly constraining business growth.
“Global talent is now just a few clicks away,” Crous said. “But many payroll systems were designed for a single-country workforce. They simply weren’t built for the complexity of today’s distributed teams.”
Fragmentation Is the Hidden Cost of Global Payroll
Managing payroll across multiple jurisdictions involves navigating different tax regimes, currencies, labour laws, leave policies, and regulatory updates. When payroll platforms cannot handle this complexity, companies are often forced to rely on a patchwork of spreadsheets, local vendors, and disconnected systems.
The result is significant operational drag. Research cited in Forrester’s Is Global Payroll Truly Global? report shows that organisations with international teams use an average of six different payroll tools, with most splitting responsibilities between internal teams and third-party providers. This fragmentation increases the risk of errors, compliance breaches, and payment delays—issues that directly affect employee trust and productivity.
“Businesses want to hire globally, but their payroll setup often slows them down,” Crous noted. “They want consolidation, automation, and confidence that they are compliant everywhere they operate.”
A New Standard for a Global Workforce
In response, a new generation of payroll solutions is emerging—designed specifically for distributed and cross-border teams. Two structural shifts define this evolution.
First is the rise of managed, cloud-native payroll platforms. Rather than maintaining on-premise software, companies now subscribe to systems that automatically update tax and labour law changes, support digital onboarding, and integrate seamlessly with HR and finance tools.
Second is the growing use of Employer of Record (EOR) services. An EOR enables companies to hire employees in countries where they lack a legal entity, handling employment contracts, tax registrations, and regulatory compliance on their behalf.
The most effective model combines both approaches.
“When an EOR is tightly integrated with a modern payroll platform, companies get the best of both worlds,” Crous explained. “They offload legal and administrative complexity while retaining a single, unified system for payroll, reporting, and workforce data.”
Payroll at a Turning Point
Hybrid and distributed teams are now permanent features of the global economy. At the same time, regulatory environments are evolving rapidly, and business leaders expect real-time data, automation, and seamless system integration. Traditional payroll software, built for a different era, is increasingly unable to meet these demands.
“Payroll is at a turning point,” Crous said. “The opportunity to hire talent anywhere is enormous, but it’s exposing just how outdated many payroll systems really are. Cloud-native platforms are addressing challenges that older systems simply can’t solve.”