Rolling out Success Factors, Oracle or Workday in Singapore? What does this mean for the local HR team

By Scott Thomson – COO, Links International

HR Transformation in Singapore through Success Factors, Oracle or Workday HCMs

There’s an increasing number of clients in Singapore who are rolling out Tier 1 HRIS and HCM (SAP / Success Factors, Oracle or Workday) in Singapore as a result of their US or European headquarters’ HR transformation initiatives, or local HR initiatives. A lot of the HR teams we work with in Singapore don’t know how the roll out of the new HCM impacts them and what they need to understand and prepare for the roll out in Singapore. Apart from getting access to a shiny new system, one of the biggest things to be aware of is how this will change your calculation of payroll in Singapore.

Processing payroll in Singapore using Success Factors, Oracle or Workday

From a Singapore perspective, one of the most important things to understand is that all of these HCM either:

• Have no payroll processing ability in Singapore (e.g. Workday); or
• If they support Singapore payroll (and wider Asia), purchasing the payroll processing system or module for Singapore will be extremely expensive compared to your existing local payroll system.

This means that to process payroll in Singapore with a 1^st tier HCM in a cost-effective manner you basically have 2 options:

1. Purchasing or maintaining a separate Singapore-based payroll system, then integrating the system with your tier 1 HCM and performing your payroll administration in-house; or
2. Engaging a payroll outsourcing company in Singapore and leveraging their system, integration and skills

If you are truly after cost-effective HR transformation that elevates your HR function’s impact in the business, then engaging with a payroll outsourcing provider in Singapore is your best option. Removing your team’s time spent working on payroll administration and leveraging the payroll service provider’s existing HCM, system integration and specialist expertise is going to save you a lot of cost and give you a ton more time to focus on HR initiatives that change the business.

For example, given that most payroll service providers in Singapore include the payroll processing system in their service fees, the cost you would have spent on purchasing and maintaining a payroll system in Singapore and the integration with your tier 1 HCM can instead be used to give you more time by outsourcing your payroll processing. What could you do with more time in the day?  It’s an easy choice!

How does integration between SAP, Success Factors, Oracle, Workday and a payroll provider in Singapore work?

SAP, Success Factors, Oracle and Workday have standard integrations that enable payroll service providers to integrate their payroll processing systems with Tier 1 HCMs, so that payroll service providers in Singapore can retrieve relevant information (such as new joiners, terminations, etc.) from the tier 1 HCM, process the Singapore payroll based on this information and also import the payroll system back into the tier 1 HCM.

At a high level, the integration is relatively simple and straight forward. In short, the tier 1 HCM is set up to export any information that impacts payroll to a secure server. The payroll service provider then collects the information and imports it into their payroll processing system and runs the payroll.  Once complete, the payroll service provider can then export the information back into the secure server where it is then imported back into the tier 1 HCM, to ensure that the HCM has a record of the payroll information.  See an example flow diagram below:

Selecting a payroll processing provider in Singapore

When selecting a payroll processing provider in Singapore, it’s important to do your homework and ensure your payroll processing provider is future-proof. Outside of your usual due diligence questions, payroll specific questions you should ask include:

• Success Factors, Oracle or Workday integration – Can the payroll processing provider integrate with Success Factors, Oracle, Workday or your company’s specific HCM? What part of the integration will they take responsibility for?
• Regional footprint – What is the payroll outsourcing provider’s regional footprint like?  Are they going to be able to support you in most of the countries in which you operate?
• In-country support – Does the payroll outsourcing provider’s support sit in country?  Or is the support going to be offshored to cheaper locations, e.g. India or the Philippines? Can you physically meet someone if needed in an urgent situation? Having in-country support gives you the peace of mind that you can always reach a local payroll expert when needed.
• Data hosting and security – From where will the payroll data be hosted?  How secure is the data?  Does the provider have the security accreditation, e.g. ISO27001?
• Value added services – Does the payroll service vendor provide any additional value add HR services, such as employment visa applications, PEO/dispatch employment, recruitment in Singapore? Having a single HR service provider can greatly simplify the outsourcing of your HR administration.

If you are looking for HR Outsourcing Services in Singapore, Links International is an industry leader in innovative HR outsourcing with services such as payroll solution, visa application, PEO/EOR Secondment, outplacement counselling, recruitment and more! Contact us for more information on how we can help leverage your HR function.