{"id":22283,"date":"2023-05-31T21:35:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T14:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humanica.com\/?p=22283"},"modified":"2026-10-26T14:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T07:21:13","slug":"how-to-optimize-multi-country-payroll-customer-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanica.com\/en\/how-to-optimize-multi-country-payroll-customer-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-country payroll optimization: Customer Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Managing a multi-country spanning payroll operation is a complex and time-consuming task for multinational organizations. With different regulatory requirements, tax laws, and employment practices, it becomes challenging to ensure accurate and compliant payroll processing. One of our customer, COMO Group, experienced these issues and found a solution to overcome them: multi-country payroll outsourcing with Humanica.<\/em><\/p>\n

COMO Group eases multi-country payroll burden with outsourcing<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The customer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Company:<\/strong> Como Group is a Singapore-based company operating businesses in the luxury & kids fashion retail, hospitality, wellness, and F&B sector. The company employs now over 3500 employees in countries across Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n

Business lines:<\/strong> <\/strong>Kids and Luxury Fashion Retail, F&B, Hospitality, Wellness, Specialty Products<\/p>\n

Employees: <\/strong>3500 worldwide<\/p>\n

Established:<\/strong> in 1972<\/p>\n

Locations: <\/strong>15 hotels worldwide, 400 retail stores across Asia and the UK<\/p>\n

Project Goal: <\/strong>
\u2013 Compliance to statutory requirements around payroll and tax for all locations
\u2013 Be in line with different employment practice in Asia.<\/p>\n

\"Customer<\/figure>\n

Key Achievements<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u2714<\/th>\nConsolidating payroll activities with one vendor that has the expertise to manage payroll and tax in 10 Asian locations<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2714<\/th>\nStandardized and consistent payroll processes to reduce errors and inconsistencies<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2714<\/th>\nBeing able to scale with the same vendor when new locations are added<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2714 <\/th>\nBetter Employee Service<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2714 <\/th>\nNo longer having to worry about their multi country payroll operation<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

A 50 years- spanning business history and success <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Como Group is a Singapore-based conglomerate that boasts a diverse portfolio of businesses spanning various industries. It represents an integrated approach to living well, celebrating diversity and authenticity. Founder Christina Ong, started out with opening high-end boutique Club 21 in 1972. Over the course of three decades, Club 21 flourished into a network of 400 stores across Asia carrying more than 250 renowned brands. In 1997, the fashion retail portfolio expanded with the addition of Kids 21, a family lifestyle destination present in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Thailand. <\/p>\n

The group\u2019s hospitality arm began in 1991 with the opening of The Halkin<\/a> hotel in London<\/a>, England in 1991. Today, Como Hotels & Resorts operates 15 properties in Bhutan, Indonesia, Italy, Australia, Thailand, the Maldives, the UK, and Turks, and Caicos Islands. Additionally, the group introduced COMO Shambhala, an acclaimed wellness concept embodying the profound meaning of \u2018Peace\u2019 in Sanskrit. Combining modern scientific approaches with time-honored practices, COMO Shambhala actively promotes proactive holistic wellness and has earned numerous accolades. \u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

Food has held a special place of interest within Como Group, dating back to the launch of the Armani Cafe in London in 1989. In 2002 and 2007, respectively, purveyor of fine foods Culina and organic marque SuperNature came under the umbrella of the Group, cementing its reputation in the fields of F&B in Singapore and abroad.\u200b <\/p>\n

Notably committed to giving back to the community, the COMO Group has actively engaged in charitable causes since 2003. Collaborating with over 60 organizations they have diligently worked in closing to bridge the opportunity gap for women and girls, leaving a significant impact on the lives of more than 41 million individuals across 51 countries. <\/p>\n

The complexities of running a multi country HR and payroll operation <\/em><\/h5>\n

Having a 50 years spanning business history, operating in various business lines with multiple branches across different continents, serving customers on a global scale, the company employs over 3500 worldwide, the majority of them across Asia. As COMO Group expanded their business locations and workforce, so did the complexity in their HR and payroll management. Each country where the group opened a new retail store or resort had its own unique statutory requirements around tax and payroll, reporting and employment practice. Navigating Asia\u2019s very complex legislation and payroll practices became one of their biggest complexities, leaving the team struggling to keep up with the diverse regulations across multiple countries. <\/p>\n

Consuming countless hours and resources to verify payroll and tax data against local regulations and fixing inconsistencies in a manual process was not uncommon for the COMO HR team. The team grew frustrated with the lack of efficiency in handling the intricacies involved in managing payroll across multiple countries and their inability to provide a better employee service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that we needed to improve that efficiency for our HR team and also provide better services to our employees to ensure we pay them correctly, on time and in compliance with local statutory requirements.\u201d Eswaran Nadarajah, COMO Group HR Director<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With that in mind, the HR team embarked on a journey to try and improve the operation and efficiency in which they conduct their payroll activities in different geographies.<\/p>\n

Finding the right vendor<\/em><\/h5>\n

Having certain expectations, the team spoke to many service providers in order to assess who could best service their vision of payroll efficiency and compliance with statutory regulations. Some non-negotiable vendor evaluation criteria were:<\/p>\n