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“Payroll is transitioning from being reactive to being predictive, accurate, and intelligence-driven, forming a cornerstone of the modern HR ecosystem,” says Aditya Tikku, Business Head, Ramco, ASEAN, Greater China & Japan. He explains how Singapore and regional enterprises can leverage AI and automation to simplify complex, multi-country payroll operations.
This article is brought to you by Ramco.
In an increasingly interconnected business environment, payroll has become more than just a monthly task – it’s a strategic function that directly impacts compliance, employee trust, and operational efficiency. For enterprises based in Singapore, especially those managing regional or multi-country payroll, the challenges are both operational and regulatory.
In this article, we speak to Aditya Tikku, Business Head, Ramco, ASEAN, Greater China & Japan to find out how enterprises are shifting from reactive processing to predictive intelligence with Singapore’s payroll leaders navigating rapid regulatory changes, rising employee expectations, and regional complexity.
Singapore’s payroll landscape: Strategic, yet complex
As a regional hub and home to more than 4,200 multinational headquarters, Singapore plays a pivotal role in driving workforce and payroll operations across Asia. The country’s strategic position, diverse workforce, and strong regulatory environment make it an ideal base for managing multi-country operations but also introduces new layers of complexity for HR and payroll leaders.
In this context, payroll has evolved from a transactional back-office function into a strategic, intelligence-driven operation.
As Aditya explains: "Organisations are no longer focused solely on timely salary disbursement; today, payroll is expected to ensure compliance, deliver accuracy, and enhance the overall employee experience.
"Cloud adoption, mobility, and data-driven decision-making have become baseline expectations, and there’s a growing emphasis on integrating payroll seamlessly with broader HR processes to drive workforce insights and strategic outcomes."
Aditya Tikku, Business Head, Ramco, ASEAN, Greater China & Japan
However, Singapore’s position as a regional business hub also means that enterprises often manage diverse employee groups across multiple jurisdictions – each with its own tax laws, labour regulations, and compliance requirements. As a result, payroll operations must balance local precision with regional scalability, creating a need for systems that can adapt quickly to both.
Leaders would then need to stay on top of the accompanying challenges:
#1 Evolving statutory changes
Singapore’s evolving business environment and complex tax regulations have made payroll compliance increasingly challenging for SMEs. Employers must navigate intricate mandatory contributions such as the Central Provident Fund (CPF), Skills Development Levy (SDL), and Foreign Worker Levy (FWL) where non-compliance can lead to costly penalties and legal issues.
To mitigate these risks, many businesses are adopting automated payroll solutions that stay updated with regulatory changes, reducing manual errors, easing HR workloads, and ensuring confidence in payroll operations.
Ramco’s Compliance Portal, Aditya explains, updates rules across 150+ countries automatically, eliminates manual tracking and reduces audit risks — a critical advantage for businesses seeking global consistency.
“This eliminates the need for manual tracking and reduces audit risks while supporting a globally consistent payroll process.”
#2 Fragmented and manual payroll systems
Many enterprises today still rely on manual processes, spreadsheets, and disconnected HR or payroll systems, which slow down payroll cycles and increase the risk of errors. For regional hubs that oversee teams across multiple countries, these inefficiencies compound rapidly.
To address this, businesses are adopting cloud-based, integrated payroll platforms that enable real-time updates, reduce manual intervention, and ensure payroll accuracy across diverse employee groups.
#3 Lack of visibility
Payroll leaders increasingly need actionable insights, not static reports. Limited visibility into payroll data often results in reactive decision-making, missed opportunities for cost optimisation, and poor employee experience.
This means that payroll accuracy is no longer enough – it directly affects employee trust and engagement.
The rise of remote and hybrid work has amplified these challenges. Managing employees across time zones, handling multi-currency payments, and ensuring compliance across jurisdictions require real-time oversight. Without modern systems, SMEs risk delays, miscalculations, and dissatisfaction among employees.
As Aditya highlights, businesses are turning to platforms that offer real-time visibility, multilingual support, and self-service portals – enabling employees to access payslips and resolve queries instantly.
Driving payroll transformation
With the above challenges in mind, this is where Ramco Payce steps in – a cloud-based, AI-powered payroll platform designed to simplify multi-country payroll operations through a single intelligent system.
Built to support both local and regional operations, Ramco Payce helps HR and payroll teams overcome fragmentation, reduce manual errors, and stay ahead of regulatory changes. It ensures accuracy, agility, and transparency across borders – making it a strategic enabler for modern enterprises.
Some key features of Ramco Payce include:
A unified global payroll platform: Ramco Payce handles payroll across multiple countries, reducing fragmentation and manual errors. It offers an all-in-one solution with integrated features and processes, enabling efficient and accurate payroll through streamlined workflows to improve organisational performance, reduce workload, and save time.
State-of-the-art payroll console: The platform simplifies end-to-end payroll tasks in one centralised workspace. HR teams can review inputs, bulk upload data, resolve integration issues, process payroll, verify anomalies, and download reports – all from a single interface.
AI & ML driven reasoning & no-code engine: As Aditya points out, even in a mature market like Singapore, manual errors in payroll remain a challenge – especially for multi-country organisations managing diverse compliance rules.
To tackle this, Ramco Payce’s AI & ML driven reasoning engine identifies anomalies and variances while payroll processing, significantly reducing errors. With that, coupled with a no-code configuration engine, enterprises can quickly adapt workflows and calculations without complex IT interventions, ensuring both speed and accuracy.
Payroll Workspace and BInGO: Tools such as Payroll Workspace and BInGO take payroll insights further: by providing visibility into payroll data, highlighting trends, variances and potential risks. "This empowers leaders to make informed, proactive decisions – from forecasting payroll costs to optimising workforce strategies – instead of reacting to errors after the fact, " Aditya affirms.
Modern employee self-service portal: Ramco’s intuitive portal enhances the employee experience by allowing staff to manage tasks independently. This supports transparency and reduces query handling time for HR teams.
CHIA – AI assistant: Ramco CHIA helps resolve basic payroll queries quickly and efficiently, reducing screen time and allowing HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives.
Most importantly, the Ramco Compliance Portal comes in as a valuable asset with its continuous updates on statutory rules, tax, codes, and payroll regulations across more than 150 countries – ensuring organisations automatically remain compliant even amidst rapidly evolving regulations. "This eliminates the need for manual tracking and reduces audit risks while supporting a globally consistent payroll process," Aditya says.
Beyond the payslip: Hitachi Energy’s success story
While payroll transformation begins with technology, its true value lies in outcomes. Ramco Payce has helped leading enterprises across Singapore and the region modernise their payroll operations – delivering measurable gains in accuracy, compliance, and employee experience.
One standout example is Hitachi Energy, which partnered with Ramco to overhaul its global payroll infrastructure. By adopting Ramco Payce, Hitachi Energy was able to:
- Ensure 100% compliance,
- Harmonise payroll operations,
- Accelerate carve-out execution,
- Enable future-readiness, and
- Integrate seamlessly.
This transformation not only streamlined operations but also empowered Hitachi’s teams to focus on strategic workforce initiatives.
As Aditya emphasises: "Payroll is no longer a back-office, administrative task. It has become a critical driver of HR transformation. With AI and automation, payroll systems now anticipate errors, provide employee self-service, and generate actionable insights.
"This allows HR teams to focus on strategic initiatives such as talent engagement, workforce planning, and employee experience, rather than routine reconciliations.
"In essence, payroll is transitioning from being reactive to being predictive, accurate, and intelligence-driven, forming a cornerstone of the modern HR ecosystem."
As payroll continues to evolve, enterprises in Singapore and across the region have a unique opportunity to rethink how they manage this critical function. With platforms such as Ramco Payce, payroll can move beyond routine processing to become a strategic driver of compliance, accuracy, and employee trust.
Aditya shares: "At Ramco, we are pioneering autonomous payroll – systems that can flag anomalies, recommend corrections, ensure compliance and provide meaningful insights without heavy manual intervention.
"With integrated platforms, multi-country compliance and a no-code low code-based engine for rapid configuration, Ramco is positioning itself as the go-to partner for organisations looking to transform payroll from a transactional necessity to a strategic advantage."
Whether you're managing payroll across multiple countries or navigating Singapore’s fast-changing regulatory landscape, Ramco Payce offers the intelligence, automation, and scalability needed to stay ahead.
Get started on your journey
With payroll coverage for more than 150 countries, generating over 36mn payslips annually for more than 500 large MNCs & Fortune customers, Ramco has been at the forefront of delivering global payroll transformation for more than 25 years.
For more details, write to the team at contact@ramco.com or find out more about Ramco Payce here.
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