Payroll problems rarely show up in week one. They show up in month three, when the first statutory filing deadline is missed, or a new hire's contract turns out not to meet a local minimum-terms requirement nobody checked. By then it's a compliance issue with a paper trail, not a quick fix. Almost all of it is avoidable by asking a short list of questions before the first payslip goes out, not after.
What counts as compensation, locally
Base salary is rarely the whole picture. Many markets have mandatory thirteenth-month payments, statutory bonuses tied to tenure or company performance, or end-of-service gratuity calculated on a formula that has nothing to do with how the contract is written. Ask what's legally required before you build the offer, not after someone's already signed it.
What benefits are mandatory, not optional
Health insurance, pension contributions and paid leave entitlements vary sharply by jurisdiction, and what's a competitive perk in one market is a legal minimum in another. Treating a statutory requirement as a nice-to-have is one of the fastest ways to end up non-compliant without realizing it.
Who actually owes the tax, and when
Withholding obligations, employer social contributions and filing deadlines differ by region and sometimes by employee residency status within the same region. Get specific: what's withheld from the employee, what's an additional employer cost on top of salary, and what's the actual filing calendar, not just "quarterly" in general terms.
What a compliant contract actually requires
Minimum notice periods, probation length limits, permitted grounds for termination, and required contract language all vary by jurisdiction. A contract template that's fine in one region can be unenforceable, or expose the business to real liability, in another.
Who's responsible for getting this right
This is the question that matters most before you scale into a new region: is there one team accountable for getting all of the above correct, or is it split across a payroll vendor, a local accountant and an internal HR generalist who's stretched across five other markets already? Fragmented ownership is where most payroll compliance actually breaks down, not the complexity of any one region's rules.
TPG runs payroll and HR admin as one accountable service across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and North America.
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