Working remotely or from the office offers different benefits, but which is better? Both concepts are part of changing workplaces and rather than choosing a side, workplace cultures should evolve to embrace these new dimensions. The challenge comes in when companies still rely on old software that lacks the flexibility needed to grow – and payroll software is one of the surprising culprits.
Return To Office or Work From Home? It’s not a contest
Tensions between working remotely and in the office are well-documented. Employees treasure their hard-won autonomy, the option to work remotely (WFH), and not being judged by how long they sit at a desk. However, many executives see human contact as the foundation for strong workplace cultures and insist on return to work (RTO) as the way forward.
At first glance, the latter has the momentum. Recently, Microsoft joined the RTO trend by requiring employees to be in the office at least three days a week, while Amazon requires five days a week. Interestingly, business experts warn against rushing back to the previous status quo. The post-pandemic workplace culture grasps how people work at least as much as where they work.
When businesses decide where they want their people, it is recommended to modify their culture without romanticising a style of working that hasn’t existed for quite some time. In fact, many businesses are realising that simply rewinding the clock has consequences, on talent retention, missing goals, and falling morale to legal consequences, especially if they contravene labour laws around due process.
Is the new office the old office?
An office is important, representing the essence of an organisation and providing a common space for its people. Whilst an office is key, businesses must accept that it’s not the same office of a decade ago.
New technologies like video meetings and messaging platforms are changing how people produce results. Many employees embed with customer teams or work on a customer’s schedule, often remotely or at the latter’s offices. Companies are now hiring people for their skills and competitive costs, irregardless of which country they live in. Productive workforces increasingly integrate part-time, contract, and freelance workers.
These changes became embedded during the pandemic years. The battle between RTO and WFH is a misguided attempt to diffuse this tension. Rather, business cultures should evolve to accommodate the new workplace and technology is at the heart of the change. This cultural reconfiguration needs flexible and feature-rich business software, while outmoded software creates more rigidity. Payroll software, a cornerstone of employer-employee relations, is one of the worst holdups.
Traditional payroll software makes it much harder for payroll, HR, and finance staff to align with employees. According to the 2025 Deel Australia Payroll Report, 56% of payroll staff flag inflexible reporting as a major barrier, 41% struggle to respond to employees in a timely manner, and 40% frequently encounter payroll system errors.
More specifically, many point to difficulties managing hybrid, remote, and global workforces. Whilst the office may have changed, there are still payroll teams who say they must keep doing things like they did ten to twenty years ago. That means old and inflexible systems that sit in a corner and grow more isolated from the modern direction their companies are moving in.
The benefit of going cloud-native
A substantial number of companies still use payroll software that is at least 10 years old. This is prehistoric considering the features of cloud-native payroll platforms, such as self-service access, earned wage access, process automation, remote administration, flexible reporting, and automatic legislative and software updates.
With cloud-native software, a payroll administrator can remotely access and process salaries securely. A travelling manager can seamlessly check and approve requests on their smartphone. Executives in charge of finance can examine audit trails and generate custom reports directly. HR staff can automatically enhance talent management systems with payroll data.
Cloud software improves productivity, saves substantially on payroll processing costs (PAYO), and reduces mistakes by 60% (Forrester). It also reduces total cost of ownership, economies of scale create lower usage and licensing costs that companies can easily increase or decrease.
Remote work versus working at the office shouldn’t be competing ideas. They are both part of the new workplace. Companies using modern software platforms enjoy the flexibility to find the right balance for their unique culture and requirements.
The key issue is which parts of the business are lagging and how to improve them. For payroll, the answer is simple, use cloud-native platforms like Deel Local Payroll.
See how Deel Local Payroll helps teams adapt to today’s workplace, book a demo today.