We sat down with Stephen Bevan, Sr. Director of Global Payroll, for a practical conversation rooted in what he calls “career payroll”—nearly 30 years of experience running payroll for global organizations across 30+ countries. Stephen walked through how payroll evolved during his career—from cash payments to direct deposit, and from manual processes to modern, electronic operations. He shared tips and tricks on how to go global, build payroll shared services, and scale and optimize payroll over time, along with candid takes on payroll systems and implementation approaches. We also discussed how COVID accelerated modernization, pushing organizations to move faster toward electronic payroll and digital processes.