A conversation with Rafał, Managing Director of BPiON Poland, and Marta Różańska, Payroll Manager: on the state of payroll outsourcing, the challenges shaping the industry, and what it means to build something genuinely better. .
What does this nomination mean to you personally?
Marta Różańska When I heard about the nomination for the team, my first thought was: Finally! We’re being seen. All the heart we put into this work, every day. And I genuinely believe we have a lot to be proud of. We’ve achieved things I’m genuinely proud of: in accuracy, in efficiency, in how we’ve scaled without losing quality. Those results don’t happen by accident. They happen because whole team care deeply about what they do.
And my own nomination, though… that one surprised me.
Rafał Nadolny It didn’t catch me off guard at all. As Marta’s direct manager, I have the privilege of seeing her work up close, every day. I’ve sat in meetings with her: with clients, in difficult moments, when requirements were complex and the pressure was real, and I’ve watched her fight for the client and fight to deliver. Every time. She’s demanding, she plans processes with real precision, and she always, always puts the client first. That consistency is rare.
What makes it work is that we share the same values. And actually, it goes beyond just the two of us. We’ve managed to build a team of people who think alike, who genuinely want to make a difference in how payroll outsourcing is done. Not just to process, but to do it better. That shared mindset is, I think, what makes us who we are.
For BPiON, this nomination validates also a strategic choice we made from the very beginning: that we would build something different. Not just a payroll processing operation, but a service model built on expertise, continuity, and genuine partnership.
What does the future of payroll outsourcing look like, and what role will technology and AI play?
Rafał Nadolny Technology is already reshaping what payroll outsourcing looks like, and AI will accelerate that significantly. We’re seeing automation handle tasks that once required substantial manual effort: data validation, anomaly detection, compliance checking. With advanced Time & Attendance solutions, we’ve helped clients move from monthly to annual working time settlement cycles, giving them far better oversight of workforce costs and real optimisation of overtime. Digital contract generation with SMS-based signing saves up to 90 minutes per employee per year. Scaled across a large organisation, that’s a genuine operational advantage.
AI will push this further. We’ll see smarter compliance monitoring, predictive analytics, and intelligent flagging of regulatory changes before they become problems for clients.
But here’s what I genuinely believe: technology will make payroll faster and more accurate, it will not replace the need for trusted human relationships. Our clients don’t just want correct payslips. They want a partner who understands their business, anticipates their challenges, and is reachable when something unexpected happens. The long-term partnerships we’ve built, and the below-5% churn we maintain, come from that human layer. Technology enables it. People sustain it.
What are the biggest challenges facing payroll today?
Marta Różańska Regulatory complexity, without question. Compliance is something you monitor actively, interpret correctly and implement quickly. Not just a a checkbox you tick once a year.
Another major challenge is data quality. Payroll sits at the intersection of HR, finance, and operations. When data doesn’t flow cleanly between those functions, the payroll team absorbs the consequences: chasing approvals, correcting inputs, managing last-minute changes. A significant part of my work with clients is actually upstream of payroll: redesigning workflows so that data arrives accurately and on time. The payroll run itself becomes straightforward when the upstream process is clean.
And then there is the talent challenge. Finding people who combine deep technical payroll knowledge with strong client communication is genuinely hard. It’s why we invest so heavily in internal development, 87% of our team participated in training last year, averaging 18 hours per person annually. This is what holds quality together as you scale. Treating it as optional is how things start slipping.
Rafał Nadolny I’d add the challenge of rising expectations. Clients increasingly understand that payroll outsourcing should deliver more than accuracy, it should deliver insight, efficiency, and strategic support. That raises the bar for providers significantly. You can no longer differentiate on compliance alone. You have to prove measurable business value.
At BPiON, we’ve responded by embedding ourselves more deeply into client operations, by redesigning workflows together, integrating systems, taking genuine ownership of outcomes rather than simply executing instructions. The other challenge is managing growth without losing the quality that drives trust. As we’ve scaled to over 100 professionals, maintaining the feel of a specialist partner, rather than a large, anonymous supplier, has required constant investment in people and continuity.
What achievements are you most proud of at BPiON?
Marta Różańska More than any metric, I’m proud of how this team worked to make it happen. We built a team that is cohesive, proactive, and genuinely hungry to learn. People who don’t wait to be told what to do, who take ownership, who grow. Several team members stepped into expanded roles this past year. Two managers developed entirely from within. In a field where burnout and turnover can be real problems, that kind of stability and growth doesn’t happen by chance. When your people thrive, your clients feel it. The two are completely inseparable.
Rafał Nadolny Building a service model that clients consistently describe as an extension of their own team. That phrase comes up repeatedly in conversations and feedback, and it tells me that what we’ve built isn’t just operationally solid, it’s genuinely valued. The NPS of 74.47 reflects that. So does the retention.
But the moment I find most meaningful is when a client who came to us with a painful, manual, error-prone payroll process looks back eighteen months later and says: this just works now. We removed the noise. We redesigned the workflow. We made payroll invisible in the best possible way: something they no longer have to worry about. That is the goal. And when we achieve it consistently, it’s deeply satisfying.
How do you see the role of payroll evolving: from back-office function to strategic asset?
Rafał Nadolny Payroll has always been strategically important, the consequences of getting it wrong are immediate. What’s changing is the recognition of its strategic value. CFOs and HR leaders are increasingly looking at payroll data not just for compliance, but for workforce cost modelling, planning, and real-time decision-making. When payroll integrates cleanly with HR and finance, when you can model overtime costs across annual cycles, when you can see the financial impact of workforce changes immediately, that becomes a strategic tool, not a back-office function. Our job as a payroll partner is to help clients unlock that potential. Not just to process, but to illuminate.
What advice would you give to a business considering outsourcing payroll, or to someone early in a payroll career?
Rafał Nadolny To any business thinking about outsourcing: don’t choose a provider. Choose a partner. The difference is fundamental. A provider takes your process and runs it. A partner takes ownership of the outcome, and that means asking hard questions, redesigning what needs to be redesigned, and being proactive when things change. Ask yourself: does this team understand my business? Will they tell me something I need to hear before it becomes a problem? If yes, you’ve found a partner. If not, you’ve found a vendor. In payroll, that distinction carries real risk.
Marta Różańska To anyone starting out in payroll: take it seriously, but don’t let it intimidate you. The technical knowledge is learnable. What will truly set you apart is how you communicate: with colleagues, with clients, with leadership. Payroll professionals who can translate complexity into clarity, who can explain a regulatory change in plain language, who can build trust under pressure, those are the people who become indispensable. And never stop learning. This field changes constantly. The people who thrive are curious, adaptable, and never assume they know everything. I certainly don’t and that’s what keeps the work genuinely interesting.
Rafał Nadolny, Managing Director, BPiON Poland
Rafał has extensive experience in optimizing accounting, HR and payroll processes for multinational clients, with a focus on improving outsourcing solutions and adapting them to client expectations. A graduate of law at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, he also completed post-graduate studies at the University of Economics in Kraków. He has implemented outsourcing projects for entities from the SSC/BPO sector, global consulting companies and Fortune 500 corporations.
Marta Różańska, Client Service Director
Marta is driven by creating value for clients through streamlining accounting, HR and payroll processes and continuously adapting services and systems to their expectations. As a manager, she invests as much in her team as in her client: building a culture of shared values, open communication and continuous development. The result is a team clients consistently describe as proactive, advisory-driven and a true extension of their own organisation.
