Optima Plus Recruitment are currently seeking for a Payroll & People Advisor, for a fixed term contract untill June 2024.

Up to £28,432 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Please note this is a fixed term contract opportunity until 30th June 2024. You will be required to attend the office, in Chelmsford typically 1 day a week, the remainder of the week can be worked remotely. 

The Payroll service sits within the People and Transformation function. To influence both the customer and employee experience in a key area of employee engagement. Providing a comprehensive service, investing in a new technology to better support our users and enable an empowered self-service and support function.

The Payroll & People Advisor will provide a high-quality payroll and a customer focused transactional service. Using a depth of business knowledge in dealing with a high volume of diverse transactions and working to strict deadlines. With responsibility for resolving payroll queries and performing an analytical processing role within one or more payroll disciplines.

You will provide support and resolutions quickly and efficiently at the first point of call. Our ethos is to provide advice, support and guidance that is simple, clear, efficient, and effective, this includes communication, terminology, and our processes.

We are looking for someone with a strong understanding of HMRC statutory absence legislation, also knowledge of tax, national insurance, LGPS and Teachers pension regulation contributions and system knowledge to undertake user acceptance testing.

Accountabilities

• Responsible for ensuring data input is accurate to ensure payments and deductions are correctly administered, in line with statutory and contractual requirements e.g. Pensions contributions. Where possible supporting and guiding employees in using self-service.
• Responsible for resolving complex payroll queries to ensure timeframes are met within agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Responsible for payroll processes generating payments to employees and third parties, along with associated internal/external statutory reporting.
• Support the requirement for ensuring the integrity and security of personal, contractual and financial information, to meet legislation and Council policies.
• Work collaboratively within a team, to ensure work is processed and delivered to a high standard, ensuring quality of outputs.
• Responding effectively to customers’ enquiries in a timely and professional manner and meeting service standards, this can be via the customer portal, in writing, or verbally in a call or meeting.
• Supports the drive to improve the service and quality of outputs and system testing to ensure customer expectations are exceeded.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Educated to RQF level 3 (GCSE) or equivalent by experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and knowledge in relevant professional area, working towards a CIPP qualification.
• Experience of using payroll systems to deliver a high quality service.
• Good working knowledge of payroll processes including statutory payments, deductions and pension schemes.
• Working collaboratively with colleagues to deliver good practice and advice on policy.
• Ability to communicate effectively, demonstrating empathy, listening and questioning skills to a very high level, with a high standard of written communication.
• Experience of working in a customer-orientated environment, dealing with queries in a service delivery setting and continuously seeking to improve the services provided.

Optima Plus Recruitment is proud to be Disability Committed. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

As part of employment with our client should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained.