Payroll Officer

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Payroll Officer to join our busy team on a permanent basis.

The Employment Services department provides payroll, pensions, salary sacrifice, and expenses services to the Trust and client organisations. The post holder is responsible for processing payroll, salary sacrifice, and expenses for allocated account/s, providing day-to-day supervision and training in their own duties to the Payroll Administrators.

Main Duties of the Job

• Responsible for assisting the Payroll Team Leader in the day-to-day supervision of designated Payroll Administrators, the training of new staff, and end-to-end payroll processing.
• Processing payroll, salary sacrifice, and expenses for allocated account/s.
• Working as part of a team to ensure ownership of work for allocated account/s.
• Process payroll in accordance with the Trust's SFI's, internal procedures, account contract requirements, and statutory obligations.
• Deal with escalated queries from Payroll Administrators/Payroll Assistants.

KEY DUTIES

Payroll Processing

• Ensure all requests for payroll processing are fully completed and authorised before actioning and return to the client immediately if not.
• Support the Payroll Team Leader in the day-to-day planning and coordination of workload within client accounts to ensure achievement of payroll deadlines across the team.
• Process payroll and salary sacrifice as per client SLAs, ESR best practice instructions, internal Standard Operating Procedures, and any relevant policies.
• Make accurate and authorised payments, promptly and courteously resolving any queries.
• Maintain payroll-related records including Income Tax, National Insurance, Pensions, Occupational and Statutory Sick and Maternity/Paternity Pay, Adoption leave and Family Tax Credits, and any other relevant payments or deductions.
• Process manual calculations, following internal SOP, based on the above as required including but not limited to tax calculations and net overpayment etc.
• Address escalated queries from Payroll Administrators.
• Apply and adhere to processes and terms and conditions, identifying any anomalies outside of standard process, referring any unknown or ambiguous areas to the Payroll Team Leader.
• Upload data files as per SOP into ESR escalating any issues to the Payroll Team Leader.
• Support the Payroll Team Leader in the production of payroll reports as part of the end-to-end payroll processing in accordance with relevant SOP and checklist instructions.
• Process appropriate reports, schedules, and documents and distribute as required.

Quality Assurance

• Identify and investigate discrepancies, unusual features, or queries at any point in the payroll process and either resolve or refer to the appropriate team member for action if required.
• Validate all output from the payroll process to ensure all payments have been paid correctly.
• Make systematic checks of permanent and temporary changes in accordance with the payroll procedures and undertake periodic ad-hoc quality assurance checks at the direction of the Payroll Team Leader.
• Support the Payroll Team Leader as required to enable the reconciliation of the payroll control accounts and pay advances.
• Support the Payroll Team Leader in end-of-year/start-of-year actions. Ensure compliance with submission of year-end returns including production and distribution of P11Ds and associated end-of-year returns.
• Ensure all documentation is filed in accordance with departmental procedures and that stored material is readily retrievable to respond to queries and for audit purposes.
• Be fully conversant with the effective utilisation of the payroll system, including data entry, system navigation, and report generation.

Account/Customer Service

• Always maintain confidentiality and security of information in accordance with GDPR and internal Information Governance protocols.
• Provide information and if appropriate, advice on all matters related to pay, service conditions, and the NHS Pension Scheme, accurately, promptly, and courteously.
• Ensure payroll information is clearly explained when dealing with clients and ensure queries are handled courteously and confidentially within agreed departmental standards and response times.
• Respond promptly and courteously to all correspondence and enquiries from individuals, statutory bodies, and requests for information from banks, building societies, or other appropriate organisations.
• Attend meetings with client accounts as required.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with client accounts, other individuals of the directorate, other officers of the Trust, colleagues from the NHS Executive, Pension Agency, and officers from other agencies to ensure the delivery of a professional service focused on achieving a high level of customer satisfaction.
• Effectively liaise with Finance colleagues on all matters relating to the payroll function.
• Participate effectively and promptly in the provision and analysis of accurate financial, statistical, and management information.
• As required undertake additional administrative and other duties commensurate with your grade to meet the reasonable needs of the client, as determined by departmental management.

Service Improvement

• Provide ongoing contributions and make recommendations to management for improvements and developments in the payroll systems and procedures.
• Support the Payroll Team Leader by ensuring that any new procedures or policies are implemented within the team.

Administrative Responsibilities

• Provide cover during periods of annual leave/sickness absence.
• Comply with all legal requirements, including the General Data Protection Regulations and Freedom of Information requests.
• Develop skills and competencies of self through training and development activities, ensuring that progress is maintained, and future needs identified and actioned.
• Maintain own compliance with the Trust's mandatory and statutory training requirements.
• Adhere to relevant payroll legislation that governs payroll processing.

Teaching & Training Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day supervision of designated Payroll Administrators.
• As required, allocate work to the Payroll Administrators, monitoring progress and accuracy, ensuring all payroll deadlines are met. Inform any issues immediately to Payroll Team Leader.
• Support Payroll Team Leader by providing payroll training to new/less experienced staff.

Person Specification

Other

• Demonstrable evidence of ability to deliver at pace, managing workload to ensure payroll deadlines are met whilst maintaining a high level of accuracy.
• Able to motivate others to achieve challenging targets.
• Demonstrable evidence of excellent customer service skills and ability to build positive working relationships.

Qualifications

• CIPP qualification and/or NVQ level 4 qualification and/or equivalent qualification and/or equivalent level of experience within a payroll role.

Desirable

• Proven record of continuous professional development.

Knowledge and Experience

• Payroll Experience.
• Detailed knowledge of legislation applicable to payroll.

Desirable

• Significant experience of processing NHS payroll using ESR.
• Previous experience of supervising staff.
• Detailed knowledge of NHS payroll procedures and legislation.

Skills

• High level of attention to detail and accurate data input skills.
• Well-honed analytical skills, confidently able to analyse data to investigate and resolve payroll enquiries.
• Computer literate including the use of Microsoft Office applications Word and Outlook and intermediate level of Excel.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Good level of planning and organisational skills.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer name: Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Address: Jubilee Court, Waterside, St Helens, WA9 1TT

Employer's website