Trainee Payroll Administrator

Payroll and Pensions, Human Resources and Organisational Development

The Aspire Educational Trust

Grade 4 starting at £21,189. Full-time, 37 hours per week, permanent

Job summary

Do you want to join an innovative, primary multi academy Trust who are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated, administrator wanting to further develop their qualifications and experience in the payroll field?

About us

The Aspire Educational Trust is based in the Cheshire & Manchester area and currently has 12 Primary academies.  Our Trust community is our most important asset and the payroll & pensions function is a vital role in ensuring our staff are paid effectively and efficiently. The Trust’s central team staff work closely with each other and with colleagues across the Trust to facilitate this.

What we’re looking for

We’d love to hear from people who…

• Have some Payroll Administrator experience and the desire to develop a career in the Payroll/pensions field
• Are proactive, organised, and reliable
• Are great at resolving payroll queries
• Have good payroll system skills and experience of an integrated HR/Payroll system (we use iTrent)
• Have good Excel skills and experience of using VLOOKUP
• Love working as part of a team who fully support each other
• Are keen to undertake further training to develop their payroll admin skills and qualifications

Experience of Teachers Pay and Conditions, Local Government Green Book terms

and conditions, Teacher’s Pension and LGPS schemes would be beneficial but not essential.

As Payroll Administrator, you will be joining our friendly Central team who will fully support you to be successful in this role

The salary is competitive starting at £21189 per annum with annual incremental increases and comes with a range of benefits including 33 days paid holidays (rising to 34 days from April 2023 and to 38 days after 5 years’ service), superb defined benefit Local Government pension Scheme, family friendly policies and staff support networks. The Trust will provide continuous professional development via Apprenticeship training/other suitable training programmes.

The Trust Head Office is based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, however, we trust our teams to determine the most effective work environments for them and like to offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible. This role can be carried out either working from home or from one of our academy bases or a mixture of both.

Our monthly payroll is run by a third party provider and the Payroll Administrator will liaise with them to ensure the administration of our payroll and pensions are dealt with promptly and correctly according to Trust policies, procedures, Education staff T&C’s and external statutory legislation.

Your priorities will include:

• Inputting/checking payroll data for new employees on monthly payrolls
• Processing leavers and calculating Holiday pay adjustments
• Preparing and checking data prior to input on the HR/payroll system
• Administration of Statutory/Occupational payments such as Maternity/Shared Parental leave
• Processing and checking of salary changes
• Monthly housekeeping checks
• Provision of payroll data to the Finance team monthly and in line with audit requirements
• Responding to pay related queries from our school staff

To apply for this post, please download an AET Support Staff Application form from our website: Aspire Educational Trust – Vacancies and send your completed application form to [email protected]. The job description and Person specification are also available to download from this site.

The deadline for applications is midnight (UK time) on Friday 20^th January 2023.

Shortlisting on Monday 23^rd January 2023

Interviews Friday 27^th / Monday 30th January 2023

The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to satisfactory references, medical checks, right to work in UK and safeguarding checks (including enhanced DBS and a declaration of disqualification (Childcare Disqualification regulations 2009)

We are looking for an experienced Payroll & Finance officer to take end-to end responsibility for payroll and pensions for approximately 260 staff within the school as well as financial support for the School staff, parents and pupils. The successful candidate will enjoy getting to the bottom of queries and discrepancies, be a confident systems user and be able to demonstrate the importance of teamwork as part of a small busy team.

As the role is responsible for ensuring compliance with payroll and pensions legislation the individual should be used to refreshing their own knowledge and be proactive in ensuring processes, systems and communications are updated accordingly.

The role a member of the small finance team and the Payroll and Finance officer will carry out other tasks such as reconciliations and transaction processing. Training will be provided on specific tasks although spreadsheet skills and experience are required.

Training in the use of the specific software and the pension schemes will be provided via a combination of on-the job training from line managers supplemented with attendance on appropriate training courses.

Responsibilities

Payroll

• Accurately processing monthly payroll to deadline liaising with heads of department to obtain relevant information.
• Updating payroll system for starters, leavers, changes in contracts. Including the outcome of the Annual payroll review.
• Manual calculations of pay adjustments.
• Communication with staff as they join the school, when resolving queries, and issuing periodic personalised letters e.g. annual pay review.
• To work closely with the HR administrator to ensure complete and accurate data.
• Communicating with internal IT team and the helpdesk of payroll software provider where required.
• Responsibility for all returns to HMRC in respect of pay and benefits including P11Ds.
• Processing payroll journals, departmental recharges etc. to the nominal ledger.
• Ensuring processes, systems and communications reflect the changes as a result of legislation, benefits offered etc.
• Producing payroll control account reconciliations and resolving reconciling items.

Pensions

• Maintenance of payroll information such as pension scheme membership in the payroll system and issuing relevant letters.
• Enrolling staff into the relevant pension schemes.
• Submitting regular reports and payments to pension providers.
• Complying with automatic enrolment legislation and communicating changes with staff.
• Updating the payroll system for changes to pension provision including complex Teachers’ Pension Scheme and liaising with software provider.

Financial Support

• Reconciliation of control accounts. Recording transactions for cost recovery centres such as school trips and reporting of balances.
• Processing financial transactions to the accounts system: such as journals & bank transactions.
• School Visits: Control of the financial aspects of trips; arranging for collection of payments from pupils and ensuring that internal procedures are adhered to and that all costs are adequately controlled.
• Online Payment system used by parents: Communicating with Parents and Staff about the use of ParentPay – the online payment system used to pay for school lunches, school visits and other items.
• Assisting in the production of schedules to support the annual statutory accounts in preparation for audit.

Finance Team Tasks

• Dealing with telephone enquiries from parents and outside agencies, and taking subsequent action as required.
• Analysis of transactional information.
• Assisting in the annual process of ensuring all academic departments have books and materials at the start of the academic year.
• Dealing with pupils, parents, school visitors, covering for absent staff.
• Other duties as required in a small, busy team environment.

Salary Range: Starting salary £49,549

Our pay band range for this post is £49,549 –  £63,200, our career banding framework allows movement through the bands on an annual basis following an assessment of your capability and competence.

About us

The ICO is the UK’s independent regulator for information rights, promoting data privacy for individuals and openness in public bodies. We regulate under a wide range of legislation, including responsibilities for data protection and freedom of information.

The ICO’s work is of national importance and increasingly in the public eye. To deliver this we need to attract and retain skilled staff, ensuring that we provide the right pay, rewards and benefits to effectively compete in the labour market, which are delivered in an effective and accurate manner.

About the Role

We are seeking to recruit a Pay and Reward Business Partner to lead our work in this area. It’s both a strategic and operational role, demanding excellent attention to detail, strong contract management skills and strategic vision.

The post holder will ensure that the ICO has effective pay and reward strategies and mechanisms in place to meet the needs of the organisation. This will require strategic insight and knowledge of pay and reward frameworks in the public sector.

The Pay and Reward Business Partner will engage with stake holders such as senior managers, trade unions, our sponsor department and the Treasury, and will need to have the skills to influence and advise stakeholders, develop business cases, present ideas and solutions to identified risks, ensure our policies and procedures align with our strategic aims, write reports and conduct negotiations.

The successful candidate will also manage our relationships with our payroll, pensions and benefits providers, ensuring that processes are completed accurately and on time. This requires a hands on approach to the exchange of information, ensuring that data exchanges and outputs are precise, and working alongside colleagues in People Services to ensure that services are delivered to a high standard.

About You

You will need to have experience in a pay and reward environment, and able to demonstrate the effective delivery of exceptional services through third party suppliers. As a leader of people, you will have the skills to lead, inspire and add value to your team to enable them to achieve their objectives.

You will have up to date knowledge of public sector pay and pension arrangements, and relevant legislation and best practice within HR, pay and reward, combined with excellent attention to detail and communication skills.

Closing date 23:59, Tuesday 9 November 2021

Why work for the Information Commissioner’s Office

Here are a few of the valuable rewards that you will enjoy:

Flexible working hours, including flexi leave.
Civil Service Pension arrangements.
25 days’ paid holiday a year with options to buy, sell, and bank days.
Extra “privilege” days in addition to normal public holidays.
Compressed working hours options.
Excellent learning and development opportunities.
Health cash plan.
Colleague assistance scheme.
Access to many discounted products and services.
Welfare and family-friendly policies.
Staff medical scheme and eyesight testing.
Please note if you are appointed to work with the ICO you will be required to complete security clearance processes. These include identity and qualification checks and a Basic Disclosure level check of unspent criminal convictions.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The ICO is committed to promoting and enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion. We are focused on developing a workforce that is representative of the communities we serve and together we are building an inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference.

We are championing this through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board together with a number of staff networks. To find out more visit ico.jobs.

We welcome and encourage applicants from all members of the community regardless of gender, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, marital status, pregnancy or any other personal circumstances.

To demonstrate our commitment to equality of opportunity in employment in Northern Ireland, we monitor the community background of our applicants and employees, as required by the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998.

We are dedicated to ensuring our recruitment and selection processes are fair and inclusive and enable everyone to showcase their individual talents. Our HR team are happy to discuss any additional support you may need at any stage and will make reasonable adjustments according to your needs. Disabled applicants are guaranteed an interview, if they meet the minimum criteria for the role.

At the ICO we support a number of flexible working arrangements and we are happy to discuss your personal needs or preferences during the recruitment process.

If you are disabled and have difficulty using our online application system please email the HR team at [email protected] who can arrange for you to submit an application via an alternative method.

In this new role that has developed due to continued growth, we are now recruiting for an experienced Payroll Manager to join our fast-paced Payroll team based in our friendly, Head Office in Stockport town centre, just 5 minutes’ walk from the central train station. This would be a great opportunity for someone who has a passion or interest in working in Payroll for a not-for-profit organisation and is looking for a long-term role where they can be part of a team. The successful candidate will oversee the timely and accurate processing of one of our monthly payroll’s and will directly report to The Head of Payroll and work in close partnership with two other payroll managers who oversee both a weekly and last working day payroll.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Payroll Manager to lead and motivate the team to deliver the highest level of internal and external customer care, productivity and accuracy. You will need to carry out internal checks and audits of work to ensure that the team is performing against expectations. You must be able to work to targets and take ownership of issues.

You will have the analytical and problem solving skills to develop and implement improved processes and systems and to work in partnership with our payroll software provider MHR. You will promote high standards of professionalism and confidentiality and ensure effective communication with HR colleagues and operational managers.

You will have senior payroll experience and a relevant qualification with experience of supervising & leading a team and managing a busy workload. You will be numerate and IT aware with the ability to use spreadsheets and databases effectively and to efficiently manage data and information. You must have experience of auto-enrolment, real time reporting and all aspects of payroll including HMRC compliance, tax/NI calculations, statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and sickness payments, student loans & other deductions, taxable/non-taxable benefits and travel expenses.

In return Creative Support will provide both in house and accredited Payroll training to enhance your payroll knowledge and continue your professional development.

Interviews will be held on the 27 July 2021

Creative Support is a dynamic, national, charitable provider of person-centred support services to people with mental health needs, learning disabilities and older people with care and support needs. We are Investors in People (Silver) organisation with a record of excellence in staff development.

We are also a passionate, inclusive, and anti-racist organisation. We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Disability Confident Employer who have recently received Investors in People Silver award. We actively encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds and cultures.