HR Officer (Pensions)
Salary: Grade 6 – £31,346 to £33,782 
Full Time, Permanent Position
Exeter, EX3 0NW 

Closing date for applications is 23:59hrs on Sunday, 21 November 2021

It’s an exciting time to join DSFRS, the largest non-metropolitan fire and rescue service in the UK. Fire and Rescue Services are changing and we are no exception.  Our role goes far beyond fighting fires and we are continually looking for ways to build on our effectiveness and efficiency to improve Public and Staff safety. The Service employs almost 2,000 people and has the highest number of fire stations and fire engines outside London.

Working for us is very rewarding. Whilst we offer a competitive salary and benefits package, excellent training and opportunities to develop and progress your career, many of our employees say that the biggest benefit of their role is the job itself – playing your own part in an organisation that saves lives.

We are now looking for an HR Officer to join the People and Organisation Development team. In this role you will provide comprehensive advice and guidance on pension scheme regulations to managers and employees.

You will be the primary point of contact for HR policies and processes in relation to pensions administration.

You will also support the Local Pension Board to ensure compliance with pension regulations and legislative changes.

Qualifications and Experience:

• At least 5 years of previous experience working in a pensions related role (preferably within the public sector), including substantial experience of providing advice and guidance on pensions including complex issues.
•    A CIPP Certificate in Pensions Administration (or similar equivalent) would be advantageous but not essential.
•    You must also have proven experience working with large volumes of financial data and undertaking complex financial calculations.
•    You will have exceptional IT, communication and organisation skills
•    It is essential that you have flexible approach, with the ability to work effectively as a member of a busy team, including effective supervision of colleagues.

Benefits of working for DSFRS:
At DSFRS our values are: we are proud to help, we are honest, we are respectful, and we are working together.
We offer our staff:
•    Competitive Salary and Generous holiday entitlement.
•    Flexible working and excellent career, training and development opportunities.
•    Government Pension Scheme.
•    Health and Wellbeing provision including eye care, onsite gym facilities, counselling, physiotherapy.
•    Access to the Blue Light Card Scheme (retail discounts for Emergency Services colleagues).
•    Free Parking.

How to apply for the HR Officer Role: 
If you have the skills and experience required for this role, please click on the “apply” button below to be directed to our short application form. You will also be asked to submit a CV and covering letter as part of our application process.

Our values
•    We are Proud to Help
•    We are Honest
•    We are Respectful
•    We are Working Together

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service recognise and celebrate the vast diversity of the local communities that we serve and aspire for this to be reflected within our workforce. We encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds, experience and beliefs, who share our values to join our team.

We are looking for a customer focused People Assistant to join our Payroll team in the HR Department. This is a great role to develop and learn an understanding of Payroll and all aspects of the team. We have varying demands in our People Service Centre meaning you may assist other areas to include general administration for all employee lifecycle activities including new starters, leavers, transfers and other contractual changes.

This is a fixed term contract due to end when the previous employee returns from maternity leave. At this point we cannot confirm exactly how long this contract will last, but it is unlikely to be more than 12 months

What it’s like to work here

We’re bigger than you think, we’re more complicated than we appear and we’re larger scale than you’d imagine. We’ve got passionate people in all our teams, and we’ve got so much more we want to achieve. We’re for ever, for everyone and we really mean that. We don’t want to stop at 5.5 million members and we want everyone to feel welcome and enjoy access to our places, so we need to reach new audiences in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them without losing the hearts and minds of those that are already with us.

Our central head office Heelis, is situated in Swindon, Wiltshire. We’re well placed, with ample parking nearby, a shopping outlet with plenty of options for places to eat, and the town centre only a 10 minute walk away. Alternatively you can enjoy our open plan atrium space for lunch times, with our internal cafe available every day.

What you’ll be doing

This role sits in our People Services Centre in Heelis, Swindon. Under the leadership of the Payroll Manager, you’ll ensure that the incoming payroll queries are effectively monitored and managed, resolving queries or triaging them within the team. You’ll ensure that you make changes to employee records as requested by employees, including court orders, pensions changes, leaver details and any other payroll changes.

You’ll extract data from the payroll system in response to queries across payroll and the wider People Service Centre. You’ll prepare standard template letters for overpayment recoveries and other activities as directed by your manager. You’ll update employee records in our HR system using our Standard Operating Procedures and checklists.

It about you developing your own capability to build confidence around our People Systems and Payroll. Over time you’ll be able to cover all payroll processes and strive to be efficient and ensure cost effectiveness in all the work you do. You’ll work alongside a strong payroll team and be an excellent team player, sharing knowledge and information, helping to create a great place to work.

To deliver this role successfully you’ll have/be;

• Ability to demonstrate some solid administrative and organisation skills
• Understanding of the principles of excellent customer service
• A keen interest in HR/Payroll and developing a career in the profession
• Well organised with high attention to detail
• Great interpersonal skills
• Competent IT skills with an ability to input data accurately and quickly
• A professional, flexible and proactive approach

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and organised payroll / pension officer who has excellent numeric and analytical skills and a high attention to detail and thrives on achieving results.

You must have 5 GCSE (or equivalent) passes including Maths and English, a working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite and basic knowledge of employment best practice/legislation, ideally together with experience of working in Payroll/Finance area. Support will be provided to staff in developing their payroll/pensions knowledge via a formal payroll qualification. As well as administration experience and the ability to communicate sensitive information in a way that builds on the successful relationships with our customers.

In return you will joining a forward looking payroll team where you will gain a range of Payroll experience, working within a busy and interesting team, driving forward innovative, quality and customer services.

Main duties of the job

As a member of the Payroll Team based at Salisbury District Hospital you will be using The ESR Payroll system and Pension On-Line, you will be responsible for providing administrative support including processing payroll, dealing with customer queries about issues such as pay, employment terms and conditions, pensions and expenses as well as maintaining ESR records and other department systems to ensure data quality.

Please see attached Job description and person specification for full details of roles and responsibilities

About us

We are a well-established acute Trust with a track record of high performance and provide a broad range of services for the populations served by Wiltshire, Dorset and West Hampshire CCGS, alongside highly regarded specialist services with excellent clinical networks both locally and nationally. We have about 470 beds and employ over 4,000 staff. We offer excellent staff benefits including an onsite day nursery and holiday play scheme, an onsite staff club with 2 indoor heated swimming pools and a fully equipped gym. Situated in the south of Wiltshire, Salisbury is surrounded by beautiful countryside including Salisbury Plain and the New forest.

Salisbury is an attractive place to live and work and really gives you the best of everything. With easy access to London and local airports, Salisbury also has one of the 31 UNESCO world heritage sites in the UK in the form of Stonehenge and in addition boasts a number of museums and famous landmarks which are well worth a visit.

Location: Swindon or surrounding areas.

Salary: £25,000

If you would like to apply please forward your CV to [email protected]

Who are we?

We are Juniper Education, the leading provider of world-class pupil tracking software, training and professional services to more than 10,000 primary and secondary schools. We aim to enhance the effectiveness of schools and outcomes for learners.

Our award-winning services are proven to help with everything from pupil performance tracking to school finance budgeting, payroll, teacher training, education HR issues and school visits planning.

What’s the job?

We are looking for a Payroll Assistant to provide an efficient payroll bureau and pension administration service for a client-base of schools, ensuring staff are paid accurately and on a timely basis, schools receive monthly reporting and all monthly/year-end returns completed in accordance with HMRC and Pension schemes guidance.

Who are you?

You will have a strong understand of PAYE, NIC and Statutory Payments. You will be able to process payroll documentation from client schools to ensure accurate payroll records are established and maintained. You will undertake the role of client account manager and be the first point of contact for School Bursars and Business Managers.

Other key responsibilities include:

• To assist in preparing the monthly data file of payment transactions in readiness for transmitting to BACS.
• To assist in producing monthly pre-payroll reports, monthly payroll reports, YTD payroll reports and monthly payslips and ensure all are delivered safely and securely to the clients.
• To liaise with external agencies and organisations e.g. Teacher Pensions, HMRC, Local Government Pension provider, Childcare Voucher Scheme providers etc.
• To assist in updating and maintaining the Payroll Bureau software ensuring that all enhancements are updated on a timely basis.
• To assist in ensuring that all Monthly RTI Submissions and Year-End returns are completed for client schools in accordance with HMRC timescales and guidelines.
• To identify and attend suitable training and development opportunities to maintain an up to date working knowledge of payroll and pension administration, systems and procedures.
• Auto enrolment, re-enrolment and pension opt in / out processing
• To run the MDC extract, upload, investigate and resolve any queries.
• Complete LG returns, for starters/leavers/changes/estimates/retirements on a monthly basis, i-connect returns.
• Produce the End of Year LG Pension Report each year to deadline.
• Reconcile the monthly TP information for each school in readiness for End of Year Certificates and ensure any discrepancies are resolved in-year.

Experience and Skills?

• Minimum of 2 years payroll experience with a strong understanding of PAYE, NIC and Statutory Payments
• Start to end experience of payroll journey
• Customer focused
• Team player
• CIPP qualification desirable
• Education payroll experience desirable
• Excellent Excel experience

We offer a fantastic benefits package with competitive pay rates with annual increases, annual leave of 27 days increasing to 33 days after 10 years, access to the NHS Pension Scheme to which you and the Trust contribute. Our Medical workforce has separate arrangements. Alongside this there are extensive training development opportunities with paid mandatory training, support for flexible working and access to an On-site Ofsted graded ‘Outstanding’ Nursery. We promote a healthy work life balance, provide an Occupational Health Service to support you at work and have a number of NHS discounts available either directly through ourselves or online through NHS Discounts. As part of our recruitment process we can tell you more about our benefits package and you will see that we offer everything you would expect and more!

The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (RD&E) provides Acute and Community services across Exeter and East Devon serving a population of more than 450,000 people. In our latest CQC full inspection of our services, the RD&E received an overall rating of “good”. We were rated as “outstanding” for our Emergency and Critical Care services, and for Caring Trustwide.

The Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust has been ranked as the joint best performing non-specialist Trust in the country for overall patient experience of care in the 2016 Care Quality Commission (CQC) Adult Inpatient Survey.

The main hospital site is in the historical Cathedral city of Exeter that has abundant family amenities and beautiful surrounding countryside. It is situated in the middle of the South West Region with easy access to the countryside and coast of Devon and Cornwall. It is well served by rail, road and air links. Good educational facilities such as the University of Exeter and good Ofsted rated schools are available locally. Our Community sites are equally well positioned and are a good place to work.

Enjoy a good quality of life in the South West and be part of our caring workforce.