We are looking for an experienced, qualified payroll professional to join the Harris Federation central team in the brand new position of Payroll Manager.

About Us

We are a pioneering education charity, and one of the leading multi-academy trusts in the country. We have a track record of taking on some of the most challenging schools in London, turning them into places where every young person can access a high-quality education and have opportunities to succeed.

Educating 1 in 41 young people in London, we now have 52 primary and secondary academies transforming the life chances and opportunities of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Harris Federation has a track record of accomplishment in achieving success through rapid school improvement and has built an unrivalled reputation for running outstanding academies in London.

Our central team comprises a dedicated, driven group of departments working centrally to provide support across the Federation and all of our academies. Across a multitude of key departments, we maintain expertise all integral to supporting central and academies in areas such as Finance, HR, Data, Estates Management, Talent and many more.

Main Areas of Responsibility

The Payroll and Pensions team is an integral part of the Finance Department and is responsible for the payment of around 4,500 monthly paid employees and growing. The payroll is under one PAYE reference number, and is grouped into three payrolls.

The Payroll Manager will be responsible for:

• ensuring that each stage of the payroll process complies with due processes and procedures
• paying all staff correctly, on a monthly basis
• ensuring that correct payments are made, and appropriate information is provided, to the Federation’s pension schemes, HMRC and other statutory bodies
• providing advice and expertise in relation to the impact of external changes on occupational pension schemes
• managing the provision of the Payroll and Pensions service offered within the Harris Federation

For a full list of responsibilities, please download the job pack via the link.

Qualifications & Experience

The successful candidate will have:

• Full CIPP qualification and a current active membership of the CIPP.
• A proven track record of managing a highly effective Payroll and/or Pension office to include a working knowledge of statutory requirements affecting PAYE, Defined Benefits Pension schemes and benefit structure
• Sound knowledge of ERP system software
• A strong understanding of manual and computerised payroll systems and principles
• Excellent standard of written and oral communication skills
• Ability to interpret and to reconcile complex financial data from a variety of sources using tools such as Microsoft Excel
• Strategic and hands-on approach
• Commitment to providing customer focused service
• Self-motivated, dynamic individual with a flexible approach to work
• Experience of working to defined service levels, targets and key performance indicators

Next Steps

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please send us an email, or call to arrange a conversation.

Before applying, please download the Job Pack for full details on the job responsibilities and person specification. This will be helpful for you when completing your application, and throughout the recruitment process.

We encourage you to apply as soon as possible as we may interview and offer to a candidate before the closing date. Please note that we only accept applications submitted before the closing date via our careers website.

Professional Development & Benefits

Our people are at the heart of our success. We have developed a strong culture of collaboration and best practice, with professional development and career planning at its centre. We invest in our staff with support, coaching, mentoring, and a wide range of top-quality training programmes delivered at every level.

In addition to the opportunities for career development and progression, we also offer a competitive rewards and benefits package which includes a Performance and Loyalty Bonus, Pension Scheme with generous employer contributions, a Wellbeing Cash Plan including access to a virtual GP, electric car scheme, 26 days’ annual leave (plus bank holidays) for staff who work across the full year, and many other benefits.

We offer lifestyle friendly working arrangements including flexible start and end times, and hybrid working with 2 days from home and 3 days either with the team at our office in East Croydon or visiting one of our academies.

Learn more about our benefits on our website.

Safeguarding Notice

The Harris Federation and all our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, references, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check will be completed.

Equal Opportunities

The Harris Federation is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates.

We value the diversity of our staff and students, and everyone at the Harris Federation is equally valued and respected. We aim to be an inclusive employer that reflects the communities we serve. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is a hybrid organisation. We have an office in central London which you can work from, although we welcome applications from all across the UK, offering flexible homeworking on UK mainland locations.

Background:

IPSA is the independent body that regulates and administers the business costs and decides the pay and pensions of the 650 elected Members of Parliament and their staff in the UK. We were created by the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, as the world’s first independent regulator of MPs’ financial remuneration.

IPSA is on a mission! We want to enable MPs to do what really matters by providing an exemplary, seamless regulatory service. We have a compelling plan and we’re intent on transforming IPSA. Transparency lies at the heart of everything we do. We publish details of business costs claims made by MPs and their staff, as well as annual data about every MP’s spending and other aspects of their activity.

About the role:

We are looking for a new Payroll Officer to help us deliver our seamless regulatory service. We’re a payroll team of thirteen and we sit within the finance function, but your role will be visible across IPSA and will have direct, regular contact with our customers where building successful partnerships is key.  If you like to be challenged and enjoy working in a dynamic environment, then this could be the job for you.  The role will help to make a difference to our customers everyday by providing timely and accurate payroll information and resolving issues efficiently and effectively. There’s a lot of scope for you to enable change and improvement across the team and our day-to-day operations.

Main responsibilities:

• Ensuring MPs’ staff are paid accurately and on time.
• Maintaining payroll records in accordance with The Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs and HR policies and procedures.
• Building open and honest relationships with all teams and acting as the face of Payroll across IPSA.
• Providing exemplary, seamless service to our customers, internally and externally.
• Enabling your colleagues to achieve results through brilliant teamwork.
• Collaborating with other teams to resolve payroll queries, ensuring teams are provided with appropriate and timely advice and information.
• Ensuring financial controls are maintained by IPSA and MPs.
• Actively contributing to continuous improvement of the payroll function and helping to improve IPSA.

What we are looking for:

You’ll have experience of working in a payroll team and understand how HMRC legislation applies to payroll, pensions and other statutory payments, as well as basic finance and budget management skills.  We’d like you to be a qualified payroll technician through the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) qualification but if you’re not, we’ll support you through development pathway.

You’ll be adept at understanding and communicating complex and challenging financial information to people of all levels, both within IPSA and to our customers.  You’ll be curious about the payroll data to ensure it’s right first time, every time. You’ll have an eye for accuracy and attention to detail and you’ll own your work. You’ll enjoy working with others and be accountable for achieving great results.

You’ll be working in a pressured environment so resilience is a must, and you’ll need great listening skills.  High initiative and a flexible approach to work and change are important, too.

You’ll be joining a diverse and knowledgeable bunch of people, passionate about making IPSA brilliant and so you’ll need to fit right in.

A full person specification is available on our website.

Benefits:

• Civil Service Pension
• Generous starting holiday entitlement of 25 days + bank holidays, increasing by 1 day each year up to 30 days.
• Season ticket/rent deposit loans
• Hybrid and flexible working by default, with occasional travel for team meetings
• Access to learning and development tailored to your role
• Working in a high-performing organisation
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity with time to participate in workplace networks
• Cycle to work scheme
• Volunteering days

Our commitment and values

We’re committed to making IPSA a more diverse and inclusive organisation and we choose to recruit, retain, and develop people with a diverse mix of skills and experience We are a high-performing organisation that values diversity and we live our values through all the work that we do. Our inclusive workplace environment welcomes people from all backgrounds and our ID, Green, Women’s and LGBTQIA+ networks signal our commitment to celebrating and promoting diversity, inclusion, and sustainability.

Our core values are Staying Connected, Seeing the Bigger Picture, Being Open, Doing the Right Thing and Making a Difference. If you share and live our values, then we would like to hear from you. We are a values-based organisation, and you can expect these to feature throughout the recruitment process and beyond.

How to apply

If you are interested in applying for this role, please send your CV and a one-page cover letter to [email protected].  We ask you to be succinct and to the point in your cover letter, highlighting why you’d be a great match, and it’s always a good idea focus this around some of your key achievements which might be relevant to this role.

We anticipate a high volume of applications for this role, and regretfully we will only be able to respond to you if you are shortlisted.

Before you apply, you’re asked to read the ‘how to apply’ section on our website here, detailing our approach to reducing unconscious bias in our recruitment process.

Interview process

Our interview and onboarding processes are virtual.  If you want to join our team, you’ll need access to a secure WIFI network and a private space to work from. If you’re successful we will provide you with equipment for onboarding, training, and working from home.

If you are shortlisted, there will be a competency-based interview where we will ask you a series of questions designed to help the panel assess your suitability for the role and for IPSA and we may also ask you prepare a short presentation.

We expect to shortlist for this role in w/c 6^th March, with interviews in w/c 13^th March, although we may decide to conduct initial telephone interviews before that date, depending on the volume of applications.

Important information

We aim to keep our application window open for four weeks which means the closing date for this role will be 3^rd March 2023.  However, we will sift applications as they are submitted and therefore, we reserve the right to close the advert at any point after two weeks.

As we expect to receive a high number of applications for this role,  we strongly advise you to apply before 17^th February 2023.

Privacy notice and right to work

By applying you confirm you have the right to work in the UK and have read our Human Resources privacy notice.