Phoenix Learning & Care Group
Payroll Specialist
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Job Title: Payroll & Pensions Officer
Job Location: Tiverton
Salary: £30,775.68 per annum, based on 37.5 hours per week, 52 weeks per year
Contract Type: Permanent
Benefits: 9 Day Fortnight and 28 Days Annual Leave
As our Payroll & Pensions Officer, you'll play a vital role at the heart of our organisation. Every payslip you process helps ensure our dedicated team members continue delivering life-changing support to children and young adults across our care and education services. Quite simply, this is a role where your work has a real and meaningful impact.
You'll be the driving force behind an efficient and accurate payroll & pensions function, ensuring team members are paid correctly and on time, every time. Your expertise will not only support our team members but will also contribute to the smooth running of the wider organisation, enabling informed decision-making, sustainable growth, and the continued development of new homes, educational settings, and support services.
This is an exciting opportunity to gain exposure to the unique complexities of payroll within both the care and education sectors. Working across multiple payrolls, you'll develop a broad and valuable skillset while playing a key role in maintaining compliance with statutory requirements, company policies, and payroll best practice.
In addition to payroll processing, you'll take ownership of pension administration, ensuring team members are enrolled correctly, pension contributions are accurately calculated and submitted, and all pension-related activities remain fully compliant with auto-enrolment legislation. You'll act as a trusted point of contact for pension queries, helping team members understand and manage an important aspect of their financial wellbeing.
If you thrive in a fast-paced environment, enjoy working with accuracy and attention to detail, and want to be part of an organisation that's making a genuine difference, this is an opportunity you won't want to miss.
You'll be responsible for delivering a first-class payroll and pensions service that keeps our people supported, our organisation running smoothly, and enables us to continue transforming the lives of the children and young adults we care for.
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A day in the life of a Payroll & Pensions Officer will involve:
- Payroll Support & Compliance
- Assisting managers in ensuring timely completion and approval of monthly timesheets, managing employee absence data, and maintaining adherence to statutory and internal policies.
- Payroll Processing
- Supporting the Payroll Manager in processing accurate payments for approximately 750 employees across seven monthly payrolls, ensuring compliance with HMRC regulations, pension policies and Variance analysis.
- Pensions Management
- Administering workplace pension schemes, including auto-enrolment, team member assessments, contribution calculations, and submissions. Supporting team members with pension-related queries, liaising with pension providers, maintaining accurate records, and ensuring compliance with pension legislation, regulatory requirements and Salary Sacrifice.
- Audits & Database Management
- Conducting regular payroll audits, updating data, and working with the Head of Finance, IT department, and ADP to resolve system issues.
- Budget Assistance & Reporting
- Assisting in preparation of payroll-related budget data, supporting the annual budgeting process, handling payroll queries, and ensuring compliance with Data Protection and GDPR.
- Payroll Project Support
- Providing support to the Payroll Manager throughout the delivery of an upcoming payroll project, assisting with project activities and ensuring the smooth implementation of key changes and improvements.
To be a successful Payroll & Pensions Officer you’ll need:
- Proven experience in internal payroll processing, with expertise in both academic and 52-week payrolls. Understanding of payroll legislation, ideally with CIPP or equivalent qualifications.
- Strong attention to detail, and the ability to manage tasks in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
- Self-motivated, adaptable, with strong time management and excellent customer service skills. Ability to work independently and within a team.
- Strong IT skills – We’ll train you on how to use our systems, but it is essential you have a working understanding of using Microsoft packages like Excel, Word, Outlook, Teams.
- Great Communication and Relationship-Building Skills: This role requires outstanding verbal and written communication abilities. You should enjoy working with people, be team-oriented, and capable of building strong relationships with all departments, managers and stakeholders.
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In return for your time, you’ll get:
- Holidays – You’ll get 28 days annual leave, including public holidays.
- Pension scheme – Our pension scheme is based on you paying in 5%, and us adding 3%.
- Learning & Development Opportunities – We provide comprehensive learning opportunities for team members to develop themselves.
- Discounts – You’ll have access to brilliant discounts through the Blue Light Card and our own employee benefits platform.
- Wellbeing Support – Your wellbeing is always our priority. You’ll have access to mental health and wellbeing support. On top of this, our therapies team offers a monthly confidential check in clinic, and group reflective practice sessions.
- Cycle2Work - The cycle to work scheme enables you to buy a bicycle at a discounted rate.
- DBS – As this role required you to have an enhanced DBS carried out, we will cover this cost.
- After 12 months service - you’ll also be eligible for our Medicash scheme which covers a wide range of medical, health and wellbeing expenses (Including immediate access to a GP!). You’ll get life assurance paid at x2 your annual salary, and even more high street discounts.
Please note that as part of our safer recruitment processes, successful applicants will be subject to pre-employment checks including an enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) check, and online and social media checks, and reference validation.
At Phoenix Learning and Care, we pride ourselves on our diverse workforce, and ensuring we have an inclusive environment for all our team members. We remain committed to ensuring our teams can bring their true selves to work without risk or fear of discrimination.
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