Payroll Specialist

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join a world leading global organisation, our client (a leading Global FMCG company with Brands such as Dove, Knorr, Persil & Magnum) is currently looking for a Payroll Specialist, to be based in Kingston-upon-Thames (will involve a mixture of working from the office and working from home). This is a full-time temporary role to last until the end of February 2023, working 36.25 hours per week, paying between £34,400 - £41,000 per annum, pro rata, depending on experience.

This role will support the implementation of a new payroll system, as well as business as usual tasks of owning and managing the end to end UK payroll process and communicating with various stakeholders on all matters relating to UK Pay.

The role involves performing tests of the new system and logging results/issues, as well as managing the end to end UK payroll process. Ensuring that starters, leavers and transfers are all processed correctly (from HR Systems into Payroll system), reviewing payroll instructions and results to signing off payment/payrolls and off cycle pay runs. Working with stakeholders such as Pensions, Finance and third parties to allocate costs and outputs.

The role holder will primarily be required to liaise with the payroll vendor to ensure smooth delivery of payroll services (supporting a weekly payroll and 3 types of monthly payroll), investigating and resolving queries and escalations for which our Payroll and HR are used extensively.

Role Responsibilities

• Will work primarily with the project team to implement a new payroll system.
• Performing tests of the new system and logging results/issues before reporting on these.
• Responding to pay queries from People Experience Leads in the Payroll mailbox and resolving issues.
• Reconciling payroll data and carrying out rigorous checks to ensure the highest standards of pay data quality.
• Working with various HR, Global Mobility, and Global Reward teams to ensure that employee payroll data is correct and setup in time for cut off, as well as providing training and guidance to HR, GM or other stakeholders as needed.
• Responsible (together with payroll provider) for ensuring that UK tax and social security is correctly calculated and paid over to the authorities. The Payroll team also needs to provide retroactive corrections to HMRC via the EYU process.
• Corresponding with HMRC and other third parties, working with our tax providers to provide all compensation data requests for our Global Mobility population on the UK payroll.
• Other ad hoc activities such as faster payment runs, tracking overpayments, ONS requests and checking the 3rd party payroll providers calculations.

Key Skills Required

• Experience of implementing a new payroll system.
• Must have Workday system experience. SAP GlobalView would also be advantageous.
• Ability to work with large quantities of data. Must be highly numerate and have strong MS Excel skills to interrogate data.
• Experience working in and running a large payroll.
• Experience of working with third party payroll vendors.
• Knowledge of UK payroll legislation (such as PAYE, NIC, P60, P11d, P45, statutory payments) is preferable.
• An organised, can do attitude and problem-solving capabilities with the ability to pick up new processes and software quickly.
• Proactive and able to work in a pressurised environment.
• Experience in self-managing projects, tracking tasks and assessing progress, handling data accurately.
• Strong communication skills, being able to explain complex scenarios to senior employees and stakeholders.
• Attention to detail (data accuracy and identification of errors).
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills.
• Ability to inspire success and lead by example to other team members (perm or temp) as well as training other team members.