Payroll Manager

Job summary

About Us

We are an arm’s length body of the Welsh Government, responsible for the strategy, funding and oversight of:

• further education
• higher education including research and innovation;
• apprenticeships
• adult community learning; and local authority maintained school sixth forms.

We work in close collaboration with our partners to enable a tertiary education and research system which is centred around the needs of learners; society; and economy with excellence, equality and engagement at its heart.

Our values really matter to us, they help shape the culture of our organisation:

• Dysgu (to learn; to teach; to educate) - learning is at the heart of everything we do. We believe curiosity fuels innovation and helps expand our horizons.
• Cydweithio (to work together; to collaborate; to co-operate) - we can achieve far more together than we ever could alone.
• Cynnwys Pawb (to include everyone; to involve everyone) - we are passionate about inclusion, seeking to create the right conditions for everyone to achieve their full potential.
• Rhagori (to exceed; to excel) - we have high aspirations for tertiary education and research in Wales and always set high standards for ourselves to be the best we can be.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and accredited as a Living Wage employer.

Location

Our headquarters is in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff, which has been specifically designed to meet our needs. This is where most colleagues will meet to collaborate, both with each other and with stakeholders.

As we operate across Wales, we also have limited office and collaboration space in Welsh Government offices in Llandudno Junction, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil.

Main Purpose of the Job

This post will be crucial to the delivery of an excellent and professional financial management service for Medr.

Working closely with the Head of Finance, wider Finance, and People and Culture teams across Medr, you are responsible for delivering an excellent payroll service to staff and Board Members.

You will also be responsible for:

• Supporting and maintaining the Payroll system, implementing new systems and applying updates where appropriate.
• Managing Medr’s pension arrangements in line with Cabinet Office and Capita requirements, providing support to Medr staff and be lead contact for pension communications.

Job description

What you'll be doing

• Managing the operation of Medr’s Payroll and Pension functions, responsible for processing staff payroll changes, payment of staff salaries, fee paying officers, Board Members remuneration, along with statutory and voluntary deductions from pay.
• Maintaining the integrity of the payroll system/database, ensuring that necessary software upgrades are installed correctly and on time.
• Ensuring compliance with current payroll legislation and maintaining an up-to-date knowledge of payroll legislation changes.
• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of the civil service pension schemes ensuring compliance with any changes.
• Provide advice to all staff including senior management and Board Members and work closely with the People and Culture team to provide guidance on payroll matters and be the first point of contact for pension queries.
• Ensure that all monthly and statutory requirements are fulfilled and that RTI data is submitted to HM Revenue & Customs to external deadlines.
• Main point of contact for all HMRC notifications and submissions.
• Ensure that all monthly and annual pension requirements are fulfilled and that documentation and data is submitted to the Civil Service Pension scheme administrator to agreed external deadlines.
• Main point of contact for all pension scheme data enquires.
• Provide financial reports monthly detailing gross salary costs, employer costs, statutory and voluntary deductions and net payments to be processed.
• As part of month-end processing, raise payment requests for deductions and submit to Finance Team for payment.
• Provide annual management information reports relating to financial year-end for annual accounts.
• Keep the payroll business continuity plan up-to-date and tested at regular intervals.
• Maintain statutory and occupational records for payment areas input by Payroll Team (e.g. Occupational Sick, MATL); provide advice to and support in these
• Review People and Culture policies when requested.

Key Challenges

• Ensuring that Medr’s payroll process is conducted to a high standard supporting the payment of relevant remuneration to staff, fee paying officers and Board members.
• Support the implementation of a new Payroll software solution, maintaining excellent payroll service during the implementation period.
• Managing the expectations of internal and external stakeholders, whilst building important strategic relationships with Finance, and the People and Culture teams.
• Overseeing Medr’s pension arrangements during a period of change and bedding in of the new Civil Service pensions administrator.

About Your Team

The payroll function is part of the Procurement, Payroll, and Finance Team, lead by the Chief Financial Officer. Reporting to the Head of Finance, the Payroll Manager line manages and is supported by a Payroll Officer.

The team’s philosophy is to help and support our colleagues, believing in excellence, integrity, and dedication. We apply our professionalism to build strong and efficient policies and processes, enabling Medr to operate as a highly effective organisation. We uphold the highest standards in the stewardship of public funds, ensuring Medr meets its contractual and statutory obligations.

About Your Line Manager

Richard Arnold

Richard has worked in finance for over twenty years throughout the public and third sectors. He is a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, serving as the Head of Finance of Medr.

Person specification

What you will bring

Attributes

1. Accountable- You ensure clear goals and priorities are set for your team, holding yourself and others accountable for performance and outcomes.

2. Drive- You lead by example, showing dedication and perseverance in meeting organisational objectives.

3. Resilient- You create a culture of adaptability and resourcefulness within your team, offering support and encouragement.

4. Honest- You build trust through consistent and reliable behaviour.

Experience

5. Experience of managing a payroll service and ensuring accurate calculation of wages, overtime, bonuses, and statutory deductions ideally within the public sector.

6. Experience of statutory payroll requirements (HMRC, filings, P60/P45s etc), and statutory annual accounts requirements.

Welsh Language Requirements

We have evaluated that the Welsh language requirements for this post are:

Desirable

Welsh desirable means that while having Welsh language skills is useful for the role, it is not an assessment criterion, so it won’t disadvantage you during recruitment if you don’t currently possess these skills.

• Reading
• Spoken
• Understanding
• Written

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,457, Medr contributes £11,430 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Your Perks and Benefits

We recognise the importance of looking after ourselves in work and in life, so in recognition of this we provide:

• 34 days annual leave a year
• An environment that embraces work life balance.
• A culture that celebrates diversity and welcomes everyone.
• Dedicated well-being time to all our people each week.
• A Cycle to Work Scheme to make owning a bicycle more affordable.

Additional Support when you need it

We know that sometimes you may face challenges or life events that mean you need additional support.

• We provide a comprehensive employee assistance programme with remote access to resources and in person support whenever required.
• We have a special leave policy ensuring everyone in the organisation receives the support they need during difficult times.

More than just a workplace

• You will be entitled to take 5 days paid leave per year to undertake voluntary work to support the communities we serve.
• We will encourage you to grow your networks across Wales, the UK and internationally.
• We have an active social committee who offer a range of activities for our people to come together outside the work setting. You can participate as much or as little as you want.

Personal and professional development

• Once you’re offered a post, we will get to know you and work with you to develop a personalised onboarding plan which considers your experience, skills, learning style and knowledge.
• We’ll help you shape your development plans with personalised career conversations and objectives, taking account of delivery goals alongside your career aspirations and helping you own your career.
• We support all our staff to learn or improve their Welsh language skills.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

We are really interested in you as an individual and what you will bring to our organisation.

Our assessment process is designed to help us get to know you better enabling us to appoint someone who will thrive in the role and who shares our organisational values.

If you are interested in working with us, please send us your application and personal statement through Civil Service Jobs.

The following attributes/experience will be assessed at sift stage:

• Accountable - You ensure clear goals and priorities are set for your team, holding yourself and others accountable for performance and outcomes.
• Drive - You lead by example, showing dedication and perseverance in meeting organisational objectives.
• Experience of managing a payroll service and ensuring accurate calculation of wages, overtime, bonuses, and statutory deductions ideally within the public sector.
• Experience of statutory payroll requirements (HMRC filings, P60/P45s etc), and statutory annual accounts requirements.

To be fair to everyone who applies, we won’t accept:

- Late applications
- Applications with missing or incomplete information
- Personal statements over 1,250 words

The deadline for application submission is 23:55 Sunday 29 March.

Applications are welcome in Welsh and will not be treated less favourably than those submitted in English.

All applications will be notified of their outcomes via Civil Service Jobs at sift and interview stage.

Candidates who successfully navigate the sift stage will be required to complete an online exercise to enable us to determine their behavioural and personality preferences. Immediately on completion you will be given a report which highlights your strengths plus some development tips to help you prepare for interview. Candidates should note that the online exercise is not intended to eliminate anyone from consideration. Instead, it serves as a tool to aid in the decision-making process.

Following this, you will be required to participate in an interview on Tuesday 28 April. If you are successful at the sift stage, we’ll aim to give you one week’s notice before your interview.

In addition to the attributes assessed at sift stage, the remaining attributes will also be assessed at interview:
• Resilient - You create a culture of adaptability and resourcefulness within your team, offering support and encouragement.
• Honest - You build trust through consistent and reliable behaviour.

We strive for a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. We are happy to discuss any person-centred adjustments required to the recruitment process. Please contact swyddi@medr.cymru.

We're looking forward to meeting everyone invited to interview at our headquarters in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff. We don’t usually pay travel expenses, but if this presents a real barrier to your attendance in person or if you require a reasonable adjustment, please let us know in advance by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru so we can discuss and agree arrangements prior to your interview.

Following interview we are committed to offering constructive and actionable feedback to support you on your future career journey.

Next Steps

Interested…? Want to find out more?

We know how important it is for you to find out more about us so we will be holding a virtual information session for candidates on Wednesday 18 March at 11.30 on Microsoft Teams. This session will not be recorded.

This will be an opportunity for you to hear more about our organisation; the role and how we invest in our people.

If you would like to attend, register by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : People and Culture Team
• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Recruitment team

• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Attachments

Canllaw i Ymgeiswyr ar Lunio Datganiad Personol Opens in new window (pdf, 112kB)A Candidate's guide to crafting a personal statement Opens in new window (pdf, 113kB)Swydd Ddisgrifiad- Rheolwr Cyflogres Opens in new window (pdf, 299kB)Job Description- Payroll Manager final Opens in new window (pdf, 296kB)