Payroll Officer - Finance

Here at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust,

Our mission is:Providing high-quality, compassionate care for our communities

Our vision to 2030 is:To be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service

Job overview

We are recruiting for a Payroll Officer who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

The Payroll/pension department consists of 21 members, who are responsible for processing approx. 14,700 staff each month. We pride ourselves in providing a high quality payroll and Pension service for a number of clients including the main East & North Herts NHS Trust across multi-sites.

The Payroll department is a friendly and approachable team. Payroll work closely with HR and Finance and holds good relationships with both.

Working for the NHS and Payroll department you will also have access to many benefits offered by our Trust including access to competitive NHS pension scheme, in-house and external training to enable you to perform the role and progress with your career.

Our Values are Include, Respect and Improve. It is important that you understand and refer to our values during your recruitment process and beyond!

Main duties of the job

As a payroll officer, you will work as part of a team ensuring an accurate payroll is produced according to defined deadlines, adhering to statutory and NHS terms and conditions, requiring knowledge and interpretation in all these areas along with the Trust's computer system Oracle.

Main duties include:

• Manage own workload in an effective and timely manner.
• Complete complex calculations, resolve enquiries, and provide information or advice when required
• Maintain accurate employee records in accordance with Statutory/Trust regulations. Detailed knowledge of Trust, HCT & CCG's local policies.
• Undertake regular training, keeping updated with all new statutory regulations and NHS directives affecting pay.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification information pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person specification

Qualifications/Training
Essential criteria

• Minimum of 5 GCSEs including Maths & English at Grades 9-4 (A*-C) or equivalent qualifications. OR GCSE in Maths and English and experience of working in a Payroll or Pensions department.

Desirable criteria

• NVQ Level 3 / CIPP / IPPM Qualification
• ECDL

Previous Experience
Essential criteria

• Sound knowledge of pay procedures and statutory legislation and experience of working in a payroll department.
• Experience of working in a large fast paced Payroll/Pensions environment.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in a shared Service environment

Skills
Essential criteria

• Demonstrate ability to work on own initiative and have excellent organisational skills.
• Impeccable attention to detail, excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to work closely and effectively with staff at all levels within or outside the organisation.
• Manual Payroll Calculations in Tax, NI, Pensions and other statutory deductions.
• Excellent customer service skills
• Intermediate skill level in Excel and Word including VLOOKUPs, Pivots, Mail Merges and Macros.

Knowledge
Essential criteria

• Knowledge of NHS conditions of Pay, NHS Travel and Expenses Regulations, NHS Pension Regulations, Calculation of PAYE and NHS working practices.
• Be up to date with current statutory PAYE legislation.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of Oracle ESR system
• Working knowledge in an NHS or local government payroll department.

Other Requirements
Essential criteria

• Understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion role model our Trust values every day

Desirable criteria

• Maybe required to travel across sites

Our values

We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.

Include
We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.

Respect
We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.

Improve
We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.

Committed to our Community

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community. We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve. We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background. In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce .

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing [email protected]

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

We are committed to being a carer-friendly environment, addressing the complex needs of families with caring responsibilities. In partnership with Carers in Hertfordshire, all our working carers have access to support from recruitment. We are also a member of Carers UK, providing resources to make balancing work and caring easier. Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.

When you apply...

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date in certain circumstances. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.

All correspondence relating to vacancies will be via the e-mail address you have provided on your application form. Some servers automatically send e-mails to your junk mail so please check as well as your inbox.

As a publicly funded employer, we need to ensure we utilise our funds responsibly, this may mean we are unable to support sponsorship required to gain the right to work for particular positions. We strongly advise you to contact the line manager or a member of the Resourcing Team before applying to confirm if we will be able to support with sponsorship for that post.

Prince's Trust Support

If you're aged between 16 and 30 years-old, you can get FREE employability support from The Prince's Trust. The Prince's Trust will help build your CV and cover letter, offer advice and top tips for future interviews and support you with research about working in the NHS. Please contact Enquiries.H& [email protected] for support.

Secondments/Fixed term

Where a vacancy is advertised as a temporary position, the duration will be specified in the advert. If the vacancy becomes permanent towards the end of the specified duration, the successful applicant may not be required to re-apply and can be slotted into the role on a permanent basis if appropriate.

If you are an internal applicant applying for a temporary working arrangement, please see the attached notes on secondments

Employer certification / accreditation badges
Documents to download

• Payroll Officer Applicant Pack ( PDF , 560.3 KB )
• Must Read Guidance Notes - Application Forms ( PDF , 54.4 KB )
• Guidance Notes for Applicants - How your data is used and stored ( PDF , 105.5 KB )
• Policy Statement - Recruitment of Ex-Offenders ( PDF , 168.1 KB )
• Guidance on secondments for internal applicants ( PDF , 184.6 KB )