Payroll Specialist

Unify by Bruntwood; Warrington; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

28 days holiday

Birthday day off

Volunteer time (24 hours)

Sabbatical up to 12 months

Healthcare cash plan

Private healthcare (opt-in)

Life assurance

Pension up to 8% matched

Discounts & cashback

Enhanced maternity

Learning loans

Job summary

Unify by Bruntwood is seeking an experienced payroll professional to own end-to-end payroll for our 630 colleagues, ensuring accurate, compliant and timely payments. You will act as the payroll expert across managers and staff, building strong relations with internal teams and third-party providers.

You will drive continuous improvements, manage payroll projects, and ensure compliance with changes to NMW, RLW, holiday pay and auto-enrolment pensions.

Qualifications

• End-to-end payroll responsibility is required.
• Payroll calculation, processing and legislation knowledge is essential.
• Experience in operational/hospitality/cleaning environments with hourly pay and regular payroll changes is preferred.
• Proficiency in Excel and translating data into insights.
• Proactive in identifying issues and proposing solutions to mitigate risks.
• Flexible and adaptable to changing business needs while maintaining control and consistency.
• Strong collaboration with the wider people team and stakeholders.
• Experience of TUPE legislation would be beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of mid-month payroll for 630 Unify colleagues to ensure accurate, compliant and on-time payments.
• Act as Unify payroll expert, advising managers and colleagues on payroll matters.
• Build relationships with internal stakeholders and third-party providers.
• Drive continuous improvement across payroll to maximise controls, efficiency and accuracy.
• Lead payroll-related projects and advise key internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with legislative changes—NMW, RLW, Holiday Pay and pension.
• Administer the pension scheme in line with auto-enrolment regulations.
• Assist with setting up new benefits to ensure HMRC and payroll compliance.
• Liaise with finance on payroll reconciliation items for accurate postings.
• Provide information and analysis on payroll details to senior stakeholders as required.
• Collaborate with the people team to integrate payroll and people processes.
• Handle out-of-cycle payments and potential impact on future payments.
• Cover Bruntwood payrolls in absence of the Payroll Manager.

Skills

End-to-end payroll

Payroll calculation & processing

Excel & data insights

Stakeholder management

Confidential data handling

Adaptability to change

TUPE awareness (beneficial)

Tools

Excel

Job description

Unify by Bruntwood provides specialist cleaning solutions across commercial, retail and industrial property. Passionate about our customers and our people, we aim to lead the way in providing solutions that are exceptional, flexible and always built around our customers.

Our cleaning solutions are always tailored to your needs, supporting productivity, wellbeing, and great first impressions. We combine dependable day-to-day delivery with a deep-rooted commitment to sustainability, fair employment and social value.

Here is a link to our website and our Linkedin page to give you a feel for who we are and what we do: Unify - Unify LinkedIn

Here are some videos to give you an idea of the industry we operate in and our parent company:

Bruntwood

Sustainability at Bruntwood

Ways of working and the team:

You’ll be based at our head office in Manchester City Centre - Union, working closely with a dedicated People team that includes a; People Manager, People Advisor and a People Coordinator.

Expansion:

Unify goes from strength to strength - growing from 210 to 370 customers in 2025, and now exceeding more than 600. We’re aiming to continue this growth and also look at other complimentary services to our offering. So it’s vital we scale in the right way, where this role will play a crucial part. This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of Payroll processes, as well as having a wider voice in people projects that’ll help Unify scale in the right way, with colleagues at the heart of it.

What we’re looking for:

• An experienced payroll professional with end to end payroll responsibility.
• A hands on, credible expert when it comes to payroll. You’ll have an in-depth knowledge and experience of payroll calculation, processing and legislation.
• Ideally you’ll have worked in operational/hospitality/cleaning environments where there’s hourly pay and regular payroll change activity.
• You’ll be comfortable with Excel, translating data into useful insights
• You're proactive in anticipating issues and challenges, and you seek to create options for potential solutions and mitigate risks
• You’ll be able to adapt to changing business needs and be flexible in your approach, whilst also maintaining control and consistency where needed.
• You’ll enjoy working with stakeholders, using your expertise to influence process changes/improvements as well as working collaboratively with the wider people team
• You’ll be discreet and confidential when handling a large amount of sensitive colleague data.
• Experience of TUPE Legislation would be beneficial.

What you’ll be doing:

• Take ownership of our mid month payroll for our 630 Unify Colleagues to ensure our people are paid accurately, compliantly and on time.
• Be the Unify payroll expert, providing trusted advice and guidance to managers and colleagues on payroll related matters.
• Build relationships with internal stakeholders and our 3rd party providers.
• Drive continuous improvement across payroll looking for ways to maximise our controls and drive efficiency and accuracy.
• Take full ownership of payroll related projects, serving as the primary lead and advisor to key internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance on all legislative changes - particularly around NMW, RLW, Holiday Pay and pension
• Administration of the pension scheme ensuring compliance with auto enrolment regulations
• Play an active role in the set up of any new benefits that are introduced to ensure HMRC & payroll compliant.
• Liaise with finance on any payroll reconciliation items to ensure accurate postings in the payroll control accounts.
• Provide information & analysis on payroll related detail to senior business stakeholders when required
• Working alongside the people team to further enhance the cross over of people and payroll activity
• Manually calculating and processing out of cycle payments for corrections when required. With an understanding of the impact that may have on future payments.
• Work closely with the Bruntwood Payroll manager to provide cover for absence for our Bruntwood Payrolls.

We really believe that if you’re brilliant to work with, you deserve brilliant things in return:

• 28 days holiday plus you get your Birthday off work - and if that’s not enough you can also buy & sell holidays too
• 24 hours a year volunteer time - there are endless opportunities for you to get involved in supporting the causes that matter most to you
• Sabbatical of up to 12 months so you can take a career break after five years with us
• Healthcare cash plan for all colleagues, so you can claim back medical expenses like optical, dentist & physiotherapy. We also offer private healthcare cover on an opt in basis too
• Life assurance cover for all colleagues
• Up to 8% matched pension scheme
• Discounts & cashback at leading retailers
• Enhanced maternity - 26 weeks fully paid leave
• Interest freelearning loans to help you develop new skills

In addition to what to expect within the role and your benefits, it’s good to know that you’ll be working for a business that gives back - The Oglesby Charitable Trust has donated more than £25m since it started out in 2001. Supporting charities across Arts and Culture, Education, Environment, Medical Research and Social & Health Inequality.