Outsourced Payroll Service Manager in Manchester

Outsourced Payroll Service Manager

BrightHR Manchester, England, United Kingdom

Salary: Up to £55,000 Location: Manchester

Purpose

The business now seeks a Payroll Manager who will lead, shape, and successfully grow BrightHR\’s Managed Payroll Service, ensuring all payroll processing activity for our large client base is completed on time, within budget and error‑free.

Reports to

Head of Payroll Services

Hours of work

Monday – Friday 8:30 am – 5 pm

Day‑to‑Day Responsibilities

• Leading and managing the Payroll Managed Service, driving operational excellence, and promoting professional development.
• Demonstrate accurate and timely Payroll Processing scheduling systems and methodology, building in contingency timescales to meet 100 % BACS deadlines at all times.
• Effectively manage customer slippage and late data submission, advising on Supplementary Pay runs and chargeable re‑runs as appropriate.
• Ensuring all aspects of payroll processing for the portfolio of BrightHR Managed Payroll Service clients are completed accurately and within SLA timeframes. Measure client non‑adherence to agreed submission deadlines and liaise with clients to maintain delivery against agreed deadlines.
• Ensuring all client queries are responded to and resolved within the BrightHR SLA.
• Liaising directly with clients to fully understand their payroll needs, build relationships, and manage expectations.
• Maintaining compliance with current UK payroll legislation, informing clients about any changes that may affect their business and people.
• Developing and implementing internal processes and controls to ensure quality, accuracy, and security of payroll services.
• Meeting departmental and service delivery KPIs and quality standards for the team.
• Taking ownership of service improvement initiatives, drawn from internal and external stakeholder feedback.
• Play a key role in working to enhance BrightHR\’s payroll service offerings to its clients.
• Conduct regular service review meetings with key stakeholders, managing and reporting accuracy statistics by pay period. Manage all credit requests through the process, taking a standard approach to resolving compensation requests, as per contractual terms.
• Flag any clients at risk of termination, proactively managing all service issues through full resolution in a timely manner.

Key Requirements

• Deep understanding of UK payroll legislation and tax regulations.
• Provide escalation support for in depth pay queries from both the Advisors and Payroll Specialists.
• Experience in a payroll leadership or managerial role, or ready for the step‑up.
• Drive all regular auditing of key systems to ensure BrightHRs compliance with any accreditations such as security (ISO9001), Quality Management Systems (27001) and ongoing Anti‑Money‑Laundering reporting requirements.
• Deliver capacity management methodology that supports accurate and timely payroll processing, monitoring individual payslip productivity metrics and reporting on challenges during peak processing. Use of visual management and daily short‑interval control boards would be an advantage.
• Ensure resources are deployed during peak processing to ensure capacity is met, and time off in lieu is taken back outside of peak processing.
• Previous experience in either delivering or managing outsourced payroll services, ideally within a bureau environment.
• Technically savvy, with the ability to identify feature or data gaps within HR and payroll systems.
• Experience in HR and payroll systems, and the ability to manage a prioritised list of product enhancements.
• CIPP qualified, or suitably qualified by experience.
• Excellent ability in building and maintaining positive client relationships.
• The ability to become a brand ambassador for BrightHR and its sister companies.
• The ability to conduct full root‑cause analysis on any errors within timescales, giving the customer assurances on actions to avoid re‑occurrence.

Benefits

• Enhanced holidays – 25 days, increasing to 27 after 2 years of service and 28 after 5 years of service.
• Private health care cover after 5 years of service.
• New business referral scheme.
• Access to Health Shield.
• Access to the EAP service.
• Refer a friend scheme.
• Paid birthday leave.
• Pension scheme contribution increasing to 5 % after 5 years of service and again to 7 % after 7 years of service.
• Group life insurance.
• Eye care contribution.
• Free fruit.
• Travel season ticket loan scheme.
• Milestone recognition.
• Discounted products – Manchester City centre parking (AO Arena) / First Bus Travel Club Membership / Microsoft Home User programme / Anglian Home Improvements.
• Pace health club (situated in the park Inn) discounted gym membership and spa treatments.
• Park Inn 20 % off food and drink.
• New Century food and drink discount.
• Revolution De Cuba food and drink discount.
• Cycle 2 Work scheme – after probationary period.
• On‑site gym.
• Bright Exchange perks.

Values & Behaviours

• Living the company values: We care, We take action, we innovate, we inform, and we do the right thing.
• We lead by example and recognise those living our values.
• We drive the narrative by inspiring and engaging our team.
• We collaborate with rigor and embrace diversity of thought.
• We deliver with a united voice.
• We take ownership by staying close to team performance by super coaching and walking the walk.
• We keep our approach simple and stick to the playbook to deliver on promise.
• We think critically and commercially, assess the situation before jumping to the solution.

About BrightHR

We are BrightHR; the only software powered by HR, health & safety, and legal experts. Everything you need to simply manage your staff, all in one place, PLUS free tools to set your business apart.

We are on a mission to transform people management for businesses. We’ve been making life easier for employers since 2015 with our range of innovative software, providing HR, H&S, and business support to over 95,000 businesses globally.

We are a people business. The market moves quickly and so do we. We put the customer first, working hard and always looking ahead, purposefully innovating to ensure peace of mind.

BrightHR is an Equal Opportunity and Disability Confident Employer, committed to diversity and inclusion without regard to protected characteristics.