Payroll Administrator in Cheshire, Widnes

Make a difference behind the scenes – and get payroll right, every time. We’re looking for a Payroll Administrator to join the highly dedicated and dependable Payroll Team based at our Widnes head office. You will play a vital role in ensuring our colleagues across the charity are paid accurately, on time and in full compliance with payroll legislation. This is a role where attention to detail truly matters – your expertise will directly support positive colleague experiences, strong financial control and high‑quality services across the organisation.

Working as part of a collaborative and supportive payroll team, you’ll help deliver a reliable, customer‑focused payroll service while building trusted relationships with colleagues, operational teams and corporate functions. This is a part time permanent role offering 30 hours a week over 5 days with attendance at our head office in Widnes required at least once a week so our ideal candidate will be based within an hour's commute of Widnes.

What is "The Deal" for you?

• Pension: contributory pension scheme
• Benefits: retail discounts, holiday discounts, cycle to work scheme and travel discounts through our benefits app
• Best Lives Possible: You'll be working for an award winning charity who is passionate about ensuring our colleagues and the people we support lead the best lives possible
• Development: We'll work with you to develop your career or to learn and experience new things. We're passionate about developing our people!
• Support: From our Employee Assistance Programme (available 24/7), financial support options, and wellbeing fund you'll have the support available to lead an easier (financial) life

You’ll support the end‑to‑end payroll process, ensuring accuracy, compliance and excellent service delivery. In this varied role you will be:

• Processing payroll accurately and to agreed deadlines, ensuring colleagues’ hours, pay and records are correct
• Maintaining payroll records for starters, leavers, absences, statutory leave and statutory payments
• Investigating and resolving payroll queries within agreed service levels, providing clear and confident guidance
• Producing payroll reports and data to support TUPE activity, local authorities and DWP requests
• Checking payroll amendments daily for accuracy and completeness
• Reconciling payroll reports and supporting monthly payroll sign‑off
• Processing payments to the correct cost centres to support accurate financial reporting
• Supporting compliance with HMRC regulations, internal policies and audit requirements
• Identifying and escalating payroll risks or anomalies and contributing to continuous improvement

You’ll also work closely with Finance, People Operations, Operational Leaders, Legal, IT and Quality teams to ensure payroll information is well managed and trusted.

Our ideal candidate:

Essential

• Experience working in a payroll or payroll administration environment, with responsibility for accurate, time‑sensitive processing
• Sound understanding of end‑to‑end payroll processes, including starters, leavers, absences and statutory payments
• Working knowledge of payroll legislation and HMRC requirements
• Experience handling confidential employee data with discretion and integrity
• Strong customer service skills, with the ability to explain payroll matters clearly and professionally
• Understanding of payroll checking, reconciliations and audit trails
• Excellent attention to detail and numerical confidence
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple deadlines

Desirable

• CIPP qualification
• Experience using payroll systems such as Agresso / Unit 4 or similar
• Confidence producing payroll and financial reports

Why join us?

You’ll be part of an organisation where your work genuinely matters. We value professionalism, collaboration and continuous improvement – and we recognise the essential role payroll plays in supporting our colleagues to do their best work.

If you’re looking for a payroll role where accuracy, service and purpose come together, we’d love to hear from you. Please note, if you are interested in this role, we welcome your application as soon as possible! Depending on the volume of applications received, the vacancy may be closed before the expected advertising end date.

Interested and want to know a bit more? To find out more about our charity check out: We’re really proud to be a Hive HR Employee Voice Certified organisation, a recognition that confirms our commitment to creating a culture where our colleagues are not only encouraged to share their thoughts, but where this feedback is actively sought and acted upon to drive positive change at every level.

In our 2025 Colleague Engagement Survey, 59% (nearly 3,800) of our people shared their feedback and insights, giving us an incredible Employee Net Promoter Score of +34. The Employee Net Promoter Score is a measure of how willing our colleagues are to recommend us as a good place to work to their loved ones – and a score of +34 is considered a Very Good score when compared to global benchmarks set by hundreds of other organisations.