Payroll, Pensions and HR Administrator in Crawley

Location - Northleigh, The Grange, Tower St, Chichester PO19 1RL (Fully Onsite)

Job Type – Contract, Up to 31st July 2026

The Shared Services unit at our company supports the County Council and all services in order to help make the best use of available resources and deliver County Strategy objectives and effective services. We are currently recruiting for Payroll, Pensions & HR Administrators to join our HR Shared Services. They are excellent roles to provide you with an exciting opportunity to develop your skills in Payroll & Human Resources.

About the job

These roles provide reliable, efficient and effective flexible support across teams of a high-level administrative nature relating to the delivery of a specialist payroll service. It requires concentrated mental attention to work on varied pension, pay, employment and financial processing and related administrative tasks. Key duties include:

• Setting up new starter details
• Processing changes to existing contracts
• Calculating payroll related information
• Responding to typical client queries
• Giving standard information and guidance relating to the service
• Maintaining records and producing standard correspondence according to set procedures and deadlines

What you’ll need to succeed

To thrive in this role, you will need good knowledge of Excel and Word, be confident, flexible, resilient, organised, be able to balance priorities and deadlines and enjoy working as part of a team. You’ll be comfortable working on routine payroll processing and related administrative tasks. You’ll have experience working in a customer focussed role, with the ability to explain basic payroll information. You’ll be dealing with council and school staff on the telephone, and will need to demonstrate excellent customer care and communication skills when responding to potentially sensitive payroll queries from staff. You’ll also need to be able to work on your own initiative, organising your work appropriately and responding to changing priorities to meet agreed deadlines.

Required experience and skills (These will be used as the shortlisting criteria)

Key Skills:

• Good numeracy skills in order to work with figures and make sound and accurate financial calculations, working methodically.
• Clear and effective written communication skills to process standard letters, to write non-standard correspondence and respond to emails appropriately.
• Good analytical and problem-solving skills to analyse specialist information and draw practical conclusions and appropriate actions with an understanding of relevant policies and procedures.
• Good verbal communication skills for answering telephone queries effectively and communicating with managers and team members.
• The ability to embrace change and adapt to changing situations and new ways of working positively and effectively.
• The ability to plan and prioritise work, setting timescales and organising activities in co-ordination with others to meet objectives and deadlines.

Qualifications and/or experience:

• GCSEs with A-C passes including Maths and English, or equivalent qualification or experience demonstrating that level of numeracy and literacy.
• CIPP, NVQ Level 3 (Foundation in Pensions or Payroll Administration), relevant experience, studying towards an equivalent qualification, or commitment towards qualification and evidence of continuing professional development or relevant experience - Desirable
• Experience of payroll or pensions practice, applications, and regulations.
• Experience of working in a customer orientated environment and providing advice or guidance to managers or customers, explaining specialist or technical information.
• A good understanding of office systems and practices, usually demonstrated by experience of working in an office environment.
• Sound and accurate overall IT and keyboard skills including MS Word, Excel and Outlook.
• Some awareness and technical skills in the use of major computerised financial systems for invoicing or a similar service - Desirable
• Experience of working in a relevant specialist environment demonstrating knowledge of the related practice and procedures - Desirable

Key responsibilities

• Delivers timely and efficient specialist administrative support across teams with an awareness of team requirements.
• Prioritises day to day work in the short term, working with colleagues to deliver objectives and a customer focussed service.
• Processes timely and accurate payments, contracts of employment, DBS applications, variations to pay, changes to personnel and pension records, or other administration tasks as instructed.
• Uses SAP or other large computerised system to undertake payroll processes according to procedures.
• Performs related calculations and works with formulae where necessary.
• Analyses information to draw conclusions relating to employees individual pension records, payments, leave entitlement or terms and conditions of employment in order to process various related tasks appropriately.
• Produces standard letters and correspondence working independently to ensure timely, appropriate and accurate written communication.
• Updates and maintains relevant system records relating to the service appropriately and accurately.
• Follows procedures and processes in order to respond independently to daily telephone, email and written queries.
• Provides advice, guidance and information to clients, including policy and procedure application.
• Refers complex or technical queries, and those unrelated to the service appropriately, working under guidance on unusual or complex issues.
• Communicates with and develops good working relationships with relevant managers and colleagues in order to deliver an effective service.
• Communicates with customers appropriately, using tact, understanding, and a sound knowledge of the service to resolve queries and difficulties with people who may be upset, confused or angry e.g. about a late or incorrect payment.
• Some direct responsibility for finance through the appropriate and accurate regular handling of financially related work including preparation of payments information and raising invoices relating to services.
• Direct responsibility for appropriate and accurate daily handling and processing of confidential and sometimes sensitive or personal financial or other related information relating to the service.
• Remains up to date and compliant with all relevant organisational procedures, policies and professional codes of conduct in order to uphold standards of best practice.

You will promote and demonstrate the values of our organisation:

• Trust and Support
• Listen and Act Upon
• Customer Centred
• Honest and Realistic
• Genuinely Valued

You will promote and demonstrate the cultural ambition of our organisation: “We have an inclusive and supportive culture, work in partnership and reward individual and team contribution”

You will keep the organisation’s climate and environmental goals in mind when carrying out your day-to-day work.