Job Title: Employment Services Administrator

Grade: B3 £25,584 - £27,269

Hours: 37

Contract: Permanent

Location: Merrion House

INTERNAL ONLY VACANCY. This post is open to existing Leeds City Council employees only. Applications will not be considered from external candidates.

Join the Business Support Centre Enquiry Team: - Payroll and Telephony specialists

Are you an enthusiastic individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment? We are looking for someone just like you to join our telephone Enquiry Team, focusing on dealing with a wide range of payroll related queries over the telephone and by email.

About the Role:

• The Enquiry Team is part of our fast-paced Employment Services, managing over 40,000 employee records.
• The team deals with more than 2,000 telephone queries a month on a wide range of payroll related matters to support the Council and other key external partners to deliver an effective payroll service.
• The team works closely with key support service partners such as HR, to support managers and employees from the initial recruitment to retirement and all related activity in between, to ensure an accurate and efficient payroll services.
• You will be required to provide information and respond to queries from colleagues and managers on HR policy, employment legislation, family leave entitlement and other payroll related matters

Key Responsibilities:

• Handle telephone and email enquiries related to payroll and HR administration.
• Provide a customer-focused service to Leeds City Council employees and external organisations such as schools and academies.
• Serve as the welcoming, enthusiastic, and professional first point of contact for payroll and employment services via telephone.
• Maintain knowledge around payroll policies and procedures such as statutory and voluntary deductions, calculation of statutory payments, application of attendance schemes such as sickness and family leave and an appreciation of the pensions schemes.

What We Offer:

• Challenging and varied work with opportunities for personal development.
• Training and support in providing great customer service with a focus on payroll and HR administration.
• A great team ethos and a supportive work environment.

Requirements:

• Welcoming, enthusiastic, and professional attitude.
• Good communication skills; particularly verbally via the telephone
• Ability to work flexibly to support other teams when necessary.
• Knowledge of GDPR and data protection legislation.
• Commitment to the Council’s values.

How to Apply:

Apply for this job online. 

Read our guidance for further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.

Contact Information: For further information about the vacancy, please contact Rebekah Hutchison (3786481) or Caroline Feather (3786455).

Working Hours:

• Enquiry lines are open from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Thursday, and 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on Friday.

Join us and be a vital part of maintaining a robust payroll system while providing exceptional telephony services!

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. 

We promote diversity and want a workforce that reflects the population of Leeds and the communities we serve. Leeds City Council is recognised in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index 2024. We are also an Age-friendly Employer, a Mindful Employer and a Disability Confident Leader. 

All new Leeds City Council appointments are made subject to the satisfactory completion of a six month probationary period. 

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, candidates must consider their own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the 'standard' salary rate of at least £38,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. For more information visit Skilled Worker visa on the government website. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job Purpose

Business Support Centre (BSC) is part of the HR and Business Support Functions within the Council’s Strategy and Resources directorate.

The BSC has a number of different teams supporting centralised processes including payroll and HR employee administration services. (Employment Services)

This role is working in the Employment Services Enquiry Team which is responsible for providing a customer facing service which involves dealing and rectifying customer queries on payroll and HR administration enquiries.

The Enquiry Team is made up of experienced payroll and HR administration staff who are committed to providing an excellent customer focused service using modern telephone equipment, to help manage call volumes and support our callers, undertaking quality monitoring through call recording. The Enquiry Team handled around 30,000 telephone enquiries last year and over 20,000 email enquiries and are the first point of contact for all payroll enquiries. We provide a customer focused and responsive service on a range of issues regarding employment contracts and associated pay and conditions, undertaking telephone transactions such as changes to personal details, supporting managers and employees with customer access and self-service navigation enquiries within the MySelfService payroll and HR applications.

The role is based within the Enquiry Team, but flexibility and cross team working is required to support wider team workloads, future development and service changes.

Responsibilities:

• Deal with and resolve payroll specific enquiries received by telephone and email.
• Maintain knowledge of payroll processes, legislation and policies.
• Working with high levels of accuracy for tasks such as checking documents and recording numerical and alphabetical information.
• Identify problems and areas for improvement and offer solutions.
• Supporting staff and develop new team members.
• Use own initiative and judgement where appropriate, providing outcomes and solutions for customers from a range of options.
• Work on your own, manage your own workload and use your initiative to adhere to time scales and deadlines.
• Ability to analyse and collate data and use it to produce reports.
• Understanding of legislative business, financial, audit, confidential and operational requirements of the service, and the impact on its day-to-day work.
• Work flexibly and move within service areas.
• Willing to abide by the Council’s Equal Opportunities and Health and Safety Policies.
• Willing to actively participate in training and development activities to ensure up to date knowledge, skills and continuous professional development.

The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.

Qualifications

Essential requirements: Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.

• Well-developed communication and interpersonal skills with a wide range of people including telephone, face to face and written communication skills, including the process for dealing with varied information with a wide range of audiences (A/I)
• Work with, and within multiple teams of staff and contribute to its development with suggestions for new ways of working (A/I)
• Experience of working on your own and using your own initiative to adhere to timescales and deadlines (A/I)
• Experience and understanding of the importance of providing excellent customer service and experience of dealing positively with challenging situations (A/I)
• Knowledge of the applications, systems and IT programmes utilised by the service and being able to accurately record and retrieve information. (A/I)

Essential Behavioural & other Characteristics

• Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours and codes of conduct.
• Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambition of Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon.
• Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
• Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing.
• Willingness to actively participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up to date knowledge and skills.
• Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
• Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity of Leeds City Council.
• Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person.
• The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.

Desirable requirements: Candidates are not required to meet all the following desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between candidates.

•  Experience of working in a payroll environment.

• Experience of working in telephony based role.

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