Payroll Assistant

We’re looking for a Payroll Assistant to join our Group Services HR team in Bristol, supporting the smooth and accurate running of Osborne Clarke’s UK payroll. This is a great opportunity for someone with strong attention to detail, good numeracy and an interest in HR/finance to develop their payroll experience in a professional services environment.

This is a permanent role offering hybrid working, we're open to full time or part time working arrangements.

The role

Working as part of the Reward & Benefits team and reporting to the Senior Reward Manager, you will support the Payroll Executive to ensure all employees are paid correctly, on time and in line with best practice. You’ll help maintain high standards of data accuracy across our HR and payroll systems (SelectHR, SelectPay and payroll audit files), and act as a key point of contact for day-to-day payroll queries.

You’ll contribute to continuous process improvement and provide professional support to OC and Business Services so that our clients receive consistently excellent services.

What you’ll be doing

Monthly payroll

• Supporting the Payroll Executive with the smooth and accurate running of the UK monthly payroll (currently circa 1,500 employees).
• Providing first-line administrative support for payroll queries, resolving straightforward issues and escalating more complex matters to the Payroll Executive or wider Reward team.
• Checking payroll elements (e.g. salary changes, allowances, deductions) against authorised instructions, ensuring they are accurately reflected in SelectHR, SelectPay and the MCS.
• Checking payroll data entered into the HRIS (SelectHR/SelectPay), including new joiners, leavers and changes to working patterns, in line with agreed processes and approvals.
• Performing payroll checks for the weekly payroll (e.g. 10KBI) four times a year, following established checklists and escalating issues or anomalies as required.
• Processing advances and P2s and liaising with Finance.
• Processing overtime, out of hours payments, season ticket loans, cycle to work loans, GAYE donations and Friends & Family allowances, ensuring the MCS and/or SelectHR is updated accordingly.
• Completing new joiner payroll checks (against SelectHR), including validation of bank details, tax codes, pension status and benefit selections, ensuring all information is complete and accurate before payroll deadlines, and liaising with the Recruitment onboarding team as needed.
• Supporting payroll audit checks, flagging queries with HR Assistants and updating the MCS where appropriate.
• Requesting maternity schedules from SelectPay and checking them against internal records, flagging any discrepancies.
• Supporting basic reconciliation tasks for Payroll and Finance by running routine payroll reports and dealing with straightforward data queries.
• Issuing electronic payments and P60s to current and former employees on request.
• Assisting with rejected salary payments by updating bank details and ensuring corrections are captured in the following payroll run.

Payrolled benefits

• Updating payrolled benefit information on the MCS following receipt of the payroll changes file from Aon, and adding new joiners.
• Uploading monthly payroll benefit data to Select and/or the MCS before payroll deadlines.
• Checking Flex payments against the payroll trial and SelectHR and reporting discrepancies, working with the Benefits Advisor to resolve queries.

Pension scheme

• Using Aon reports to check pension contribution data and auto-enrolment status, ensuring changes are correctly reflected in payroll and escalating queries as needed.
• Assisting with updating Aon and Aegon on auto-enrolees and opt-outs, including checking refunds and ensuring they are processed correctly through payroll.
• Helping maintain accurate records of non-eligible jobholders in SelectHR.
• Providing administrative support for pension re-enrolment and pension certification activities.
• Updating email addresses for pension correspondence in SelectHR on new joiners’ first day.
• Creating new joiner pension accounts on Smartenrol and distributing auto-enrolment emails, reminding employees to verify their email address.

Other responsibilities

• Processing payroll-related invoices (including monthly payroll and childcare voucher invoices), adding appropriate budget codes, securing approvals and sending to Finance in line with agreed routes.
• Sending remittance advice to relevant third parties (e.g. GAYE, Accident Insurance, AOEs) prior to payments being made.
• Assisting in reconciling childcare voucher and similar benefit invoices to payroll records, escalating discrepancies.
• Entering payroll dates into Reward team diaries.
• Providing administrative support for annual BAU projects such as profit share, bonus and pay review (data entry, basic checks and report generation).
• Saving payroll files and supporting documentation to iManage, following naming conventions and retention guidelines.
• Liaising with SelectPay to resolve user access issues with payslips/P60s.
• Supporting the preparation of standard payroll and pension reports and returns as requested.

What we are looking for

• Strong numeracy skills and solid attention to detail, with the ability to spot and correct errors in payroll and benefits data.
• Comfortable working to fixed deadlines, able to remain calm under pressure while maintaining high standards of data integrity.
• Clear and confident verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain payroll information to non-specialist colleagues.
• Highly organised, with the ability to manage competing priorities and follow agreed processes accurately.
• Willing to seek clarification where instructions are unclear and to escalate issues appropriately.
• Professional, proactive and flexible approach, with a strong focus on delivering reliable support to the Payroll Executive and wider Reward team.
• Competent user of Microsoft Office (particularly Excel and Outlook) and keen to develop skills in HR and payroll systems (such as SelectHR and SelectPay).
• Prior experience in HR, payroll or finance would be helpful, with a genuine interest in building a career in payroll within a professional services environment.

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

Our recruitment process

Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.

We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.