Payroll & People Advisor
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK, CM1 1
Contract: Fixed Term, Full Time
Salary: From £26,316 to £30,959 per annum
Working Style: Anywhere worker
Closing Date: 14th September 2025
This is an opportunity to gain knowledge and experience of the payroll services and responding effectively to customers' enquiries in a timely and professional manner and meeting service standards. This can be via the customer portal, in writing, or verbally in a call or meeting.
This role is offered as a 6 month fixed term contract/secondment. As an Anywhere Worker, the role combines remote and office-based working. You will attend the office at County Hall, Chelmsford approximately 1 day per week, and may need to attend other Essex County Council offices during the contract.
The Role:
The payroll service sits within the People, Policy, Economy and Public Health function, to influence both the customer and employee experience in a key area of employee engagement. Providing a comprehensive service, investing in new technology to better support users and enable an empowered self-service and support function.
You will provide support and resolutions quickly and efficiently at the first point of call. Our ethos is to provide advice, support and guidance that is simple, clear, efficient, and effective, including communication, terminology, and our processes.
The role requires a strong system knowledge to undertake user acceptance training.
Key Responsibilities:
* Where possible supporting and guiding employees in using self-service.
* Responsible for resolving complex payroll queries to ensure timeframes are met within agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
* Support the requirement for ensuring the integrity and security of personal, contractual and financial information, to meet legislation and Council policies.
* Work collaboratively within a team, to ensure work is processed and delivered to a high standard, ensuring quality of outputs.
* Responding effectively to customers' enquiries in a timely and professional manner and meeting service standards, via the customer portal, in writing, or verbally in a call or meeting.
* Supports the drive to improve the service and quality of outputs and system testing to exceed customer expectations.
* Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.
Experience and Qualifications:
Essential:
* Educated to RQF Level 3, or equivalent by experience.
* Evidence of continuing professional development and knowledge in relevant professional area, working towards a CIPP qualification.
* Professional experience in communicating with customers in written, verbal and virtual formats.
* Ability to interpret policies and procedures to deal with a variety of customer enquiries with the aim for a resolution.
Desirable:
* A demonstrable track record of providing exceptional customer service.
* Working collaboratively with colleagues to deliver good practice and advice on policy.
* Ability to communicate effectively, demonstrating empathy, listening, and questioning skills to a very high level, with a high standard of written communication.
* Experience of working in a customer-orientated environment, dealing with queries in a service delivery setting and continuously seeking to improve the services provided.
Why Essex?
Essex County Council (ECC) is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. ECC is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and is committed to interviewing all disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements under the Job Interview Scheme if they require reasonable adjustments. We also commit to interviewing all veterans and care leavers who meet the minimum requirements.
We offer flexible working options and focus on innovation, and we value integrity and ethical behaviour. If your role requires a DBS check, you will need to register with the DBS update service. This is an annual subscription for which you are responsible.
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