Payroll Pensions Lead in Chester House, Epsom Ave, Handforth, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, SK9 3DF Hybrid working with office based working from our Handforth Support Office for 1 day a week

Location: Hybrid working with office based working from our Handforth Support Office for 1 day a week

At Pets at Home we have an ambitious plan, to become “The Best Pet Care Business in the world” and a key part of delivering this in a sustainable way will be our most cherished assets: our People and our Culture. We are a business built on strong values and behaviours which guide everything we do. These are our foundations which will help us to deliver our better world pledge to create a better world for pets and the people who love them.

We have an excellent position of trust with the nation’s pet owners and provide an unrivalled range of products and services including nutrition, health, play, essentials, and grooming.

The business is going through an exciting time, and we have a number of new roles in our expanding Propositions team to help create and shape the future consumer offer for Pets at Home across a number of strategic areas incorporating all of the products and services that we offer.

About the Role

The role holder will be responsible for pension management and administration across the Pets at Home Group. Reporting to the Group Head of Payroll they will lead in respect of matters relating to pensions compliance, administration, processes, service and reporting to ensure a high performing, accurate and compliant pension provision.

The role holder will be responsible for all aspects of administering pension schemes, from communicating with pension scheme members to developing new pension policies. They will take an active role in both administration and the development of new and existing schemes.

You will be comfortable taking the lead on key aspects and being personally 'hands on’ with pension tasks and will have experience of participating in the review/audit of pension arrangements and have excellent knowledge and understanding of pensions auto enrolment. 

Key Responsibilities

• Ensuring compliance with current statutory legislation and regulations.
• Ensure scheme reporting and pay over obligations are fulfilled and accurate.
• Ensure that pension schemes are effectively administered and meet agreed quality, performance and customer care standards.
• Resolving individual pension queries.
• Create and manage Colleague communications in relation to pension scheme content.
• Develop relevant policies and procedures documentation relating to payroll and pensions operation; evaluating and providing advice or intervention where required.
• Work with Group Reward in improving schemes in line with business objectives.
• Managing IT-based pension administration systems ensuring accuracy and effectiveness.
• Keep up to date with current statutory regulations that affect pension management and administration.
• Maintain up to date knowledge and awareness of the schemes rules and current pension issues which may affect the business and its members, obtaining specific advice from the pension schemes’ administrators as necessary.
• Management of contributions to be recovered in respect of unpaid leave of absence, including maternity and sickness.
• Ensure the monthly collection and payment of employer and employee contributions, AVC contributions and the maintenance of accurate accounts in respect of contributions for pension scheme members.
• Perform period reconciliations of pension contributions and submissions to the pension schemes.
• Recruit, train and manage a team of pensions administrators.
• Manage ongoing of Automatic Enrolment and re-enrolment duties and communications.
• Lead in the completion of end of year sampling exercises and audits undertaken by the Schemes.
• Lead in providing professional and expert guidance on payroll and pensions matters to colleagues, partners and managers to assist with query resolution. 
• Responsibility of ensuring that the payroll team undertake appropriate training and fully understand and apply the required policies, procedures and information / records management standards in the course of their duties and that appropriate processes are in place to monitor compliance.
• Work with the Payroll Management Team to develop innovative ways of working and embrace technology and transformation that delivers a high performance and quality of service.
• Occasional travel may be required in the fulfilment of responsibilities.

Skills Required.

• Excellent interpersonal and relationship management skills
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Analytical skills and the ability to interpret, present and analyse complex information
• Excellent excel skills dealing with high volume data
• Strong influencing and negotiation skills
• Excellent numeracy and IT literacy
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Excellent understanding of using a variety of payroll and T&A systems. Experience of SAP ECC is preferable.
• Excellent time management skills that enable you to prioritise and organise your workload and the workload of the team, whilst striving to deliver a high level of Customer Service.
• Able to operate in a service/customer-focussed role, closely monitoring quality, risk and success.
• Able to thrive in a very busy and ever-changing environment and a willingness to work flexibly, quickly and acquire new skills and knowledge when necessary.
• Excellent knowledge of Payroll and Pensions Legislation and continuous personal development to ensure an awareness of forth coming changes that will impact payroll and pensions.
• The ability to lead, sometimes in challenging circumstances, with the resilience to maintain service objectives and deliver to operational deadlines.
• Experience of leading and co-ordinating a team in pensions within a complex organisation. 
• Ability to coach, motivate, develop and share knowledge with others.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to present information to a range of audiences.
• Ability to comfortably handle confidential information and adhere to all GDPR legislation.
• Sense of ownership and pride in your performance and its impact on the company’s success.
• A passion for Pets is what we’re all about: this is a must!

Our diversity and inclusion vision is that everyone is welcome and feels part of our group. If you think you’re a good match to what we are looking for, and you share our belief that together ‘we’re better with pets’, we’d like to hear from you, whatever your background or circumstances.

About Our Purpose

Far more than a retailer, Pets at Home Group is the UK’s leading pet care specialist, fulfilling every possible pet and owner need, from food and accessories to grooming and vet services. Since 1991, we’ve been building a business around pets and their owners and we’ve set our sights on becoming the best pet care business in the world. Join us now and you can be part of that journey, developing your future as we develop ours. This is a place where you can take pride and passion in your work within an inspiring, professional team that’s focused on supporting pets and their owners to live happier lives together.

We have over 450 stores, over 310 Groom Rooms and 440 First Opinion Vet Practices. Our business is fast-paced, innovative and fun and it's our people that make the real difference. This is a fantastic opportunity to come and work for an award winning company who put people at the very heart of everything they do.

We’re driven by the wellbeing of pets and we make sure we look after our people too. We depend on your commitment and innovation, and reward it with competitive pay and comprehensive benefits. Together we’ll create the future of pet care.