Payroll Consultant at British Council

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.



We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.



Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.



British Council Pay Band: 6



Contract type: Standard Contract.



Closing Date: 18th November, 2024



Location: Ghana



This role is open for applications from employees who are currently located and have the right to work in Ghana. The successful candidate will remain in their current location/entity.



You must have the legal right to work in Ghana at the time of application as there is no relocation or sponsorship support.



British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service.  This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.



Role purpose



This role will be responsible for the creation and implementation of lean transactional payroll operations and for the running of payroll operations activities in the region, its compliance, efficiency, and accuracy. This will include designing tools, processes and procedures to manage a methodical payroll administration, leveraging MyHR and ensuring successful partnering and integration with other platforms. The key focus is to review, analyse, recommend, and drive regional payroll operational and administrative models, ensuring excellent implementation in the deployment of payroll operational process and procedures. The role requires a systematic, integrated approach with a focus on continuous improvement.



Role context



The British Council Professional Services are undergoing significant transformation. For the People function, this means significant change to the delivery of HR services to business leaders, line managers and employees.



The British Council has entered a contract with a professional services partner to provide People function services covering areas such as HR Admin, Learning and Development, Pre-Appointment Screening, Pre-Payroll administration.



This partner provides an important operational and tactical component to HR operations and, as such, it is important to the British Council that this is integrated with the People function services performed by British Council to deliver value and cost effectiveness to the HR organisation and excellent service to the wider organisation and our employees.



The Payroll Consultant will work with the professional services partner to deliver end to end payroll services in accordance with the strategic objectives of the People function and to continue to develop those services to ensure a seamless customer experience and the highest quality.



The Payroll Consultant is a member of the People Solutions team, which exists to enable business leaders to make good decisions within policy and process frameworks and to ensure that the fundamentals of people administration are delivered efficiently and effectively for all colleagues.



The People Solutions hubs ensure compliance with local legislation as well as meaningful interpretation of global policy to local context. The team has a key role to play in developing organisational capability in people management through advisory services and building a continuous improvement approach to delivery of operations services.



The role reports to the Payroll and Data Manager for the Hub



Main Accountabilities Include But Not Limited To



Leadership & management







Setting up and managing an efficient and effective payroll operations function.

Support in the alignment of processes and platforms to achieve integration to other HR and non-HR processes and platforms.

Support the continuous improvement of processes for better, faster and more customer focussed payroll operations.

Implement the regional payroll operations strategy, including review of existing delivery model and practices to ensure compliance, efficiency, and accuracy.



Relationship & stakeholder management







Collaborate with the People function to ensure a seamless employee experience from hire to retire.



Work In Conjunction With The MSP To







Review employee data (new hires, changes, additional earnings) from MyHR to inform payroll run(s) and pre-empt any issue, if any. In some countries data may come from multiple sources which will need to be reconciled.

Complete payroll calculations manually (through excel templates) or through a payroll system.

Make contributions to statutory bodies (pension, social security particularly).

Ensure system generated pay slips are distributed to employees accurately and on a timely manner.

Consolidate payroll register report and other payroll related reports and seek appropriate vetting and approvals for payroll processing.

Prepare all journals and accruals related to payroll in the countries allocated to this role.

Liaise with the respective government statutory bodies for matters related to statutory or government reporting.

Ensure accurate, timely payment and compliance with all statutory requirements. This will include notifying finance on fund allocation.

Ensure the preparation of annual tax reporting is accurate and timely and remind staff of the annual tax submissions deadlines

Ensure proper documentation and compliance for internal controls and audits.

Ensure timely processing of final settlement for leavers.

Ensure accurate processing of overtime payments and reimbursements.

Ensure timely processing of Purchase Request (PR) and Purchase Orders (PO) for HR related vendor payments i.e. medical insurance, medical claims, payroll vendor fees, etc.



Case Management







Attend to employee enquiries on payroll related issues via case management platform.

Timely management of queries – respond daily to queries via C4C (case management ticketing system), in line with Service Level Agreements.

Strive to understand stakeholder queries and resolve tickets in a customer centric manner.



Records Management







Maintain rigorous filing of all payroll related documentations (payslips and payroll reports especially).

Archive/ Destroy payroll records in line with data protection policies and practices in the country.

Support audits where required.



Service improvement







Support continuous improvement initiatives.

Approach issues and roadblocks with a continuous improvement mindset.

Contribute to outsourcing projects particularly at the stage of transition into business as usual.



Stakeholder Communication







Proactively communicate with all approvers and key personnel to ensure effective coordination and approvals of payroll payments.

Escalate issues to appropriate management levels in a timely manner to ensure fast resolution and risk mitigations are put in place.



Teamwork







Proactively support and offer help to other team members when their workload requires additional support.

Ask for help from management and team members where needed.

Support change initiatives and be a change advocate particularly in outsourcing initiatives.

Show flexibility in delivering activities that are not strictly in this role scope.

Involvement in projects or activities outside of the scope of work described here will be required. Support of local compliance requirements will be required.

Generate/ review various operational and statutory payroll reports like production report, quality and workforce management related reports on defined frequencies.



Collaborate With Other People Function Pillars







Work collaboratively with other People function areas to support the initiatives undertaken for the business.

Continuously feedback to other People function areas on changes and/or issues faced by the payroll team to ensure the business has a single combined HR perspective.



Role Specific Skills



There are three proficiency levels for HR skills: novice, developing and exemplary. The relevant proficiency level for this role is listed against each skill.



Business Acumen



Customer understanding - Understands customer needs & applies user-centric principles (novice).



Data literacy



Data driven - Grasps & uses data to make decisions and inform practice (novice).



People Advocacy



Risk mitigation & ethics – ensure ethical conduct and compliance and mitigates people risks (novice).



Executional Excellence



Action orientation - Implements actionable and adaptive plans to achieve results (novice).



Problem solving - Finds practical solutions to navigate and overcome obstacles (novice).



Interpersonal skills - Achieves shared goals using effective interpersonal skills (novice).



Minimum/essential



Role specific knowledge and experience







Experience of reviewing and improving payroll operations processes and practices.

Expertise/Experience of payroll operations across several countries in the region, including designing tools, processes and procedures.

Has worked in a multinational organization, with varied cultures and nationalities.

Experience leading payroll staff



Proven ability in solving process and technical issues.



Desirable







Knowledge of automation in payroll

Ability to demonstrate critical thinking skills and initiative.

Preferably experience in a shared service/outsourcing environment.



Experience in people management/team leadership is desired.



Language Requirements



The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required



A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.



Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement



The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.



The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.



We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.



Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.