Senior Pay and Reward Adviser

Senior Pay & Reward Adviser

Basis: Permanent, Full time 36 hours per week

Salary: £40,031 - £42,033 per annum

Location: London, Belfast, Cardiff or Edinburgh Office (Hybrid - min. 2 days in office) or Remote (UK)

About the role

This is an opportunity to build your career in pay and reward in a role where your analysis, judgement and advice will directly influence the experience of colleagues across the Electoral Commission.

Working across People Services, you will deliver a varied portfolio covering pay reviews, promotions, retention cases, payroll assurance, statutory and contractual pay, job evaluation, benchmarking and reward. You will work with colleagues and senior stakeholders to turn complex pay information into clear, practical advice and support fair, consistent and evidence-based decisions.

In particular, you will:

* deliver annual and ad hoc pay activity, providing professional advice and constructive challenge to support fair and consistent decisions
* review and validate payroll outputs, investigating discrepancies and coordinating their resolution
* calculate and validate statutory and contractual pay entitlements, including family-related and sickness pay
* analyse pay and reward data, undertake benchmarking, job evaluation and reporting, and translate findings into clear recommendations
* contribute to the development of our reward and benefits approach by analysing uptake, cost, value and market information
* provide technical guidance and coaching to colleagues, sharing your knowledge and helping build capability across People Services
* identify practical improvements to our processes, guidance and controls, helping make our services simpler, more accurate and effective.

About the team

You will join a newly created team within People Services, giving you an exciting opportunity to be part of the team as it develops and establishes new ways of working.

We want to bring together colleagues with different experiences, perspectives and ideas. You will be encouraged to share what you have learned elsewhere, contribute ideas and help us develop practical, effective ways of delivering our services. This is an opportunity not simply to step into established processes, but to contribute to how the team works and continuously improve the experience we provide to colleagues and managers across the Commission.

Working closely with the People Services Manager and colleagues across the wider People function, you will also build relationships with People Partners, Finance, our external payroll provider, senior leaders and external reward specialists.

As the team's Pay and Reward Adviser, you will bring specialist knowledge while continuing to develop your own expertise. You will provide technical guidance, coaching and quality assurance to an Adviser and Support Officer, sharing knowledge and helping to build capability across the team. The role has no formal line management responsibility.

You will bring:

* Experience of working in an HR/People Services, payroll or reward environment and providing advice on pay and employee matters.
* Practical experience of pay and payroll activity, including reviewing information, identifying discrepancies and supporting their accurate and timely resolution.
* Experience of calculating or validating statutory and contractual pay entitlements, including maternity, paternity, sickness or other family-related pay.
* Strong analytical and numerical skills, with experience of using people, payroll or reward data to identify issues and inform recommendations.
* The ability to explain technical or complex information clearly and work constructively with a range of stakeholders.

Knowledge of broader reward practices such as pay structures, benefits, job evaluation, market benchmarking and equal pay considerations would be valuable.

We are interested in the evidence you can bring from your experience, including transferable experience gained in different sectors and working environments.

Why work for us?

The Role:

This is an opportunity to join at an important point in the development of People Services. As part of a newly created team, you will have the space to bring your experience and ideas, learn from colleagues and contribute to how our pay and reward services develop.

The role also offers breadth that is not always available in a specialist pay position. You will gain exposure across pay, payroll assurance, statutory pay, job evaluation, benchmarking, reward and benefits rather than focusing on one narrow area.

The Benefits:

Alongside the professional development offered by the role, you will join an organisation that recognises the importance of flexibility, wellbeing and long-term financial security.

We offer a strong total reward package, including:

* Flexible working and hybrid model for office-based staff, with a minimum of 40% of working time spent in the office
* Flexi-time scheme, allowing flexible hours with the option to accrue and take flexi leave
* 28 rising to 30 days annual leave + bank holidays
* Civil Service pension scheme (28.97% employer contribution)
* Performance-related pay

Supporting disabled applicants

The Electoral Commission is proud to be a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. As part of this commitment, we aim to prioritise interviews for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria listed in the job description.

There may, however, be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. For example, during periods of exceptionally high application volumes or seasonal recruitment activity, the Commission may need to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled applicants.

If you have a disability and would like to be considered under this commitment, please indicate this when you apply. We also welcome requests for reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process or within the workplace.