Payroll Specialist 
£24,570 - £28,000 plus great benefits including 28 days holiday and up to 10% pensions contribution (Work Level 6C)
12-month FTC – start date, August 2025    
Manchester city centre - in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).  

We’re looking for a Payroll Specialist to join the Payroll Operations team within our wider Co-op Business Services (CBS) organisation. CBS is made up of a number of diverse teams dedicated to delivering high-quality, reliable and cost-effective business services across our Co-op. You’ll play a key role in helping CBS to support and realise our group vision of ‘co-operating to build more value for member-owners every day’.

Our Payroll Operations team process the salaries for approximately 70,000 Co-op employees and pensioners on a 4-week cycle, and their goal is to make sure that every colleague is paid the right amount at the right time.

In this role, you’ll be working in a high-volume environment, with a seriously complex payroll that covers the entire Co-op family of businesses. If you have the payroll experience and team working skills that we need, then we can offer you the opportunity to build your knowledge and develop your skills with a business that puts people at the heart of its strategy.

What you’ll do

•    Use the Oracle Fusion system to process payroll data to tight deadlines 
•    Process starters, leavers, absences and ad-hoc payments
•    Perform manual calculations and analysis to make sure payroll is completed in line with high Co-op standards
•    Check key payroll control reports to make sure they’re accurate and compliant to government legislation
•    Spot opportunities for continuous improvement, identifying ways to further streamline our payroll service

This role would suit people who have

•    Some previous payroll experience with the ability to confidently complete manual calculations 
•    A high level of accuracy and attention to detail 
•    The ability to confidently use Microsoft Word and Excel
•    Good team working skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with others but also to work autonomously with support 
•    Good organisational skills, with the ability to manage a large caseload and prioritise your work

Why Co-op?

If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services).

•    An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
•    28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays 
•    A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
•    Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
•    Coaching and training to support your career development
•    Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities.

Building a diverse environment

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.
If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-wellbeing

Please note that we may close applications for this role early.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.

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