Invitation to submit a proposal for human resources information system (HRIS) and fully managed payroll service

Vanguard Learning Trust invites qualified suppliers to tender for the provision of a cloud-based human resources information system (HRIS) and a fully managed payroll service to support approximately 615 employees across 6 schools and a central Trust team. The solution must deliver secure, efficient HR and payroll processes, ensure statutory compliance with UK employment, pensions and HMRC regulations, and provide high-quality support to both Trust leaders and school-based staff.

Objectives

The Trust aims to procure a combined HRIS and payroll solution that:

Provides a single source of truth for employee data across all schools and the Trust's central team.

Reduces administrative workloads and manual processing.

Ensures accurate, timely payroll with all third-party submissions completed by the provider, including HMRC, pension providers, and statutory bodies.

Supports workforce planning, reporting, and strategic oversight at Trust level.

Offers excellent employee and manager self-service.

Ensures data security, GDPR compliance, and UK-based hosting.

Scope of software and services

The software will include:

General HR system of record (SoR)

Absence and attendance management functionality, which will link to occupational sickness scheme requirements

Time and expenses (the functionality for employees to log additional hours and expenses, which would only be approved at managerial level)

Organisation structure

Employee Self Service

Manager Self Service

People Analytics

A fully managed payroll and pension service

The Trust would not be procuring the functionality below in the first instance but may consider doing at a later date. These are, therefore, 'desirable' rather than 'essential':

Integrated applicant tracking and onboarding functionality

Performance management and appraisal functionality

Case management functionality

The service provision will include:

Fully managed payroll services

Fully managed pensions services

Solution hosting

Requirements

Our requirements (functional and non-functional) have been listed and are provided in an Excel sheet along with this document.

Supplier Responses

Suppliers are requested to complete the supplier response columns within the requirements document and to provide a commercial proposal using the template in the attached sheet. Additionally, please provide a high level project plan to demonstrate the timescales that your solution could be deployed in and a copy of your customer support service-level agreement (SLA). Finally, short-listed providers will be required to complete the Trust's data protection impact assessment (DPIA).