Can Zellis support staff experience and secure departmental access?

Academic, professional services and casual staff can all access payslips, contracts, roles, benefits and updates through mobile self-service. This reduces HR queries and supports a consistent staff experience across campuses. Security groups can be assigned to a person, role or position to control what pages are visible and who’s details they can access. Individuals can manage their own information, managers can review and approve requests and access dashboards for better decision-making.

How quickly can a higher education institution implement the system?

All customers are different with their own unique requirements. However many customers have integrated Zellis in just a few weeks.

Does Zellis integrate with MIS, Finance, and timetabling systems?

Yes. Zellis connects seamlessly with student record systems, timetabling tools, finance systems and other core platforms. This ensures consistent workforce data and reduces manual processing errors.

Is the Zellis platform suitable for large universities and college groups?

The Zellis platform is scalable and adaptable. It addresses the needs of oganisations from 1,000 to 15,000+ employees with ease, managing academic contracts, variable hours, term-time roles, research posts, multiple appointments and a wide range of pension schemes. The platform ensures every scenario is processed accurately and audit-ready.

What support does Zellis provide during peak periods such as enrolment or year-end?

Zellis offers managed payroll services and resilience support to ensure continuity during busy periods or staff shortages. Experts can assist with onboarding new staff, processing peaks, or stabilising operations during change.

How does Zellis help higher education institutions strengthen governance?

Zellis provides automated right-to-work checks, visa tracking, audit trails, pensions compliance and approval workflows. Leaders gain real-time risk visibility and can evidence compliance confidently during audits or inspections.

Can diverse higher education roles and contracts be managed?

The Zellis platform supports all role types, including academic, administrative, support, research, visiting, fixed-term and hourly-paid staff. Multiple contract types and role-specific requirements are handled within the same system. Onboarding proceses can be tailored for each role, so all new starters can sign their contracts and complete induction training before their first day, so they can hit the ground running.

Does it align leave and planning with academic calendars?

Yes, leave and planning can be configured in line with academic calendars.

Higher Education

Reinventing worklife for Higher Education

Zellis empowers universities to redesign how work gets done by reducing administrative burden, applying AI to practical workforce challenges and giving academics, professional services teams and leaders more time to focus on learning, discovery and student success.

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Trusted by leading global clients

Why higher education chooses Zellis

Real work happens in lecture theatres, research centres, student services teams and campuses across the UK. But growing workforce complexity and administrative burden can pull people away from that mission.

Higher Education institutions manage complex pay rules, multiple staff groups, casual contracts and intricate pension schemes, all while maintaining strict audit and governance requirements. The challenge is ensuring administrative complexity doesn't get in the way of teaching, research and student support.

Accurate payroll for every contract type

Manage term-time, academic roles, irregular hours, research contracts, and multiple roles with complete accuracy.

Connected data for HR and Pay

Gain real-time visibility of workforce costs, compliance risks, and pay anomalies across faculties, campuses, and departments.

Compliance built in

Automated checks for right-to-work, visa tracking, pensions, National Minimum Wage, and audit-ready reporting.

Self-service

Mobile access to intelligent payslips, appointments, policies, and updates reduces admin queries and improves the campus experience.

The Zellis difference in Higher Education

With better insight, streamlined processes and accurate payroll, your teams can focus on research, teaching and student success, not administration. Applied AI helps colleagues spend less time navigating processes and more time focused on teaching, research and student support.

Designed for the sector
Support for complex pensions and academic-specific contract structures.
Actionable insight for leaders
Real-time dashboards highlight staffing trends, cost pressures, and compliance issues.
Integrated systems
Connect HR, payroll and existing systems for a single source of truth.
Secure and accessible
Role-based access and mobile-friendly tools give every colleague a seamless experience.

Ready to Bring Clarity and Confidence to HR and Payroll?

Join the universities using Zellis to streamline HR and payroll processes, enhance governance and free up teams to focus on teaching and research.

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Download the Higher Education brochure

Universities today face tightening budgets, fluctuating student numbers and increasing reliance on complex, multi‑contract workforces — all at a time when regulatory expectations from OfS, HESA, UKVI and multiple pension schemes continue to rise. Legacy systems simply weren’t built for this level of complexity.

Our Higher Education brochure shows how Zellis brings real‑time payroll, applied AI and seamless cloud‑based integration to help HR, payroll and finance teams reduce admin, improve accuracy and stay ahead of change.

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Expert services that scale with your institution

Strengthen governance, transform processes, and modernise systems with sector specialists.

Find out more about our services

Managed payroll services

Ensure accurate pay for large, diverse workforces, from academics to visiting lecturers.

Payroll resilience and assistance

Bring in specialist support during peaks, restructures, or staffing gaps.

Background checking and compliance

Standardise DBS/right-to-work and sponsorship checks with digital record-keeping.

Financial wellbeing for staff

Earned wage access, financial education, and analytics that improve wellbeing and retention.

Don’t just take our word for it

St. Vincents University Hospital

Zellis has a positive way of dealing with our priorities and can identify what needs to be delivered and how to manage our main concerns. Having an account manager who we deal with on a regular basis means that they can find productive solutions to our complex situation.

University of Lincoln

“To say that Zellis has changed everything seems like an understatement. We’ve moved from systems that were holding everybody back to a system that is driving everybody forward.”

The British Museum

We work with a great team of knowledgeable payroll professionals at Zellis who are committed to providing a high-quality professional service. The approach of the Zellis team is flexible, friendly and personable all of which helps a great deal in ensuring effective collaboration, problem solving and service delivery.

Our Higher Education customers in numbers

60+

colleges and universities

91%

improves accuracy and efficiency

87%

meets business needs

86%

cuts costs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Zellis support staff experience and secure departmental access?
Academic, professional services and casual staff can all access payslips, contracts, roles, benefits and updates through mobile self-service. This reduces HR queries and supports a consistent staff experience across campuses. Security groups can be assigned to a person, role or position to control what pages are visible and who’s details they can access. Individuals can manage their own information, managers can review and approve requests and access dashboards for better decision-making.
How quickly can a higher education institution implement the system?
All customers are different with their own unique requirements. However many customers have integrated Zellis in just a few weeks.
Does Zellis integrate with MIS, Finance, and timetabling systems?
Yes. Zellis connects seamlessly with student record systems, timetabling tools, finance systems and other core platforms. This ensures consistent workforce data and reduces manual processing errors.
Is the Zellis platform suitable for large universities and college groups?
The Zellis platform is scalable and adaptable. It addresses the needs of oganisations from 1,000 to 15,000+ employees with ease, managing academic contracts, variable hours, term-time roles, research posts, multiple appointments and a wide range of pension schemes. The platform ensures every scenario is processed accurately and audit-ready.
What support does Zellis provide during peak periods such as enrolment or year-end?
Zellis offers managed payroll services and resilience support to ensure continuity during busy periods or staff shortages. Experts can assist with onboarding new staff, processing peaks, or stabilising operations during change.
How does Zellis help higher education institutions strengthen governance?
Zellis provides automated right-to-work checks, visa tracking, audit trails, pensions compliance and approval workflows. Leaders gain real-time risk visibility and can evidence compliance confidently during audits or inspections.
Can diverse higher education roles and contracts be managed?
The Zellis platform supports all role types, including academic, administrative, support, research, visiting, fixed-term and hourly-paid staff. Multiple contract types and role-specific requirements are handled within the same system. Onboarding proceses can be tailored for each role, so all new starters can sign their contracts and complete induction training before their first day, so they can hit the ground running.
Does it align leave and planning with academic calendars?
Yes, leave and planning can be configured in line with academic calendars.