Benefits Associate

Position Summary :

The Benefits Associate performs a variety of administrative and technical duties associated with the daily administration of various employee benefit plans including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, accident, critical illness, and retirement.

Responsible for the Arrears Balance process in UKG and communication to the affected employees. Working knowledge of the UKG system as it relates to benefit deductions, create and run reports from the system to perform audits, prepare retirement information and filter data for review of benefit deductions etc.

Ability to handle data entry, create / run reports and analyze data in the Benefits Adm system on a regular basis to ensure accuracy of the data.

Provides general administrative and technical support to the benefits department.

Responsibilities

• Respond to employee’s general benefit / retirement plan inquiries face to face and over the phone.
• Work with Finance and the carriers to ensure monthly billing is reconciled to the payroll registers and processed for payment timely.
• Monitor employees who have missed premium deductions to ensure Arrears Balances are adjusted and distributed by the established schedule when they return to work or start paying premiums again.
• Work with the Benefits Specialist to establish tools that will allow for the Arrears Process to work efficiently and timely.
• Work with LOA Coordinators to ensure that employees who have STD (Short Term Disability) and LTD (Long Term Disability) have what they need to process a claim.

Provide necessary information to the carrier to ensure the claims are processed timely. Establish a tracking tool and follow-up to ensure claims have been processed.

Process Life Events and other changes in the Benefits Administration system to ensure all required documents have been provided.

Ensure that any changes or enrollments are correct and effective based on the Plan Design.

Ensure that any changes to benefit deductions are communicated to employees prior to the change being reflected on paychecks.

Develop and implement a sound communication plan to ensure employees are always informed.

• Ensure that Benefit files are easily accessible and destroyed per the retention schedule on a yearly basis.
• Work with carriers to resolve benefit related questions from employees.
• Support new Benefit initiatives as required.
• Keep new hire packet information up to date.
• Assist with annual enrollment communication and participate in on-site visits as needed.
• Perform special projects as assigned.
• Complete surveys with benefit information as needed.
• Ensure Benefits summary for Employment Services is up to date for use in recruitment.
• Send name and address changes to carriers.
• Help organize annual enrollment and process new hire enrollments.
• Keep benefits site updated on employee intranet.
• Maintain and update benefits summaries on shared drive as needed.
• Follows policies, procedures, and safety standards. Completes required education assignments annually. Works toward achieving goals and objectives and participates in quality improvement initiatives as requested.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Minimum Education :

None specified; will accept any combination of formal education and / or prior work experience sufficient to demonstrate possession of the knowledge, skill and ability needed to perform the essential tasks of the job, typically such as would be equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree.

Preference may be given to individuals possessing a Bachelor’s degree in a directly-related field from an accredited college or university.

Minimum Experience :

Minimum of two (2) years benefits administrative / technical work experience.

Licensure Requirement :

None.