Benefits and Payroll Specialist

About the role

Performs a variety of administrative and complex clerical duties to assist in the day-to-day maintenance of city-wide benefits, payroll, and human resources programs and processes. Assists in monitoring city-wide compliance with established policies and procedures related to benefits and payroll. Provides backup to HR/Finance department when and as necessary.

Responsibilities

• Serves as backup to HR responding to employee benefits questions (via phone and email).
• Processes any changes to employee benefits.
• Coordinates the annual benefits open enrollment process and aids employees in the benefit selection process.
• Assists in tracking employee leave according to policies and procedures.
• Assists in distributing, collecting, and processing insurance, retirement, and other benefits paperwork and forwards information to Third Party Administrator (TPA).
• Balances insurance and other billings as assigned.
• Prepares invoices of insurance costs for retirees, persons on COBRA status, and persons on unpaid leave.
• Prepares, processes, and distributes COBRA notifications, special forms, and/or correspondence to persons leaving employment, dependents of persons leaving employment, persons filing unemployment insurance claims, persons who are retiring, or persons placed on unpaid status regarding eligibility for continued coverage and periodic premium changes.
• Advises retiring employees regarding benefit coverage options under Utah Retirement Systems (URS) including MEDICARE.
• Processes short and long-term disability information for all new claims, facilitates employment information relating to unemployment insurance claims, and maintains and updates appropriate records.
• Updates benefits costs as premiums change, ensuring correct cost charges to programs.
• Establishes, updates, and retrieves electronic employee benefit files for all eligible employees.
• Serves as an intermediary between employees, insurance carriers, TPA, and to resolve problems.
• Performs a wide variety of record keeping and payroll processing activities, including computing wage and overtime payments, calculating and recording payroll deductions, and processing terminations.
• Ensures accurate preparation and balancing of city-wide biweekly payroll; monitors inputting and recording of employee work hours.
• Enters changes and answers questions relating to employee earnings and employee withholdings including state taxes, federal taxes, social security, retirement and insurance.
• Maintains knowledge of the payroll processing system and changes in wage and tax laws to correspond with federal, state, and local tax agencies on behalf of the City.
• Creates direct deposit file and initiates transfer of funds; prints and distributes direct deposit statements and checks as needed.
• Maintains year-to-date records of wages, deductions, and taxes.
• Facilitates payroll-related accruals and journal entries.
• Oversees submission and storage of time sheets.
• Processes and follows up on wage garnishments and levies by federal, state, and county, court orders.
• Makes federal withholding tax deposits and reconciles and generates checks for payroll deductions/benefits with various private, state, and federal agencies.
• Maintains proper employee documentation related to W-4's and issues annual W-2's.
• Processes and monitors unemployment insurance claim records.
• Assists HR Manager with comprehensive classification and compensation studies involving the analysis of positions including periodic audits.
• Updates the HRIS including inputting job codes, titles, pay ranges, FLSA statuses and EEO categories, worker's compensation codes, and other data.
• Leads all EDI Integration projects related to HRIS, payroll, and third-party benefit vendors.
• Acts as primary point of contact for technical interface failures, collaborating with IT and external vendors to correct mapping or transmission errors.
• Conducts routine audits of EDI transmission logs and HRIS data to identify sync failures, validation errors, or data discrepancies, resolving issues promptly.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Associate's degree in business, accounting, finance, or related field or equivalent experience and education.
• Minimum three (3) years of hands-on experience in payroll processing or related financial role.
• OR experience using payroll and/or Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS) or Human Capital Management (HCM) software systems such as Springbrook, iSolved, etc.
• Thorough knowledge of all payroll tax regulations.
• CPP (Certified Payroll Professional) a plus.
• Familiarity with URS Pension plans.

Skills

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and Word.
• Proficiency with HRIS/payroll/benefits systems, email and other software applications as required.
• Strong mathematical and numerical aptitude.
• Accuracy and thoroughness.
• Sound knowledge of HR, benefits, and payroll-related policies and procedures.
• Current knowledge and education on tax laws related to payroll pay rates and benefits administration.
• Excellent oral, interpersonal and written communication skills.
• Organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent keyboarding/data entry skills.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to maintain the highest level of confidentiality.
• Ability to work well alone and within a team environment.
• Ability to effectively deal with multiple and changing priorities and demonstrate initiative.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and ensure accuracy with highly confidential information.
• Ability to work effectively with coworkers and others by sharing ideas constructively and positively.
• Ability to identify ways to continually improve employee satisfaction and increase compliance with internal or external requirements.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with City Council, City Officials, Department heads, and all employees.
• Ability to identify and resolve problems in a timely manner.
• Ability to interpret and carry out complex instructions and assignments.
• Ability to impart information to others when necessary.
• Ability to write clearly and concisely, edit work for spelling and grammar, and read and interpret difficult and complex written information.
• Ability to respond to inquiries from employees to fulfill requests for information.

Work Environment

Work may be sedentary including extended periods of time viewing a computer video monitor and operating a keyboard. Other physical requirements include walking, bending, stooping, filing books on upper shelves, and lifting heavy boxes of books and files up to 20 lbs frequently.