Benefits & Leave Specialist

About the role

Working at Reece & Fortiline means being part of a growing global company that brings our purpose and values to life every day. We celebrate our team members living our values and provide opportunities to build a long and remarkable career. We’re proud to support essential industries helping bring clean air and water to everyone.

The Benefits & Leave Specialist is responsible for the administration of the organization's health and welfare benefit programs and leave of absence processes, serving as a trusted resource for employees, managers, and internal stakeholders.

Responsibilities

The Benefits & Leave Specialist delivers a seamless, compliant, and employee-centered experience by managing benefits administration, coordinating leave and workplace accommodations, and ensuring employees receive timely guidance and support throughout the employee lifecycle.

• Leave Administration: Serve as the organization's subject matter expert for leave of absence programs and workplace accommodations, including FMLA, ADA, PWFA, USERRA, statutory leave programs, and company leave policies.
• Independently manage a caseload of leave and accommodation requests from initial intake through return to work, ensuring timely communication, documentation, and resolution.
• Partner with the Company's third-party leave administrator (Voya) to ensure accurate and timely administration of leave requests while serving as the primary internal resource for employees and managers.
• Benefits Administration: Serve as a primary point of contact for employee benefit inquiries, providing timely, accurate, and customer-focused guidance on eligibility, enrollment, life events, plan provisions, and claims escalation.
• Process qualifying life events, job changes, and dependent verifications in Workday.
• Partner with benefit vendors, carriers, Payroll, HR Operations, and internal stakeholders to resolve eligibility, billing, and enrollment issues.
• Employee & Manager Support: Provide expert guidance to employees and managers regarding benefits, leave options, workplace accommodations, eligibility, pay impacts, benefit continuation, and return-to-work expectations.
• Deliver responsive, high-quality customer service by resolving inquiries through the HR ticketing system while meeting established service levels.
• Compliance & Administration: Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations governing employee benefits, leave administration, and workplace accommodations.
• Maintain accurate records and employee transactions in Workday and related systems while protecting confidential information.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of progressive experience administering leave of absence programs, including ownership of the full lifecycle from intake through return to work.
• Experience managing health and welfare benefits with a strong focus on customer service and regulatory compliance.
• Working knowledge of employee benefits, FMLA, ADA, PWFA, COBRA, HIPAA, and other applicable federal and state regulations.
• Experience using an HRIS such as Workday or a comparable Human Capital Management (HCM) system.

Preferred experience includes supporting a multi-state workforce, working with third-party administrators or benefit vendors, and having a CEBS, CBP, PHR, SHRM-CP, or other related professional certification.

Skills

• Strong knowledge of employee benefits administration and leave laws, including FMLA, ADA, PWFA, COBRA, HIPAA, USERRA, and applicable state leave regulations.
• Ability to independently manage multiple priorities, balancing operational efficiency with a positive employee experience.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with sound judgment and attention to detail.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to explain complex benefit and leave information clearly and compassionately.

Benefits

• Medical and Dental Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Accounts
• Company-paid Life Insurance
• Short Term Disability
• 401(k) Plan
• Paid Time Off (PTO) - plus paid holidays
• Parental Leave
• Voluntary Benefits: Vision, Long-term Disability, Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance, Additional Voluntary Benefits through Corestream