Benefits Administrator

Riverside Transit Agency•Riverside, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Responsible for the overall employee benefits administration, including but not limited to medical, dental, and vision plans, life and long-term disability insurance, CalPERS, deferred compensation plans, COBRA, wellness programs, and other supplemental benefit programs. This position requires a high level of independent judgment, policy-level decision making, and a compassionate, service oriented approach to supporting employees and retirees.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree (B.A./B.S.) from a four-year college or university; and three to five years of employee benefit administration experience or similar experience in a dedicated Human Resources department; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, and governmental state and federal legislation.
Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.
Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, employees, retirees and the general public.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.
Must be familiar with current business operating systems, software, and programs (i.e. Microsoft Office, to include Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, etc.)
Requires at a minimum intermediate skill in Excel to create pivot tables, manipulate data and formulate scenarios.
Requires experience working with payroll systems such as ADP to process health benefit and deferred compensation changes, and experience with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software programs (i.e. Oracle E-Business Suite highly desirable).
Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
Knowledge of CalPERS and Internal Revenue Service codes and legal guidelines pertaining to benefit programs applicable to current employees, and pre and post 65 retirees; knowledge of benefit plans, insurance carriers, and other aspects of health and welfare coverage; knowledge of life and supplemental life insurance policies and their administration; ability to interpret policies and plan documents; skill in oral communication to effectively work with employees, brokers, insurance representatives, physicians, government personnel, and other external agents; skill in reading technical information, such as government regulations and policies in order to remain current on benefits and retirement laws, regulations, and requirements; skill in verifying the accuracy of completed forms through comparison with source documents and resolving any discrepancies; skill in preparing written documents, such as monthly reports, memorandums, policies, procedures, and other documents; ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with others; ability to perform arithmetic and statistical operations to calculate ratios, fractions, percentages, and averages; ability to establish and maintain priorities and carry out assignments with minimal supervision; ability to complete work despite constant interruptions in work flow and changing priorities.

Nice To Haves

experience with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software programs (i.e. Oracle E-Business Suite highly desirable)

Responsibilities

Obtains and analyzes information on current benefit practices and new developments in benefit programs.
Recommends new policies and plans.
Oversees medical contract renewals by working closely with Agency broker.
Conducts feasibility studies regarding the addition of benefits and/or vendors.
Evaluates health and welfare benefit options (i.e. medical, dental, vision and life insurance plans) to determine compliance with current policies, to include those outlined under the Agency’s Memorandum of Understanding.
Identifies opportunities and provides recommendations for cost savings and plan improvements/enhancements.
Processes life and supplemental life insurance claims by working with the insurance company and employee to submit appropriate documentation.
Reviews and reconciles monthly health benefit billing for each benefit plan.
Makes necessary adjustments by updating appropriate carrier and payroll system.
Routes monthly benefit bills for payment.
Evaluates and monitors Section 125 program to ensure compliance.
Updates program document as needed.
Processes all annual reporting requirements including but not limited to ACA 1094-C and 1095-C submissions, CMS disclosure requirements.
Audits and prepares all 5500 report data for preparation of staff report to the Agency Board.
Evaluates and monitors deferred compensation plan(s).
Processes employee enrollments, loan requests, changes and terminations.
Maintains and updates plan documents as needed.
Responds to benefit related inquiries from employees.
Coordinates and administers all aspects of annual open enrollment.
Reviews and processes employee enrollment requests and ensures accurate updates within carrier and payroll systems, particularly ADP.
Establishes and resolves issues with carrier file-feed integrations.
Provides oversight of employee self-service systems and workflows.
Coordinates agency wellness programs to include developing incentives to motivate employees to better health.
Organizes health fair.
Oversees COBRA third party administration.
May provide leave of absence oversight.
Works with HR staff to coordinate benefit coverage/deductions while on leaves of absence and upon return to work.
Ensures strict compliance with all Federal and State requirements, to include Public Employees’ Retirement Law (PERL) and Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) (Title 2, Division 5, Part 3).
Conducts new employee onboarding of health and welfare benefits.
Main point of contact for all Agency retirees.
Handles all benefit related processes for retirees including initial retirement enrollment and open enrollment.
Updates and maintains electronic and hard copy employee benefit files.
Oversees accuracy and maintenance of electronic storage systems and databases related to same.
Audits these systems.