<p>JOB SUMMARY: The Benefits and Wellness Specialist plays a key role in ensuring the effective administration of benefits, protected leave, wellness initiatives, open enrollment, benefit staff and management education and training and compliance. The Benefits and Wellness Specialist has a solid understanding of confidentiality of benefits. A successful Benefits and Wellness Specialist at LifeStream is willing to assist colleagues and new hires with their knowledge and available resources to better the employees' experience within the company regarding benefits. They enjoy a challenging atmosphere, being part of a productive team, and multi-tasking with a variety of duties. Building a positive rapport in and for the company is as important to the Benefits and Leave Specialist as maintaining an efficient workflow.</p> <p>ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS and RESPONSIBILITIES: The list of essential functions, as outlined herein, is intended to be representative of the tasks performed within this classification with or without an accommodation. It is not necessarily descriptive of any one position in the class. The omission of an essential function does not preclude management from assigning duties not listed herein if such functions are a logical assignment to the position.</p> <p>General Clerical Functions:</p> <ul> <li>Data entry, filing, assisting employees, answering calls/emails, utilizing Microsoft Excel to create and regularly update spreadsheets, other reporting and reconciliation functions. </li></ul> <p>Benefits Administration and Leave Functions:</p> <ul> <li> <p>Process all employee benefits programs, including health insurance, dental, vision, retirement plans, and other voluntary benefits.</p> </li><li> <p>Coordinate wellness initiatives, including health fairs, workshops, trainings and fitness programs.</p> </li><li> <p>Manage open enrollment process, including communication, enrollment systems, and employee support.</p> </li><li> <p>Provide continuous education and training to staff and management on benefits programs and policies.</p> </li><li> <p>Oversee leave administration, including Workers Compensation, FMLA, ADA accommodations, and other leave programs.</p> </li><li> <p>Oversight of ACA monitoring and reporting</p> </li><li> <p>Responsible for administering the workers comp program.</p> </li><li> <p></p> </li><li>Responsible for reporting trends, connecting with the Workers comp carrier and safety consultant to develop and make recommendations for maintaining a safe work environment for staff. <p></p> </li><li> <p>Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations related to benefits administration and employee rights.</p> </li><li> <p>Maintain compliance postings and ensure employees have access to required information.</p> </li><li> <p>Prepare and analyze reports on benefit plan utilization, costs, and trends.</p> </li><li> <p>Make recommendations to HR Manager for improvements to benefit programs based on industry trends, best practices, and employee feedback.</p> </li><li> <p>Ensures the accuracy of all benefits to provide vendors with accurate eligibility information for new hires, changes, and terminations.</p> </li><li> <p>Distributes all benefits enrollment materials and determines eligibility.</p> </li><li> <p>Provide education and enrollment support for new hires and open enrollment.</p> </li><li> <p>Enrolls employees with carriers and process life status changes.</p> </li><li> <p>Positively assists employees regarding benefits claim issues and plan changes.</p> </li><li> <p>Responds to benefits inquiries from managers and employees on plan provisions, benefits enrollments, status changes and other general inquiries.</p> </li><li> <p>In collaboration with payroll, responds to 403(b) inquiries from managers and employees relating to enrollments, plan changes and contribution amounts.</p> </li><li> <p>Provides necessary reports for allocation/billing charges.</p> </li><li> <p>Reports COBRA events for terminated employees.</p> </li><li> <p>Maintains and stocks documentation needed for benefit packages.</p> </li><li> <p>Creates and edits reports and distributes as needed.</p> </li></ul> <p>Wellness Functions:</p> <ul> <li>Creates and executes initiatives and programs to promote physical, mental and emotional well-being </li><li>Conducts the overall wellness needs of employees through surveys </li><li>Plans health screenings, workshops, seminars, and other wellness activities </li><li>Promotes participation in wellness initiatives via encouraging employees to participate in wellness programs by partnering with the marketing department </li><li>Ensures employees have access to resources such as fitness facilities, wellness apps, etc.. </li><li>Tracks the success of wellness programs and making adjustments as needed based on feedback and data </li><li>Ensures programs comply with workplace health and safety regulations </li><li>Collaborate with management, HR and external vendors to coordinate wellness initiatives </li></ul> <p>COMPETENCIES: Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Motivation (KSAM) required for an employee to be successful</p> <ul> <li>Serving Our Employees: Effectively meeting consumer needs, building productive consumer relationships, and taking responsibility for consumer satisfaction and loyalty. </li><li>Employee Focus: Dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect </li><li>Valuing Diversity: Works with and values all kinds and classes of people equitably; deals effectively with all races, nationalities, cultures, disabilities, ages and both sexes; supports equal and fair treatment and opportunity for all. </li><li>Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably. </li><li>Peer Relationships: Can quickly find common ground and solve problems for the good of all; can represent his/her own interests and yet be fair to other groups; can solve problems with peers with a minimum of noise; is seen as a team player and is cooperative; easily gains trust and support of peers; encourages collaboration; can be candid with peers. </li><li>Effective Communication: Clearly conveying information and ideas to individuals and groups in a manner that engages the audience and helps them understand and retain the message. </li><li>Listening: Practices attentive and active listening; has the patience to hear people out; can accurately restate the opinions of others even when he/she disagrees. </li><li>Conflict Management: Steps up to conflicts, seeing them as opportunities; reads situations quickly; good at focused listening; can hammer out tough agreements and settle disputes equitably; can find common ground and get cooperation with minimum noise. </li><li>Informing: Provides the information people need to know to do their jobs and to feel good about being a member of the team, unit, and/or organization; provides individuals information so that they can make accurate decisions; is timely with information. </li><li>Continuous Improvement: The ongoing process of achieving positive changes in service and processes in order to improve efficiency and quality. </li><li>Organizing: Can marshal resources (people, funding, material, support) to get things done; can orchestrate multiple activities at once to accomplish a goal; uses resources effectively and efficiently; arranges information and files in a useful manner. </li><li>Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings. </li><li>Planning: Accurately scopes out length and difficulty of tasks and projects; sets objectives and goals; breaks down work into the process steps; develops schedules and task/people assignments; anticipates and adjusts for problems and roadblocks; measures performance against goals; evaluates results. </li><li>Problem Solving: Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at hones analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn't stop at first answers. </li><li>Process Management: Good at figuring out the processes necessary to get things done; understands how to separate and combine tasks into efficient workflow; can see opportunities for synergy and integration where others can't; can simply complex processes; gets more out of fewer resources. </li><li>TQM/Re-Engineering: Is dedicated to providing the highest quality products and services which meet the needs and requirements of internal and external customers; is open to suggestions and experimentation; creates a learning environment leading to the most efficient and effective work processes. </li><li>Expertise: Demonstrating proficiency of an employee's skill or knowledge within their field of practice. </li><li>Functional/Technical Skills: Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills to do the job at a high level of accomplishment. </li></ul> <p>JUDGMENT/DECISION MAKING: Must be able to assure employee confidentiality while maintaining open lines of communication with all employees. Must have the ability to identify potential and actual issues relating to the employee lifecycle and solve or refer to the appropriate individual.</p> <p>EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:</p> <ul> <li> <p>Required:</p> </li><li> <p></p> </li><li>Minimum of three (3+) years of experience in benefit administration or related HR role required. <p></p> </li><li> <p>High School Diploma or equivalent required</p> </li><li> <p>Strong understanding of employee benefits programs, regulations, and compliance requirements.</p> </li><li> <p>Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.</p> </li><li> <p>Detail-oriented with strong analytical abilities.</p> </li><li> <p>Ability to prioritize tasks and manage multiple projects simultaneously.</p> </li><li> <p>Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite and HRIS systems.</p> </li><li> <p>Preferred:</p> </li><li> <p>Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field preferred</p> </li><li> <p>SHRM-CP or PHR certification preferred.</p> </li><li> <p>Driving Requirements:</p> </li><li> <p>Must be Over the age of 21 required</p> </li><li> <p>Minimum of 5-years driving experience required</p> </li><li> <p>Possess a Valid FL Driver's license (within 30 days of hire if currently do not possess)</p> </li><li> <p>Possess a continuously valid US Driver's license for the past three years, from date of issue required</p> </li><li> <p>Safe Driving record required</p> </li></ul> <p>TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT: Completes all requirements according to Individual Training Plan within the first six months of hire and annually.</p>