If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Grade: Professional 307Pay Range: $66,300.00 - $99,500.00
Job Description
Summary
The Benefits Analyst provides vital support toward ensuring smooth delivery of all University employee benefit plans, programs, and policies. These include retirement, healthcare, wellbeing, EAP, life and disability, paid time off, leaves-of-absence, accommodations, recognition, and other ancillary benefits. They provide personal-touch customer service to University employees nationwide. This role operates in a high-pace, high-growth environment and demands positive passion and enthusiasm. It delivers critical strategic, administrative, and transaction support with the University People & Talent team. They provide stewardship of processes, analysis, data reconciliations and auditing, reporting, communications, and project management critical to the design and operation of all benefit plans. They work closely with all areas of People & Talent and various other internal and external contacts.
Job Duties
- Provides analytical, technical, process, and project support to the Employee Benefits team and others within Total Rewards.
- Collaborates with Employee Benefits team members and others on benefits strategy, design, operations, reporting, regular data reconciliations, audits, and system configuration reviews.
- Provides customer service, administrative, tactical, and system transaction support for a wide range of employee benefits tasks and processes. This includes answering benefits questions from employees and others, processing eligibility and enrollment transactions within the HR system, running reports, checking accuracy of data, researching issues, open enrollment, new employee presentations, and more.
- Provides impeccable customer service and support in a timely, accurate, and professional manner.
- Using internal “help desk” support system, coordinates the handling of employee benefits questions from employees, business managers, third-party benefits administrators, payroll, and HR colleagues within People & Talent.
- Responds to questions and requests via phone, email, instant messaging, in-person, support queue, and other channels.
- Serves as a mentor and trainer for less experienced team members, peer review team member work as necessary.
- Develops and maintains documentation of critical employee benefits processes and procedures.
- Assists team members with root cause analysis associated with issues or problems and helps identify process or system improvements.
- Plays an active role in employee benefits education, training, and communication across the organization, including delivering and assisting with digital and print material, in-person and on-line presentations, and wellbeing events.
- Performs other job-related duties as assigned.
KSAs
- Strong interpersonal skills in dealing proactively with all levels of internal and external individuals including, employees, leaders, fellow team members, and external administrators and advisers.
- Ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment, demonstrating influence and leadership.
- Strong communication skills marked by the ability to write, read, and interpret technical material.
- Knowledge of and demonstrated prior experience with operational and strategic aspects of employee benefit plans, including insurance renewals, retirement plans, vendor management, government filings, communications, and benchmarking.
- Ability to maintain a current, solid understanding of University employee benefit programs and available resources.
- Strong understanding of laws and regulations as they apply to HR areas, especially employee benefits, leaves, and accommodations.
- Comfortable working with MS Office products, data in various formats, and information systems to process requests, answer questions, prepare reports, and identify problems.
- Solid technical understanding of HRIS and related processes associated with employee benefits, and the cross-functional impacts with other enterprise systems.
- Data-driven orientation with ability to diagnose root causes, identify primary drivers of outcomes, and recommend positive changes.
- Applicable knowledge in the design and management of all standard employee benefits programs; maintaining retirement programs; to include project management, enrollment, vendor management, auditing, filings, and training, education, and communication.
- Ability to provide creative and innovative thinking to identify inventive and unique applications of standard/common solutions.
- The ability to make presentations to groups of employees or team members, and to communicate technical matters effectively and persuasively in writing, through emails and reports, or verbally.
- Very strong work ethic, collaborative orientation, and eagerness to take on new assignments, with the ability to excel in a very fast-paced environment with frequently changing priorities.
- The ability to plan, organize, and prioritize multiple and simultaneous time-sensitive activities.
- A keen interest in contributing to the success of teams and growth of individuals. Actively contributes to a feeling of belonging among individuals in the organization.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to make data-supported decisions.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
Minimum Qualifications:
- 2-3 years of experience specifically working with Leaves of Absence or Accommodations
- Bachelor’s degree OR equivalent combination of education and relevant experience (1 year experience = 1 year education)
- Ability to manage 75+ LOA cases simultaneously
- Knowledge of federal, state, and local laws related to benefits
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Products
- Superb written and verbal communication skills
- Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to make data-driven decisions
Preferred Qualifications:
- Prior experience in a large organization’s human resources function
- HR shared services center experience
- Prior experience with HRIS/payroll systems
- Progress towards or completion of CBP, CEBS, or other HR-related certification
Job Description Disclaimer: This position description provides the major duties/responsibilities, requirements and working conditions for the position. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current position, however management reserves the right to revise or change as necessary to meet organizational needs. Other responsibilities may be assigned when circumstances require.
Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.
How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.
Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.
Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.
