Overview

Sr. Benefit Consultant

We believe in our Employees first and we get great results because of great people. We continually strive to create a workplace culture that challenges and encourages our employees to step outside their comfort zones and promotes creativity and participation. We pursue the greatest possible impact in every interaction, every minute of every day. Our foundation is made up of our Pillars:

 Dream Big     Have Courage     Take Initiative      Be Accountable      Enjoy It Give Back

In terms of cultural fit, the successful candidate will win the hearts and minds of our clients, be self- motivated and be energized by working amongst a group of thoughtful, smart, fast-paced and successful colleagues. He or she will enjoy being a part of an organization focused on excellent service to our clients and will be a naturally collaborative individual who enjoys interacting with individuals at all levels. Additionally, he or she will be a strong team player with a proactive approach and the ability to take initiative with discretion and judgment.

Position Summary: The Sr. Benefit Consultant is responsible for the day-to-day management of the benefit programs and serves as an internal subject matter expert for EmPower HR staff members, clients, and client’s employees. This role will serve as a Team Lead for Benefits Consultants, managing the team’s day-to-day work, client assignments, and special projects.  This role will work closely with the sales  team, in relation to new business, reviewing the underwriting risk, educating new/existing clients on benefit options and providing the framework for implementing client benefit programs. While functioning as a key internal subject matter expert for benefits, this position will train and educate internal staff on the standard benefit offerings, processes and procedures and will be positioned as the escalation point for complex employee benefit questions, issues, and compliance topics. The Sr. Benefit Consultant will also serve as the point of contact between EmPower, our clients, and our third-party vendor partners (benefit broker partners, TPAs, insurance carriers, etc.).

Essential Responsibilities and Duties:

Team Lead

• Serves as the department functional leader for the Benefits Team, collaborating effectively with cross-functional peers, bringing ideas and solutions to the team
• Creates an exceptional client experience by following all service standards defined for responding to clients, while serving as an escalation for complex customer service cases and client escalations. Maintains quality service by enforcing quality and customer service standards, analyzing and resolving quality and customer service problems, and recommending system improvements.
• Accomplishes results by clearly communicating job expectations and accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job performance.
• Consistently sets the standard and lives the standard of Sr. level member of the Benefits team by communicating directly, with poise with an open mind and possibility mindset.
• Understands the key deliverables of the team, documents processes, and seeks improvement and efficiency opportunities to help the business scale and grow.
• Oversees system implementations and leads special project work

Benefit Plan Procurement and Brokerage services

• Ownership for brokerage services for the team, including overseeing the process for quoting, underwriting, developing sales prospect presentations, compliance, and benefit guide creation
• Key liaison for sales/prospect meetings with new potential clients
• For existing clients, serve as primary client contact for data collection necessary to obtain quotes.
• Review financials of existing plans/premiums quotes plans and rates to provide recommendations to HR Business Partner and/or client directly.

Internal Subject Matter Expertise

• Train new/existing staff on standard PEO benefit offerings, including plan designs and flexibility of offerings.
• Serve as a level three escalated point of contact and subject matter expertise for benefit issues regarding items like enrollment, coverage, claims, premium discrepancy, billing, etc.
• Provide HR Business Partners and service teams with necessary documentation necessary for participants such as SBCs, Summary Plan Descriptions, etc.

Plan Management, Implementations, and Renewals

• Guide new clients through health and welfare benefit program implementations. This includes but is not limited to; discovery, strategic consulting to clients pertaining to plan options and cost, leveraging broker relationships, documenting client elections, communicating to internal teams about plan and open enrollment and instructing teams on set up, ensuring successful open enrollment and/or creating benefit census to import, and ensuring the on-going servicing of the client is successful.
• Manage and execute plan renewal process with client, broker, and internal teams.
• Provide basic financial analysis for client and global level when needed. For new and existing clients, this includes utilizing census data to complete basic calculations of monthly and annual premium breakdown of existing rates as well as renewal rates and alternative plan design rates.
  • This would also entail estimating annualized cost of proposed benefits for new clients and prospects.
• Provide guidance to all HR Business Partners, service teams, and internal staff on renewal and open enrollment processes.
• Work with VP, Benefit Consulting to develop client and employee communication pieces for renewal.
• Create and maintain documented framework for the renewal process, OE system set up, etc.
• Work with broker to carry out annual COBRA open enrollment process.
• Work with HR Business Partners to provide necessary key contact guidance. Conduct key contact meetings as well as employee webinars or in-person meetings when necessary.

Vendor Management

• Become the centralized point of contact between internal teams and vendor partners (broker, carriers, third-party administrators, etc.)

Compliance Reporting, Controls, and on-going Plan Administration

• Ensures compliance with federal, state, and local legal requirements by studying existing laws and regulations and updates to legal requirements.
• Provide guidance/expertise to internal teams and external clients and employees on COBRA and state continuation.
• Work with third-party COBRA vendor to update plan rates upon renewal of master polices and carve out plans as well as set up new clients for COBRA administration.
• Maintain master carve out listing and ensure compliance on continuation administration internally and with COBRA third-party administrator.
• Create compliance communication pieces when necessary  determines the methodology for distribution of required notices. 
• Perform periodic control reporting to ensure plans are operating within the confines of policy provisions, such as life insurance age reductions, loss of dependent status, etc.
• Assist in the preparation and execution of annual FSA non-discrimination testing with VP, Benefit consulting.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Demonstrated ability to act consistently with the company’s Purpose and values (6 Pillars).
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to cultivate curiosity, vision, and thought leadership.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Organized with attention to detail.
• Strong problem solving and critical thinking skills. 
• Demonstrated ability to influence without formal authority.
• Strong independent judgement and decision-making skills, even in the absence of information.
• Exceptional analytical skills.
• Proven capability to plan at both strategic and operational/tactical levels with alignment to the company’s goals of increasing sales.
• Ability to drive complex change and manage key stakeholders.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to organize and mobilize cross-functional teams to support multiple priorities.
• Relentless client focus combined with a strong commitment to continuous improvement.
• Ability to work independently and with a high level of autonomy and discipline.
• Ability to handle difficult conversations and resolve conflict.
• Display a positive attitude and passion for serving clients.
• Ability to practice attentive and active listening skills. 
• Able to manage through and be comfortable with ambiguity; can effectively cope with change and adapt according to business or client needs.

Education/Experience:

• 4-year bachelor’s
• 7-10 years benefit experience.
• Wisconsin Health, Accident, and Life Licenses a plus. Will be required to obtain within 90 days of hire, if not currently licensed. 
• Proficiency in MS Office Suite.
• Experience with HRIS platforms a plus. 
• Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM tool is a plus.
• Strong business knowledge and the ability to understand business metrics. 

Work Environment:

• This position operates in a professional office environment.
• This position routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, and photocopiers.
• Frequent travel to client locations, prospect meetings, networking events, and internal market visits.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

EEO Statement: EmPower HR provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.