Benefits Specialist Jobs

Position Overview

As the Benefits Specialist, you are part of the Employee Benefits Team, which serves as the main point of contact for our U.S. employees. Together with your team members, you provide excellent customer service support for all employee benefit programs offered to Penguin Random House, BMG, Fremantle, Arvato, Bertelsmann Corporate, and employees at our other operating companies. You also support the leave of absence and disability process. In this role, you will coordinate with benefit vendors, research, and resolve any escalated employee issues and questions that arise. You are also responsible for assisting former employees with retiree medical, retiree life insurance, and pension benefits. In addition, you will work closely with the entire HR-Benefits Team on organizational initiatives, such as annual enrollment. The Benefits Specialist reports to the Associate Director, Employee Benefits.

The Benefits Specialist is part of the HR-Benefits Team, which has the responsibility of developing, negotiating, and customizing all health, welfare, and retirement plans for each Bertelsmann’s operating Companies within the United States, including Penguin Random House, BMG, Fremantle, Arvato, and other holdings/groups, including new acquisitions. The Benefits Specialist is expected to possess a wealth of knowledge and understanding of Employee Benefits at an employee-facing and corporate level.

Role and Responsibilities

• Support the annual enrollment process, qualifying life event changes, implementation of new vendors and onboarding of employees for acquired companies
• Ensure proper document retention in accordance with statutory and internal business practices
• Other duties as assigned to meet business needs
• Collaborate with vendors and HR partners to administer leave of absence and key entries as needed
• Research, interpret, and provide employees guidance on established benefit policies and procedures
• Partner and collaborate with HRIS, Corporate Benefits, HR Business partners, and external vendors to resolve enrollment, eligibility, enrollment, and claims issues
• Respond to high daily volume of phone, email, and face-to-face inquiries and assist current and former employees with resolving benefits-related issues
• Support audit activities and the accuracy of data and benefit records
• Assist employees with benefit issues, including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life insurance, flexible spending accounts, leaves of absences, voluntary benefits, pension, 401(k) and other company-provided benefits and services
• Resolve administrative problems with the carrier representatives, investigate discrepancies, escalate issues and provide information in non-routine situations
• Draft and coordinate the distribution of communications for ad hoc participant issues, present and facilitate benefits orientations for annual enrollment and new hire orientations

Qualifications and Education Requirements

• Solid interpersonal skills, judgment, and client service orientation with focus on high quality service to internal and external stakeholders
• 4 or more years of work experience in human resources required, including 2 or more years in a benefits role
• Must be detail-oriented, highly organized, and be comfortable working on complex problems
• Must maintain strict confidentiality and employee privacy
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to effectively communicate information across a large organization
• Must be proficient researching information, data entry, and running reports in an HRIS, ideally UKG
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Excel, including VLOOKUP and Pivot Tables, and other Office applications
• Bachelor’s degree or related experience required; CEBS certification preferred
• Must be flexible; have the ability to work independently or as a team player in a fast-paced and decentralized environment
• Must have a desire to learn

Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. Its key geographical markets are Western Europe – especially Germany, France, Britain and Spain – as well as the United States. Bertelsmann’s corporate divisions include RTL Group (television), Penguin Random House (books), Gruner + Jahr (magazines), Arvato (services), Bertelsmann Printing Group (print), Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments.

Bertelsmann, Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity employer who values a diverse and inclusive workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, citizenship, HIV/AIDS status or any other legally protected factor.

Company: Bertelsmann, Inc.

Country: United States of America

State/Region: New York

City: New York

Postal Code: 10019

Job ID: 259142

Salary range: $75,000.00 - $85,000.00