Job Details

Job Description Summary

The Senior Benefits Analyst works collaboratively and communicates with the Human Resources (HR) team, Information Systems, Payroll, third-party administrators, HR liaisons/partners, and faculty and staff, to collect, monitor, and analyze benefits data and to provide feedback/recommendations to ensure compliance with regulations, procedural guidelines, eligibility, programs, and policies.

Job Description

​*This position is not eligible for sponsorship of non-immigrant or immigrant visa status through Wake Forest University. All eligible applicants are encouraged to apply.

Essential Functions:

Retirement Plan Administration (30%):

• Leads WFU Retirement Plans compliance efforts, including but not limited to non-discrimination testing, IRS annual limits, small sum distributions, Form 5500, retirement plan contribution adjustments, retirement plan eligibility, and internal and external audits. 

• Analyzes and reconciles WFU Retirement Plan contribution file for each payroll to ensure compliance with eligibility requirements, IRS regulations, and the timeliness of processing. Tracks all corrections in partnership with Payroll.

• Monitors new and/or changing regulations for the 403(b) and 457(b) retirement plans and when applicable, summarizes and makes recommendations to leadership.

• Assists with the coordination, preparation, and participation in the Retirement Plan Committee meetings, including but not limited to logistics, agenda items, meeting minutes, and materials. 

Systems & Reporting (30%):

• Leads retirement plan-related changes and enhancements in the HR System to support continuous improvement. Develops training materials related to updates.

• Assists with Workday configuration, reconfiguration, testing, and auditing for benefits-related items, including but not limited to open enrollment, biannual upgrades, salary administration, and ACA 1095 Forms. 

• Responsible for streamlining, automating, and maintaining retirement and benefit plan reports, audits, scorecards, and creating new ones, within our system of record when needed. 

• Prepares reports by collecting, analyzing, tracking, and summarizing benefits and retirement plan information, metrics, and trends.

• Ensures processes and procedures are in place to capture and maintain consistent and accurate benefit-related data.

• Fulfills benefits and retirement plan-related transactions in the HR System.

Compliance & Auditing (30%):

• Monitors benefits plan eligibility, contributions, premiums, and plan limits. Ensures compliance with elections, plan provisions, and government requirements. Works to document and resolve any discrepancies.

• Performs audits to ensure the accuracy of health and welfare data in the HR and benefits provider systems.

• Evaluates employee benefits by benchmarking best practices, researching industry trends, tracking legislation, and estimating impact. Recommends programs/changes to HR leadership. Assists with the rollout of changes.

Communication & Relationship Building (10%):

• Expedites the delivery of benefits by establishing and maintaining working relationships with third-party administrators.

• Explains employee benefits by conducting meetings, preparing written and graphic announcements and explanations, and responding to requests.

• Resolves employee questions and problems by interpreting benefit policies and procedures.

• Contributes to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.

• Performs all other duties as assigned.

Required Education, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree and at least five years of retirement and benefits-related experience. 

• Experience working in human resources, benefits administration, and retirement plan administration. 

• Knowledge of ERISA, federal, and state regulations relating to benefit programs.

• Highly organized work ethic. Ability to maintain confidentiality pertaining to sensitive information and information contained in employee records and system data. Familiarity with HIPAA Privacy Regulations.

• Ability to provide superior customer service when working with a wide range of individuals and constituencies in a diverse community. 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in person, email, or by phone. Strong interpersonal skills. 

• Proficiency with computer applications (i.e., web, email/calendar, Microsoft Office, spreadsheets, databases, basic reporting tools, ERP systems, phone, and service case tracking tools).

• Ability to work efficiently and effectively and prioritize in a multitasking environment.

• Ability to work in a team-oriented, continuous improvement, and customer-centric environment and to quickly adapt to new procedures.

Preferred Education, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Experience in the Workday ERP system.

Accountabilities: 

• Responsible for own work.

Wake Forest University, formed in 1834, has experienced decades of growth and innovation.  WFU is a distinctive university that combines a liberal arts core with graduate and professional schools and innovative research programs.  The University embraces the teacher-scholar ideal, which prizes the personal interaction between students and faculty.  It is a place where exceptional teaching, fundamental research and discovery, and the engagement of faculty and students in the classroom and the laboratory are paramount.

Wake Forest University is a community that seeks the enlightenment and freedom which come through diligent study and learning. Its higher goal, however, is to give life to the University motto "Pro Humanitate," as members translate a passion for knowledge into compassionate service. The community shares a tradition that embraces freedom and integrity and acknowledges the worth of the individual. The heritage, established by the school's founders and nurtured by succeeding generations, promotes a democratic spirit arising from open-mindedness and discourse. Wake Forest fosters compassion and caring for others. Its collective strength and character are derived from the values and distinctive experiences of each individual; therefore, it affirms the richness of human intellect and culture and its contribution to knowledge, faith, reason, and dialogue. Furthermore, it strives toward a society in which good will, respect, and equality prevail. To that end, Wake Forest University rejects hatred and bigotry in any form and promotes justice, honor, and mutual trust.​

The University is comprised of:  the undergraduate college, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Divinity, School of Law, and School of Medicine (located on the Bowman Gray campus with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center) and today enrolls about 4,846 undergraduates and 2,823 students in graduate programs at its principal location, the Reynolda campus.  Students at Wake Forest University enjoy a great deal of access to and interaction with world-class faculty both in and out of the classroom setting with a student-faculty ratio of 11:1.  Wake Forest employs approximately 2,772 full and part-time faculty and staff.

Wake Forest is a collegiate university offering a vibrant, intellectual community with a rich cultural life, an impressive array of facilities, and a strong athletics program competing in the fifteen-team Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).  Since its founding, the university has adopted the motto “pro humanitate,” which is exemplified by a deep institutional commitment to public service and engagement with the world. Wake Forest has a strong commitment to holistic, eight-dimensional well-being for students, faculty and staff as evidenced in the Thrive initiative.