Payroll & Benefits Specialist at California Faucets – Huntington Beach, California

The Payroll & Benefits Specialist will be responsible for managing and processing the full cycle weekly payroll process for a 250+ population. In addition, this position will serve as the primary contact for all health & wellness benefits programming, including enrollments, billing reconciliation, and annual open enrollment activities. As part of the benefits component, the Payroll & Benefits Specialist will serve as the primary liaison to our leave administration partner and ensure that all leaves are managed appropriately. The Payroll & Benefits Specialist will also perform administrative tasks and services to support effective and efficient operations of the company’s human resource department. While in this position, the Payroll & Benefits Specialist will perform the following duties:

Payroll Duties:

• Provide critical payroll support to our 250+ employee population
• Accurate and timely validation of wage, salary, bonus calculations
• Time and Attendance administration, including timekeeping changes
• Retroactive pay, supplemental pay, and other fringe benefits
• Off-cycle manual checks
• Wage Assignments
• Tax Compliance, including W-2 processing
• Payroll Accounting, including funding tax liabilities
• Other payroll-related duties and responsibilities
• Utilize payroll software systems to run scheduled system jobs for processing payroll and resolve any errors, ensuring data accuracy and compliance with company policies and regulatory requirements
• Run ad-hoc reports and analyze payroll data to identify and rectify errors or discrepancies
• Partner with Payroll vendor to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local payroll regulations, tax laws, and labor laws in payroll processes and reporting
• Collaborate with People Operations, Finance, and other departments to ensure accurate employee data and seamless coordination of payroll activities
• Monitor and respond to the Payroll In-box for timely responses to inquiries
• Address and resolve employee inquiries and concerns related to timekeeping, deductions, and tax withholding in a timely and professional manner
• Prepare and distribute payroll-related documents to employees as needed
• Stay current on developments and changes in payroll regulations, tax laws, and labor laws

Benefits & Leave Management:

• Act as subject matter expert and main point of contact for any leave requests for California, New York and other remote locations.
• Provide exceptional customer service to employees, resolving questions, concerns, and complex and escalated leave issues
• Serve as the primary liaison with our leave administration vendor to ensure leave tracking is up to date and accurate
• Partner with Payroll, HR Business Partners and Employment legal on benefits and leave matters, as needed
• Review accommodation requests and implement return to work plans
• Reconcile and process health care bills
• Support employee questions and assist with Open Enrollment and implementations
• Compile reports of internal data as needed
• Assist with research
• Assist with additional HR and benefits projects as needed

Please note that 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.

The Following Personal Attributes/Skills are Required:

• Ability to read, write, speak, and understand English and Spanish fluently is required.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, organizational skills, and attention to detail.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to manage sensitive and confidential situations with tact, professionalism, and diplomacy.
• The ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment and remain positive and energetic.
• The ability to demonstrate empathy while still enforcing company policy.
• Extensive knowledge of office management systems and procedures.
• A sense of urgency, efficiency, and accuracy in all tasks.
• Excellent time management skills: and must be able to handle multiple priorities simultaneously and meet deadlines.
• Ability to anticipate team needs and respond accordingly
• Must be an excellent multi-tasker and have high attention to detail
• Friendly and open demeanor and a team player with a positive attitude
• Must have initiative and be able to work autonomously with minimal supervision.
• Ability to collaborate with other departments to troubleshoot as problems occur.
• Ability to recognize and resolve discrepancies.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

People Interface:

• This position will require interacting with team members throughout the entire organization on a daily basis in both English and Spanish.

Education and Experience:

• A minimum of three (3) years of demonstrated hands-on experience processing payroll is required.
• Strong leave of absence experience (STD, LOA, FMLA, CFRA) with an emphasis on California leaves/EDD highly desired.
• A minimum of two (2) years of experience managing and coordinating benefits related activities preferred.
• Prior experience with or the ability to quickly learn payroll management, human resource information system (HRIS), and similar computer applications.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Windows and all Microsoft Office applications.
• Intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Excel and spreadsheets is required.
• A bachelor’s degree, preferably in Human Resources, Business, or another related field is preferred.
• Experience processing payroll is required; experience with Paylocity is highly preferred.
• SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, or other relevant professional certification is a plus.

Physical Requirements:

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
• This is a largely sedentary role, with the majority of time spent sitting at a desk and working on a computer; however, some filing and standing is required. This would require the ability to lift files, open filing cabinets, and bend as necessary. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands and fingers to handle or feel and to manipulate keys on a keyboard. The employee is frequently required to stand, walk, talk, and hear.