Benefits & Pension Specialist - Temporary Assignment (November 2023 - March 2025) - #94712

Benefits & Pension Specialist - Temporary Assignment (November 2023 - March 2025)
Status: Temporary Assignment: November 2023 – March 2025
Hours: Monday to Friday; 35 hours/week
Home Campus: Fennell
Pay Band: 9
Rate of Pay: $74,175 - $92,720
Posting Date: November 17th, 2023
Closing Date: November 23rd, 2023 at 7:00pm EST
We support and encourage the contributions of our diverse employees. We are committed to nurturing an equitable, diverse and inclusive (EDI) environment for everyone who learns and works at Mohawk College. We believe the rich diversity among our students and the communities we serve should be reflected within our workforce. As educators we believe it is important to act and show leadership in advancing the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion in our community
Mohawk College is currently recruiting for our next
Benefits and Pension Specialist
Reporting to the Manager, Total Rewards, the incumbent is responsible for entering and maintaining all employee records within the College HRIS and acting as a subject matter expert for pension and benefit administration. This includes both part time and full time employees, with a focus on full time employees. The incumbent also provides specialized expertise and support for the administration of, pension and benefit programs and related policies for all College employees. This includes accountability for reporting, enrolments, retirements, leaves of absences, and terminations. The administration and coordination of these programs is in accordance with the applicable plans, collective agreements, terms and conditions of employment, College policy and legislation
Responsibilities:
The duties of this position will include, but are not limited to the following:
HRIS Fulfilment/ Monitoring/ Reporting

• Reviews and enters contracts for errors/omitted information and provides guidance to HR colleagues/departments/management for completion.
• Inputs and maintains all Full-Time employee records within the College HRIS (Banner). This includes the entry of full time employee changes. Working within multiple overlapping deadlines, processes contracts, staffing action forms, ensuring that the HRIS is updated for all staff hires, transfers, leaves, temporary assignments, additional compensation, retirements, etc. and the necessary information is incorporated into Payroll.
• Generates and analyses regular audit reports to ensure accuracy of data, and takes corrective action, providing corrective direction to stakeholders at various levels within the College.
• Responsible for entering all exceptions on a database (spreadsheet developed and maintained by incumbent) around benefits, vacations and salaries that are against policy; and generating ad-hoc reports as needed.
• Responsible for the implementation of the salary-related portion of the collective agreements and administration terms and conditions of employment, including salary step progression and performance incentives.
• Calculates personal step increments for full-time and part-time employees based on compliance with the Collective Agreements and College Policies. Calculating and communicating PT and FT retro payments when required.
• Ensures accurate, appropriate, and timely information is forwarded to Finance, Payroll, Managers, and Professional Development concerning changes to an employee’s set up including compensation, pension and benefits.

Benefit and Pension Administration

• Provides expertise to HR colleagues and management, department managers and employees on all aspects of benefit and pension administration; vacation entitlements, and employee leaves
• Facilitates enrolment and provides information regarding the CAAT Pension Plan to all part time and full time staff.
• Explains benefit entitlements and pension plan criteria to eligible employees and assists them in completing necessary pension plan paperwork.
• Coordinates pension service purchase paperwork for leaves of absence (including strikes) as applicable
• Ensures all pension plan enrolments are completed in pension portal.
• Meet with employees regarding retirement and process required documentation
• Provides information regarding college benefit plans to active employees, retirees and potential candidates
• Inputs, maintains and audits all employee records within the benefits administration system (Dayforce, CAAT Portal and with Sunlife), To mitigate potential risk and liability to the College.
• Processes all new hires, staff transfers, temporary assignments, layoffs, and terminations, ensuring all benefit related documentation is completed, processed and where required submitted in accordance with various plan contracts.
• Provide subject matter expertise to employees and the Disability Management Team relating to benefit elections, HRIS record keeping and vacation payouts surrounding short-term and long term disability.
• Ensures accurate, appropriate and timely information is forwarded to Payroll concerning changes to an employee’s benefits, termination pay-outs, over-payments, vacation pay owing, sick leave gratuity etc.
• Communicates vacation payout, life insurance conversion and pension processes to terminating employees
• Responds to benefit inquiries from active employees and retirees.
• Communicates premium changes to employees, retirees and Payroll to ensure appropriate deductions/payments.
• Ensures all enrolment documentation meets legislative, plan and College Employer Council requirements to prevent potential liability for the College
• Liaise with external benefit providers (College Employer Council, Sun Life and CAAT Pension plan) to advocate on behalf of employees and validate application of contract/plan terms and conditions.
• Keeps up to date regarding current developments, plan changes and legislation which may affect areas of responsibility.
• Manages enrolment and termination lifecycle process for all partial load employees. Ensures eligibility between contracts and advises on pension and benefit status. Due to the contractual nature of this group of employees their status with the College changes on a semester to semester basis which requires a higher level of complexity in terms of plan administration. Ensures Enrolment forms are completed accurately, and on time.
• Processes Death Claims by notifying Sun Life of death, providing families deceased employee’s life insurance, pension, survivor benefits, and ensures required forms are completed by claimant.
• Works closely with the Payroll Services to facilitate accurate benefit deductions.
• Monitors and co-ordinates all college retirements in accordance to college policies and legislation. Processes necessary pension/benefit documents and terminations (i.e. calculations of sick leave gratuity, pension eligibility claim forms, ensuring benefit selection and retirement allowance is processed and complete). Ensures that funding of paid sick gratuities are approved for reimbursement to the college by the Ministry. Meets to discuss pension options, early and post-retirement benefits, disbursement of retiring allowances and sick leave payouts.

Annual Activities

• Coordinates and/or participates in special projects relating to Pension and Benefits and/or HR Department strategic initiatives.
• Keeps up to date regarding current developments, plan changes and legislation which may affect areas of responsibility.
• Working closely with HR colleagues to provide consultation on benefit and pension impacts of employee leaves or special workload arrangements, leaves without pay, layoffs, non-medical modified workloads, maternity/parental leave etc.
• Providing support for various HR system upgrades via testing and validation.
• Ensures training materials and reference guides made available to clients are current and up to date.
• Validation of annual sick leave gratuity tracking provided by College Employer Council, communicating employee options, providing guidance to employees and taking action where necessary. Submitting appropriate documentation to College Employee Council, supporting accurate approval and pay out of Ensures that funding of paid sick gratuities. is approved for reimbursement to the College by the Ministry.
• Annual benefit plan review for employees working past age 65 and Grandparented retirees. Generating necessary reports and communicating changes to coverage.
• Leading and supporting People Strategy tasks within the HR Services area
• Composes and distributes benefit/pension communications to the College community.
• Create and maintain process documentation relating to pension and benefit processes
• Maintain employee informational documents on MyMohawk, aiding with frequently asked questions

Other duties as assigned
Qualifications:
The successful applicant will have:

• A 3-year Diploma/Degree or equivalent in such disciplines as Business, Communications, Human Resources, Labour Relations or a related field is required at the point of hire into this position.
• Advanced computer skills in Microsoft Office suite.
• Familiarity with a computerized Human Resources Information System (HRIS).
• Knowledge of group benefit programs and pension administration.
• A strong and comprehensive knowledge of employment legislation and collective agreements
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written) and a high degree of professionalism to deal with highly sensitive and confidential materials and situations.
• Keen attention to detail.
• Strong analytical, problem solving, and time management skills.
• A minimum of three years of practical work experience in Human Resources and/or related discipline including benefit and pension administration.
• Experience as a strong team player; be self-directed with the ability to work independently with minimal supervision, and the flexibility, at peak times to work beyond the normal working hours in order to meet critical deadlines.
• Experience providing internal clients consultation and direction within a large, multi-union workplace.
• Experience in inputting large amounts of data on a regular basis with few inaccuracies and at a fast paced.
• Experience in workload management in order to plan and execute competing tasks, often with external deadline requirements.
• Analytical skills to address complex issues, research, various reports and audits.
• Demonstrated commitment and understanding of human rights, equity, diversity and inclusion with the ability to communicate and work effectively inter-culturally with diverse groups of students, employees and the community.

Mohawk College prioritizes recruiting and retaining diverse employees. With this in mind, the College is committed to fostering inclusive and barrier-free recruitment and selection processes
Should you require accommodation through any stage of the recruitment process, please contact the Human Resources Department at (905) 575 - 2047
Mohawk College is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons, women, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas
For more information concerning the Mohawk College strategic plan, please see: strategicplan.mohawkcollege.ca/