A benefits specialist actively collaborates with various employees and formulates effective compensation plans. They also facilitate employee access to their benefits by helping solve plan changes and claim conflicts.
The benefits specialist role is quickly becoming a crucial position in most organizations. Both small businesses and major corporations strive to find, hire, and retain new talent for their workforce. However, keeping talented individuals from leaving for other opportunities with more incentives has become challenging.
The human resource department may have other roles whose duties overlap with some responsibilities. Understand the role and its obligations to achieve the right opportunities and become a talented benefits specialist.
This article explains what benefits specialists do, how they work closely with employees and vendors like insurance companies, and why they are vital for a successful human resources department.
Benefits Specialist Role
The benefits specialist position has high stakes. It suits individuals with solid technical thinking skills who can compare costs and budgets. They also recommend executive leadership and top-level managers when planning a company’s employee benefit plans.
Benefits specialists are responsible for benefits administration and ensuring employees get incentives. They also follow up with insurance companies regarding any claims filed and notify employees of any technical complications. Therefore, they are crucial in assuring employee satisfaction with the human resources department.
Described below are some responsibilities typical to all benefits specialist positions:
- They ensure the accuracy regarding the company’s benefits enrollments in the human resource sector to enable vendors to access accurate eligibility data.
- Benefits specialists assist with new-hire orientations.
- They perform strategic quality checks of all benefit-related information.
- They respond to benefits questions from workers and managers regarding general inquiries, federal and state laws, status changes, benefits enrollments, and plan provisions.
- Administers and processes all disability paperwork and leave-of-absence requests such as FMLA, disability, personal, and medical.
- They respond to workers’ and managers’ 401 (k) questions regarding contribution amounts, plan changes, and enrollments and manage the yearly catch-up contribution enrollment.
- They administer the reimbursement program and assist with the enrollment procedures.
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Benefits Specialist Responsibilities
Benefits specialists collaborate closely with benefits coordinators and managers to bring employee benefits plans to life. However, they have their designated responsibilities within the workflow. They ensure insurance companies and other benefits suppliers have everything they need to provide employees with the promised incentives.
A glimpse at an employee benefits specialist job description shows you how their duties focus on communicating with employees and vendors, analyzing benefits related data for better planning, and resolving employee concerns.
Some essential duties associated with the benefits specialist role are explained below.
Compare Benefits Plans Costs
A benefits specialist’s most crucial duty is formulating attractive and affordable benefits packages. They must compare health insurance covers from multiple insurance companies and choose those that offer the most value to employees and the organization.
This responsibility requires benefits specialists to have the skills necessary for performing productive financial calculations. Additionally, they must apply the same strategy to 401 (k) plans, company investments, life insurance benefits, and dental packages.
Benefits specialists negotiate benefits programs with one-year contracts. Nevertheless, most corporations may opt for multi-year agreements to help save costs. Here, the benefits specialists’ job is to select the best contract and compare the flexibility in procedures.
Create Retirement Plans, Pension Terms, and Investment Options
The benefits specialists’ task is to compare all available retirement plan options, such as IRA contribution options, the standard fixed-benefit pension plan, matching contribution programs, and 401 (k) providers.
Additionally, they should track changing retirement costs and programs to inform the organization and employees accordingly.
It is a high-stakes responsibility that can affect employees’ lives as their careers end and they move closer to retirement. Therefore, benefits specialists must conduct extensive research into federal and state laws, seek consultation from high-level managers, fellow specialists, and executives, and discuss the matter with the workers.
Interact with the Public and Employees
Since they have extensive knowledge and experience in benefits, these specialists can help educate workers regarding the available options for healthcare packages, retirement programs, and insurance packages. They can also work with publishing houses to create smartly designed guides to teach employees about benefits programs. Such well-written content is distributed, published, and printed for distribution in various departments.
Benefits specialists also serve as educators and intermediaries between employers and workers regarding benefits plans. Therefore, they must have seasoned benefits negotiation expertise, extensive human resources understanding, and the capability to interact with the public.
Analyze Benefits and Compensation Statistics
Benefits specialists perform cost and data analysis to formulate logical conclusions about benefits plans. For instance, they can analyze compensation and analyze the worth of selecting a specific salary model for a particular group of workers. Or they investigate how switching benefits vendors will impact expenditures.
Such analytical skills can help benefits specialists improve their strategies in a more data-driven manner. Additionally, they can show the insights they have gathered to senior stakeholders and help inform their higher-level decision-making about employee benefits and compensation plans.
Conclusion
The human resources department relies on benefits specialists to effectively assist employees in all matters related to benefits or compensation. Therefore, benefits specialists play an integral role in helping organizations have a satisfied workforce. They do so by relieving employees of any anxieties related to their benefits and incentives.
The benefits specialist’s role requires solid communication skills, strong critical-thinking abilities, and close attention to detail. Since they work with multiple parties simultaneously, they also need to be proficient in human resources management.
FAQs
Here are some common questions about the benefit specialist role:
What Should Benefits Specialists Know in Human Resource Management?
As the name suggests, a benefits specialist requires specialization in the benefits and compensation plan. Thus, it demands analytical skills along with adequate human resources training and experience. In addition, a good benefits specialist must easily interpret, evaluate and understand complex retirement programs, insurance plans, and employment laws. They should also know about and introduce extra compensation programs such as stock ownership and profit-sharing.
Which Skills are Crucial for a Benefits Specialist in Human Resources?
Benefits specialists must possess numerous skills, including proficiency in software tools such as Microsoft Office and Google tools. In addition, they should be talented in time management and organizational skills. Besides, they need to have outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
Most importantly, they must showcase extensive expertise in applicable laws and employee benefits. Therefore, seeking a bachelor’s degree in human resources management is also a strategic approach to landing a job as a benefits specialist.
If you are new to Human Resources and are looking to break into a Benefits Specialist role, we recommend taking our HR Certification Courses, where you will learn how to build your skillset in human resources, build your human resources network, craft a great HR resume, and create a successful job search strategy that lands you a sought-after Benefits Specialist job.
