What are the responsibilities and job description for the Payroll and Benefits Specialist position at Arabella Advisors?
Payroll and Benefits Specialist, Partner Solutions HR (Washington, DC Preferred; Chicago, IL; or Durham, NC)
Arabella oversees payroll and benefits accounting for four separate organizations, each hosting hundreds of unique and financially discrete teams that require individual financial reporting. This role involves ensuring the completeness and accuracy of data related to the reconciliation of employee-level information, enabling finance to record this information in financial statements. The personnel reconciliation cost activities involve adhering to a prescribed checklist and a strict monthly timeline, as well as handling frequent ad hoc requests and historical inquiries, which require strong problem-solving and research skills. Additionally, this role utilizes many HR software platforms and office 365 to manage payroll and benefits accounting efficiently and accurately.
Essential Responsibilities
- Acquire, develop, and generate reports necessary to provide employee-level detail for benefits and payroll-related invoices and transactions. This includes navigating, compiling, and reconciling multiple source data systems such as UKG, Benefitfocus, VOYA, COBRA, and Empower.
- This role requires capabilities in navigating multiple reporting systems and being an expert in excel.
- Reconcile and resolve all benefit vendor invoice details to bank activity
- This includes, but is not limited to health, dental, vision, life, short- and long-term disability insurance, optional life, and disability insurance
- Resolve and document discrepancies.
- Reconciliation of Benefitfocus monthly invoices to each of the 4 entities.
- This includes creating excel workbooks for HRA, FSA, and commuter benefits
- Resolve and document discrepancies.
- Submit all vendor invoices via Salesforce, resolve inquiries from AP staff to ensure timely payments, and shepherd all payments to completion.
- Reconcile and resolve incoming funds transactions related to COBRA
- Produce and reconcile payroll reports to bank activity monthly
- Including regular cycle payrolls, ad-hoc payrolls, and any associated tax credits and debits
- Detailing new or unique transaction types and/or anomalies in reconciliation.
- Resolve and document discrepancies.
- Liaison as part of a team of professionals between human resources and finance & accounting team in timely response and resolution of all inquiries.
- Support regular and ad hoc internal audit activities
- Maintain documentation of reconciliation processes and activities
- Participate in a team dedicated to process and system improvement
To Be Successful in This Role, You’ll Need
- 4 years of relevant work experience
- Exposure to Salesforce, Replicon, BenefitFocus, and/or UKG a plus.
- Strong attention to detail and accuracy
- Solid analytical and problem-solving skills
- Intermediate capabilities in Microsoft Excel.
- Demonstrated experience and resourcefulness researching, investigating and reconciling personnel financial data.
- Proficient in creating and managing reports across various standard and custom systems.
- Skilled at identifying process inefficiencies and solution development/implementation
- Familiarity with systems and processes that sit at the intersection of the human resources, finance and accounting functions, specifically as they relate to payroll and benefits. Understanding of basic accounting principles, specifically personnel accounting and/or project-based accounting preferred
- Exposure to month-end and year-end close cycles
- Superior judgement, able to quickly analyze a new landscape and its implications, understanding when to be resourceful and when to escalate
- Excellent verbal and written communication, including the ability to report on complex data in an easily understandable manner
- Ability to work independently and within teams in a fast-paced and high-volume environment with emphasis on accuracy and timeliness
- Ability to manage and meet deadlines for multiple projects simultaneously
Our Core Competencies
- The ability to provide excellent service, including the ability to efficiently and independently address routine service matters, to suggest effective client-centered solutions when elevating challenges or concerns, and to understand how the team can operate to maintain high-quality service.
- The ability to complete complex tasks, to use a work plan to undertake projects, and to understand how those projects impact the client, team, and/or firm’s objectives
- The ability to understand stakeholders’ perspectives and circumstances, and to build and manage strong relationships that reflect that understanding.
- The ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and professionally, including the ability to adapt style, tone, and content to various audiences; to make technical information accessible to broader audiences; and to collaborate with others to produce strong written deliverables
- The ability to work cooperatively and inclusively with others to achieve shared goals, including knowing when and how to compromise, being willing to proactively help colleagues, and sharing knowledge in various mediums
- An enthusiasm for taking on stretch and development opportunities, including the ability to accept feedback and use it to improve performance
- The ability to take ownership and be creative and solutions-oriented when encountering challenges that don’t have obvious answers, including knowing when to elevate challenges along with possible solutions
- Demonstrate the ability to bring an understanding of how privilege and marginalization affect their interactions and work with others
Working with Us
While this position must be based in Durham, NC; Chicago, IL; or Washington, DC, please note that all Arabella Advisors’ offices have reopened, and we work in a hybrid environment.
Please note that all Arabella Advisors’ offices are open, and we work with a hybrid workplace strategy to ensure continued flexibility for our staff, while deepening our strong culture rooted in collaboration and in-person interactions between colleagues. We expect that after their initial onboarding, all Arabellans will have the choice of two hybrid schedules. Our hybrid schedule options include: Flex, with 1-2 days per week in the office, or Office-based, with 3 days per week in the office (or more if preferred). The remaining days are worked at home/remotely. We will make reasonable accommodations under the guidelines of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
We are committed to having a passion-driven, inclusive, transparent, collaborative, healthy, and fun culture. We invite you to visit our careers page to learn more.
About Arabella Advisors
Arabella Advisors helps foundations, philanthropists and investors who are serious about impact achieve the greatest good with their resources. We work on issues ranging from the social and economic advancement of women and girls, and conservation of our climate and planet, to reducing poverty and inequity in the United States and around the world. Our staff members are mission-driven and action-oriented, and have a unique combination of experience in philanthropy, business, nonprofits, government, finance, law, and other fields. We combine creative, strategic thinking with knowledge and networks developed through decades of hands-on experience. The fastest-growing philanthropic advisory firm in the nation, Arabella is also a certified B Corporation.
About Arabella’s Partner Solutions Team
The Partner Solutions Team provides operations and back-end services and support to fiscally sponsored projects housed at multiple 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations. Projects range from new and innovative public interest organizations to donor collaborative initiatives to grants administration programs and cover a diverse range of focus areas. Candidates are highly encouraged to research fiscal sponsorship prior to better understand the complex infrastructure and role of our team.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Advancing DEI within our firm and in our work with partners is critical to our mission. To be effective partners to philanthropists, nonprofits, and communities impacted by philanthropic dollars, we need to have a highly diverse staff, a workplace where individuals are encouraged to retain their uniqueness and can feel a sense of belonging, and a nuanced understanding of the characteristics that undergird the issues we engage in and the interactions we have with one another. For us, equity means that our staff members, our clients, and the people they serve can experience the same level of success, no matter their starting place. We expect all our employees to share this commitment and always seek ways to improve how well we live these values. Click here to learn more about DEI at Arabella and read our official DEI statement.
Total Rewards (compensation and benefits)
This is a full-time position. We offer a competitive and holistic total rewards package that includes salary, bonus, and benefits. Our compensation ranges are based on national compensation benchmarks for similar organizations.
The salary range for this position is $51,000 - $56,000 and with an annual bonus potential of 3% for this position.
We consider national benchmark indicators along with job related skills, experience and relevant education and training, to determine compensation that is fair and competitive.
All full-time staff are eligible for our generous benefits package on their first day of employment:
- Health insurance- On average Arabella pays 86% of the medical premium, 80% of the dental premium, and 100% of the vision premium
- Paid time off- 16 days’ vacation, 10 personal days, 11 company holidays (7 federal and 4 more from a list of inclusive cultural and religious holidays and your birthday), 20 hours volunteer leave, 8 weeks parental leave
- 401(k) retirement plan- We offer a 4% employer match on a dollar-per-dollar basis, and there is no waiting or vesting period; all funds contributed by you and Arabella are yours to keep on day 1
- Reimbursements for your personal cell phone plan and fitness
- Pre-tax withholding for transportation and parking
- Bonus incentive opportunities
- Access to professional development opportunities
How to Apply
Submit a resume and a one-page cover letter online. The cover letter should address why you’re excited to work at Arabella and why you’re qualified for this specific job.
Arabella Advisors is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to racial equity. If we can make the application process easier through accommodation in the recruitment process, please let us know. We encourage you to read (or listen to) our DEI statement prior to applying. We make a particular effort to recruit people of color and members of marginalized groups to apply for open positions. Once you have applied, we welcome your feedback on how you have experienced our values around DEI in the recruitment process.
While Arabella is open to individuals from various locations applying to join our team, please note that we generally are unable to pay for relocation expenses, and all applicants must already be legally eligible to work in the United States at the time of application to be considered for this position.
We will review applications as they are received and look forward to hearing from you.
Salary : $51,000 - $56,000