Employment Opportunities

Responsibilities

Examples of Work Performed

Benefits 
1. Advise and inform benefit representatives about insurance coverage options, pre-tax benefit plans, requirements for enrollment, changes to the existing coverage, and changes to union bargaining agreements and county work rules affecting insurance program status.
2. Interpret and explain the provision of the county's insurance benefit programs for employees and retirees, including assisting employees in completing necessary forms to enroll or make changes in benefit programs, answering questions about changes in contracts and coverage, and determining if requests meet legal requirements.
3. Ensure enrollment of all eligible employees/retirees in group insurance benefits by reviewing applications, entering into the computer system, and enrolling employees with insurance carriers.
4. Act as liaison between employees, retirees, or department benefit representatives and insurance carriers to ensure proper claim service and correct payment; resolve complex discrepancies; and provide information about filing appeals if necessary.
5. Audit various billings for accuracy, research and reconcile errors, and collect premiums where no payroll deduction has occurred.
6. Administer death and disability claims by gathering all required documentation, and processing waiver of premiums for disabled employees for life insurance coverage.
7. Contact all retirees/spouses approaching age 65 about change in insurance coverage, and follow up to ensure that every retiree and spouse submits a completed application at age 65. Refund Medicare B premiums to eligible retirees and their spouses.
8. Notify employees and dependents becoming ineligible for coverage of their rights to continue under state and federal law (COBRA) and assist them in this process.
9. Ensure that work status change affecting employee insurance coverage are correctly entered in the computer system. Terminate coverage for employees, retirees, and/or dependents as requested or required, notify carriers, and maintain documentation of changes.
10. Present information about county insurance coverage at retiree seminars and answer questions.

Claims 
11. Assist in the management of any work-related injury or illness claims reported to the County's workers' compensation program.
12. Conduct preliminary investigations of employee claims under the Minnesota Worker's Compensation statute; identify possible areas of liability, and refer more involved questions to either the claims manager or legal counsel.
13. Interview injured workers, supervisors, and witnesses to gather necessary claim documentation, calculate workers' compensation benefits, prepare and submit all necessary state forms to meet mandatory time limits, and record claim information into an electronic claims system.
14. Correspond with and obtain information from attorneys, medical providers, employer contacts, rehabilitation consultants and the claimant regarding continued wage loss, prior history of injury/illness, medical treatment, and/or other pertinent issues to determine ongoing county liability and update the reserve status of the claim.
15. Compute appropriate wage benefits through regular communications with individual department payroll/benefits specialists and in consultation with applicable union contracts or personnel rules.
16. Coordinate the review of medical expenses with the medical bill review vendor and authorize medical payments as appropriate. Utilize and assign medical case management services where needed to optimize the medical treatment plan.
17. Maintain regular contact with the employing department and any necessary vocational rehabilitation services regarding medical developments and return-to-work coordination.
18. Generate standard reports for distribution or discussion with department contacts or safety committees.
19. Participate in the implementation and enhancement of the electronic claims administration software application.

Transactions 
20. Audit all personnel transactions and documents submitted by departmental payroll staff for all classified and unclassified employees against personnel records by reviewing for accuracy, completeness, and conformance to the proper format. This includes comparing data to transaction documents so that personnel files are updated accurately with appointments, transfers, promotions, salary increases, leave of absences, layoffs, reinstatements, resignations, and confidential status.
21. Ensure that changes indicated on HRMS software and in supporting transaction documents are in compliance with union contract provisions, the Ramsey County Personnel Act, personnel rules and compensation guidelines, and federal and state laws.
22. Audit HRMS generated reports to ensure accuracy and integrity of data entry and process; research and reconcile errors; may perform or notify departments to perform corrections to transactions/forms in order to comply with data entry deadlines, instruct departmental payroll staff as to the method of correction when time permits.
23. Make recommendations as needed for HRMS software changes and/or procedural changes that will affect departmental payroll staff.
24. Advise and explain procedures for completing personnel transactions and/or documents and the proper use of available guidelines (personnel rules, union contracts, job aides, compensation manual) to departmental payroll staff.
25. Respond to requests for seniority-related items; employee status, personnel rules, and union contract provisions as they pertain to all leaves of absence, payroll, and related matters; employment verification; testify at grievance hearings upon request by HR management. Compile statistics, complete special projects, run specialized queries for County Board, Director of HR, HR Labor Relations Manager, HR Manager, and others as requested.
26. Maintain the record-keeping system for Human Resources programs/manuals/reports, update data and information as changes occur, and forward material/reports to appropriate authority (e.g. department, union, State of Minnesota) as required or requested for such areas as: pay for performance programs; union, unclassified/confidential/temporary seniority lists; employment life-cycle reports; I-9, salary increases due, funding, vacancy, provisional, and working in higher class reports; a variety of employee benefits usage reports.
27. Perform departmental payroll staff function for HR; maintain HR attendance records; prepare and revise the payroll section of the HR annual budget; provide clerical support for HR audits by the State of Minnesota, and implement record retention guidelines and microfilm/imaging for all HR data as directed.
28. Perform data entry of Position Authorization Request forms for all department reclassifications.

(The work assigned to a position in this classification may not include all possible tasks in this description and does not limit the assignment of any additional tasks in this classification.  Regular attendance according to the position's management-approved work schedule is required.)

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.