Analyst II - HR Benefits
FirstEnergy · Akron
Position Summary
The Analyst is responsible for providing analytical, financial, compliance, and program support across the organization’s Total Rewards portfolio, with a primary focus on Health & Welfare Programs.
This role combines a strong understanding of employee benefit programs with financial and analytical capabilities to evaluate program performance, support forecasting and budgeting, fulfill regulatory and financial reporting requirements, and provide insights that support Total Rewards strategy and decision-making.
This role requires an understanding of how benefit programs operate, how they are funded and administered, and how financial, utilization, compliance, and vendor data should be interpreted within the context of the Total Rewards strategy. The analyst will partner closely with Benefits leadership, Finance, Accounting, Rates, vendors, consultants, and internal stakeholders to turn total rewards program data into meaningful business insights and recommendations.
Benefits & Total Rewards Program Analysis
- Develop a strong working knowledge of the organization’s Health & Welfare and Total Rewards programs, including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life insurance, disability, wellness and other benefit programs.
- Serve as an analytical resource to Total Rewards leadership by evaluating program cost, utilization, participation, employee experience, vendor performance, emerging trends and providing responses to rate case inquires.
- Analyze benefit program results to identify cost drivers, utilization trends, opportunities, risks, and areas requiring additional review.
- Support evaluation of benefit plan design changes, new programs, vendor solutions, and Total Rewards initiatives.
- Assist with development of business cases and financial analyses for proposed benefit changes and investments.
- Translate complex benefit and financial information into concise findings and recommendations for Total Rewards leadership.
Financial Analysis, Budgeting & Forecasting
- Partner closely with Finance and Accounting in the development and management of annual Total Rewards budgets.
- Support annual budgeting, forecasting, accruals, and variance analysis for total rewards programs.
- Monitor actual program expenses against budget and forecast and investigate significant variances.
- Analyze medical, pharmacy, administrative, insurance premium, Workers’ Compensation and other benefit-related expenses.
- Support forecasting of benefit costs using factors such as enrollment, claims experience, utilization, trend, plan changes, contractual fees, and other cost drivers.
- Prepare recurring financial analyses and management reporting that provide leadership with visibility into benefit program and Total Rewards financial performance.
- Support financial evaluation of potential benefit changes and programs, including anticipated cost, savings, return on investment, and employee impact.
Health & Welfare Reporting & Compliance
- Support required Health & Welfare regulatory, financial, and compliance reporting.
- Coordinate data collection, validation, reconciliation, and reporting associated with Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) obligations and related financial reporting.
- Support Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance activities, including data validation, monitoring, reconciliation, and annual reporting requirements.
- Assist with total rewards related audits and rate case requests from Finance, Accounting, Internal Audit, external auditors, consultants, and other stakeholders.
- Maintain appropriate documentation and controls supporting benefit reporting and compliance requirements.
- Partner with Total Rewards subject-matter experts and external partners to ensure regulatory and financial reporting deliverables are accurate and completed timely.
Vendor Management & Program Performance
- Work closely with vendors, consultants, actuaries, and other external partners to obtain, validate, and interpret program data.
- Develop and maintain vendor and program performance reporting, including financial, operational, service, utilization, and employee experience measures.
- Monitor vendor performance against contractual commitments, service-level agreements, performance guarantees, and established program objectives.
- Partner with vendors to investigate emerging trends, discrepancies, cost drivers, and performance concerns.
- Prepare scorecards and other analyses that help total rewards leadership evaluate vendor effectiveness and overall program value.
- Support vendor implementations, renewals, plan changes, requests for proposal, and other strategic benefit initiatives as needed.
Data Analysis & Reporting
- Analyze Health & Welfare claims, enrollment, utilization, financial, demographic, and vendor-provided data to identify meaningful program trends and insights.
- Prepare dashboards, scorecards, presentations, and executive-level summaries of benefit program performance.
- Perform data reconciliations and quality reviews to ensure information used for financial, compliance, and management reporting is complete and accurate.
- Partner with reporting/data analytics teams when more complex data extraction, modeling, visualization, or system-based reporting capabilities are required.
- Convert analytical findings into actionable Total Rewards insights, rather than simply producing reports.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor’s degree in human resources, Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Analytics, or a related discipline.
- Experience supporting employee benefits, Total Rewards, corporate finance, benefits consulting, or a related function.
- Working knowledge of Health & Welfare benefit programs and their financial and administrative structure.
- Strong analytical and financial skills with the ability to interpret benefit-related financial, claims, utilization, and vendor data.
- Experience with budgeting, forecasting, financial reconciliations, or variance analysis.
- Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including working with and reconciling large datasets.
- Ability to translate detailed financial and benefit information into concise insights for business leaders.
- Strong attention to detail with demonstrated ability to manage reporting and compliance deliverables with established deadlines.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with internal stakeholders and external vendors.
Preferred
- Experience with self-insured Health & Welfare plans.
- Experience supporting ACA compliance and reporting.
- Familiarity with OPEB financial reporting and actuarial processes.
- Experience analyzing medical and pharmacy claims, utilization, and cost trends.
- Experience working with benefit consultants, actuaries, health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, or other benefit vendors.
- Knowledge of Workers’ Compensation financial reporting, budgeting, or program performance.
- Experience creating executive-level benefit analyses, presentations, dashboards, or vendor scorecards.
Core Competencies
- Benefits & Total Rewards Acumen: Understands benefit plan design, administration, financing, and the relationship between benefit strategy, employee experience, and organizational cost.
- Financial Acumen: Understands budgets, forecasts, accruals, variance analysis, and financial drivers associated with benefit programs.
- Analytical Thinking: Identifies trends and relationships within complex benefit information and translates them into meaningful conclusions.
- Business Insight: Moves beyond reporting what happened to help explain why it happened, what it means, and what actions should be considered.
- Vendor Partnership: Effectively works with consultants, carriers, administrators, and other partners to evaluate performance and resolve issues.
- Compliance & Accuracy: Demonstrates strong attention to detail and recognizes the importance of data quality within regulated benefit programs.
- Executive Communication: Communicates complex financial and benefit concepts clearly and concisely to different audiences.
- Collaboration: Builds strong working relationships across Benefits, Total Rewards,
- The Benefits / Total Rewards Business Analyst is expected to develop deep knowledge of the organization's benefit programs and use financial, operational, claims, utilization, and vendor data to evaluate program performance and support Total Rewards decision-making. While strong analytical capabilities are critical, the role's primary focus is applying those capabilities within the context of Health & Welfare benefits, Workers' Compensation, financial planning, compliance, and Total Rewards strategy.