Compensation and Benefits Representative

Working for Equity Residential (EQR), a leading multi-family real estate investment trust (REIT), means being part of a community and striving to provide the best in apartment living, speaking boldly about new ideas for innovation, and inspiring creativity in the ways we work together. Our portfolio of high-quality properties in urban growth markets – New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles – provides homes where people most want to live, work and play. We've got the best people in the business, and our experience shows in our dedication to our residents and in how much we value each other as colleagues. That’s why our employees say they are proud to work at Equity, a company that gives our residents a place where they can Live Remarkably, and offers a culture where our employees have the opportunity to make their mark.

Efficiency, consistency, disciplined project delivery, and innovation are core to the success of the HR Benefits group. At Equity, our Compensation and Benefits Representative is a collaborative problem solver who enjoys sharing great ideas to improve on existing processes. Under the supervision of the Benefits Director and Compensation Director, this exciting position supports and coordinates the administration of company-wide employee benefit and compensation programs including health and welfare plans, 401(k) plans, employee stock purchase plan, base pay, variable pay and retirement programs.

• A Strong Communicator. Your writing and speaking skills are clear, articulate, and effective, demonstrating your ability to interact with all levels and various teams within the organization and be understood.  In addition, your ability to partner with external representatives, such as vendors and system administrators, will be critical in order to be effective in this role. Drafting employee communications and driving internal benefits campaigns comes to you with ease.
• Knowledgeable. You have a broad-based familiarity with benefits and total wellbeing programs, regulations, diversity and inclusion, and best practices. Topics related to medical, dental, life, vision, HSA, FSA, and are all subjects you’re comfortable interpreting, assessing, and making recommendations. And when inquiries about employee benefit elements bubble up, you enjoy providing clarity and helping others to understand. For example, you are comfortable explaining processes such as benefits eligibility, ACA, and FSA non-discrimination testing, among other benefits specific processes.
• Proactive, Productive, and Motivated. You take initiative, manage your work efficiently, meet your  deadlines, and consistently go above and beyond to contribute quality work and to assist other team members and business partners. You invest extra energy to reach your goals.
• Organized and Confident. You are flexible, composed, and able to prioritize multiple tasks and deadlines simultaneously while confidently interacting with individuals across all levels of the organization.
• Technologically Savvy. You’ve previously been exposed to HR and benefits management systems (bswift, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Ceridian, etc.) and know how to extract relevant information and build reports. You’ve got a deep knowledge of Microsoft Excel and can also operate successfully across the Google platform. And when technology doesn’t operate as you might expect, you are comfortable researching and troubleshooting issues until root cause is identified and resolved.
• A Team Player. You are known for serving as a resource and trusted business partner for internal groups.  Participating in cross-functional projects is the type of work you love.
• Passionate. Motivated. Eager to Learn. You are resourceful, ask smart questions, challenge the status quo, and regularly seek to understand. You invest extra energy to reach your goals. And when a special project arises, you volunteer.

• Enter compensation and benefit related data in the HRIS system(s).
• Maintain and update job codes, bonus tables, organizational and position information.
• Establish, monitor and perform routine and custom data audits to ensure accuracy and integrity of data.
• Work to leverage technology to simplify compensation and benefit processes, minimize paperwork and ensures efficiency.
• Handle routine reporting and HRIS Support requests.
• Work with end-users to ensure full understanding of the request and creates or modifies reports as necessary.
• Perform system testing for upgrades and any enhancements that are made to support compensation and benefits policies and procedures.
• Understand the relationship between the HRIS system, vendor interface files and the compensation planning tool.  Participate in system testing, identifies issues and works with colleagues and IT to resolve issues. 
• Maintain business process documentation for all related compensation and benefits tasks and regularly update processes as needed.

Benefits Administration

• Respond to employee and HR inquiries regarding benefit programs by reviewing and interpreting policies, procedures and plan documents.
• Assist in the planning, implementation and support of the benefits year end processes, including the annual benefits enrollment. 
• Process benefits billing/invoices and compiles monthly broker reporting for timely administration with vendors.
• Send basic regulatory compliance filings and disclosures and follows up on returned mailings.
• Ensure department forms and information is current and keeps company intranet and other systems up to date.
• Coordinate all phases of both internal/external stakeholder meetings to include adding guests to security list, greeting upon arrival and setup/takedown of meeting space.
• Act as official minutes taker for all vendor meetings.
• Maintain orderly setup of all benefits related documents by regularly reviewing saved document in shared folders both on network and Google drive.
• Pursue online and in-person benefit sessions to increase depth of benefits knowledge.

Compensation and Job Review

• Perform administrative functions of the compensation planning system.
• Respond to inquiries from managers about the annual merit and bonus process and system issues.
• Maintain and update documentation pertaining to compensation programs and systems including the on-line depository for job descriptions, collaboration sites and third-party compensation systems.
• Coordinate the job review process by tracking requests received and coordinating the work flow and communication between the requestor and the compensation team.
• Maintain benchmarking database with position match information and updates as necessary to new and changing positions.
• Learn how to use the market pricing system which includes ensuring employee data is submitted regularly, updates position matches, completes salary surveys and generates reporting as needed.
• Make updates and corrections as necessary to ensure the company's benchmarks for all positions are accurate.
• Coordinate Retirement Committee meetings by working with management and 3^rd party to compile and distribute meeting materials, setup/teardown of meeting spaces as needed. 
• Participate in special projects as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree with 2-3 years of HR support or compensation and benefits experience with general knowledge of Human Resources functions.
• Must have the ability to make recommendations to effectively resolve problems or issues by using judgment that is consistent with company standards, practices, policies and procedures as well as federal and state regulations. 
• Ability to research and analyze various types of data and the ability to organize and prioritize work and manage multiple responsibilities while maintaining accuracy and follow up on outstanding inquiries. 
• Must have strong interpersonal communication skills. 
• Demonstrated customer-service orientation.
• Ability to maintain a high degree of confidentiality and a professional image are necessary.
• Familiarity with HRIS systems, specifically bswift and Oracle Fusion is preferred.

We recognize that everyone has different needs outside of work. That’s why, in addition to a competitive benefits package (medical, dental, vision and paid time off), we offer many unique options to employees, like adoption benefits and paid time off for community service projects. To learn more, view our Total Wellbeing page here.