HR / Payroll Specialist

HR/Payroll Specialist

The HR/Payroll Specialist manages the day-to-day administration of payroll processing, benefit bill reconciliation, and employee record maintenance. This role serves as a primary point of contact for employee inquiries regarding pay and benefits, ensuring data integrity, compliance with federal and state laws, and seamless HR operations.

Essential Functions:

• Employee Record Management
  • Administer onboarding and offboarding processes, including creating HRIS profiles, new hire processing, issuing access codes, and recording employment changes and terminations.
  • Maintain and update employee records in the HRIS, including leave status, benefit enrollments, tax withholdings, direct deposits, and wage deductions.
  • Organize and maintain digital and physical personnel files in compliance with federal and state regulations.
  • Determine benefit eligibility and proactively notify employees and managers regarding health plan enrollment and leave policies.
  • Fulfill authorized information requests from internal/external auditors and verified third parties.
  • Conduct periodic audits of HRIS data and maintain the company contact directory.
• Payroll Processing
  • Review, audit, and reconcile timesheets, wage computations, tax entries, and labor distributions to ensure total payroll accuracy.
  • Process bi-weekly payroll and distribute employee paychecks and earnings statements. Manage and reconcile payroll adjustments, retro-pay, reimbursements, and permanent or temporary deductions.
  • Provide timely, accurate answers to employee inquiries regarding payroll, benefits, deductions, and leave balances.
• Benefit Bill Reconciliation
  • Reconcile monthly benefit invoices (medical, dental, vision, life, disability) against HRIS deductions to ensure exact financial alignment.
  • Audit enrollment changes to verify that new hires, terminations, and qualifying life events match carrier billing.
  • Investigate and resolve billing variances directly with insurance carriers, HRBP and/or internal accounting teams to manage adjustments.
  • Track and resolve all benefit-related billing discrepancies within monthly deadlines.
• Other Duties
  • Inventory Management: Coordinate the ordering, tracking, and distribution of company uniforms, employee name tags, and training cohort supplies to ensure seamless onboarding and brand consistency.
  • Quarterly Compliance Reporting: Compile payroll and personnel data to prepare and submit the quarterly Multiple Worksite Report (MWR) in compliance with state and federal department of labor regulations.
  • Annual Federal Reporting: Partner with the HR Administrator to gather, validate, and submit the annual EEO-1/EEOC report to ensure full regulatory compliance.
  • Assist the HR department with implementing various company-wide initiatives, programs, and procedures.
  • Clearly communicate company personnel policies, benefits, and procedures to current employees and job applicants.
  • Stay informed on changing state wage-and-hour laws, employment laws, and compliance updates.
  • Participate in administrative staff meetings and professional development seminars. Perform other related operational duties as assigned.

Competencies:

• Human Resources Capacity: Solid understanding of core HR and compliance principles.
• Customer/Client Focus: Strong service-oriented approach to handling employee inquiries.
• Ethical Conduct: Uncompromising commitment to maintaining strict confidentiality and data security.
• Personal Effectiveness: Excellent organizational, time-management, and prioritization skills.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• This position has no direct supervisory responsibilities but provides guidance, support, and cross-training to peers within the department.

Work Environment:

• This role operates in a professional office environment using standard equipment (computers, phones, copiers).

Physical Demands:

• Largely a sedentary role, but requires the physical ability to stand, bend, stool-step, and lift up to 20 lbs when managing physical files.

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities:

• HR & Finance Knowledge: Practical knowledge of compensation, benefits administration, payroll processing, and clerical systems.
• Communication: Exceptional active listening, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Critical Thinking: Strong mathematical capability with the ability to apply general rules to solve logic, data, or calculation errors.
• Technical Proficiency:
  • Advanced proficiency with a major HRIS/Payroll platform required; hands-on experience with ADP is highly preferred but not required.
  • Strong command of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Google Workspace.
  • Familiarity with—or willingness to learn—AI applications (e.g., Gemini, NotebookLM) and automated screening/sourcing tools.

Expected Hours of Work:

• Some flexibility in hours is allowed, but the employee must be available during office hours from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Must work 40 hours each week.

Travel:

• Occasional local, neighbor island and U.S. mainland travel to various store locations may be required.
• Less than 10 days per year.

Qualification Requirements:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, Accounting, or a related field.
• Experience: 2–4 years of experience in human resources, payroll, or accounting; or an equivalent combined mix of education and experience.