Payroll & Benefits Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

We are looking for a detail-oriented Payroll & Benefits Specialist to support payroll and benefits operations for a multi-state workforce in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This Long-term Contract position is ideal for someone who can manage high-volume payroll activity, maintain accurate records, and provide responsive support to employees and managers. The role also partners with internal teams and external vendors to help ensure payroll processing, benefit administration, reporting, and compliance activities are completed accurately and on schedule.

Responsibilities:
• Manage assigned portions of recurring and off-cycle payroll processing for employees working across multiple states, ensuring timely and accurate completion.
• Review and apply employee pay-related updates such as hires, separations, compensation changes, deductions, garnishments, leave adjustments, retroactive corrections, and one-time payments.
• Validate payroll entries, reconcile payroll results, and investigate discrepancies to resolve routine and moderately complex issues.
• Prepare payroll summaries, funding support, and related documentation while maintaining complete and organized payroll records.
• Answer employee and leadership questions related to pay, deductions, accruals, garnishments, and payroll procedures, and support payroll setup during onboarding.
• Administer benefit enrollment activity, status changes, qualifying life events, and terminations while keeping benefit records current and accurate.
• Coordinate payroll-related benefit deductions, support open enrollment tasks, and work with vendors and internal partners to address administrative issues.
• Assist with payroll and benefits reporting, audit support, year-end activities, tax notice research, and payroll-to-general-ledger reconciliation.
• Serve as a knowledgeable user of payroll, benefits, HR, and timekeeping systems by supporting testing, troubleshooting, approved updates, and process improvements.• Demonstrated experience managing full-cycle payroll processing in a high-volume environment of more than 500 employees.
• Hands-on expertise with multi-state payroll administration and related compliance considerations.
• Strong working knowledge of benefits administration, including enrollments, deductions, life event changes, and employee support.
• Proficiency with ADP Workforce Now and familiarity with payroll, HR, benefits, and timekeeping systems.
• Ability to reconcile payroll data, research discrepancies, and prepare accurate reports and supporting documentation.
• Solid understanding of payroll records management, deduction processing, garnishments, and leave-related transactions.
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills, and the ability to handle confidential information with discretion.