Payroll and Benefits Specialist

Description

Hammond Lumber Company is a family-owned, independent lumberyard and building supplier with 1,200+/- employees across 34 locations in Maine and New Hampshire, seeking an experienced and detail-oriented Payroll and Benefits Specialist to join our team. This role is essential to ensuring accurate, compliant, and timely payroll for a diverse workforce across multiple locations while also administering employee benefits programs and providing outstanding support to our employees. The ideal candidate brings strong technical expertise, confidence in handling complex payroll scenarios, and a hands-on, team-oriented approach. This position is suited for someone who values precision and aims to serve as a trusted expert within a stable, growing organization. In this role, you’ll collaborate closely with Finance, HR, vendors, and employees while upholding the highest standards of confidentiality and service.

Key Responsibilities:

The Payroll and Benefits Specialist serves as the subject matter expert for payroll, benefits and HRIS administration, ensuring compliance with all applicable federal, state and local regulations (e.g., federal, state and local wage and hour laws, ERISA, FMLA, ACA, HIPAA). This role is a primary point of contact for employee inquiries.

Responsible for all aspects of weekly payroll preparation and processing, this position works across the organization to ensure that benefits and programs are effectively and efficiently maintained and supported.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Payroll Processing: Process weekly payroll with accuracy and efficiency; provide expert-level customer service, maintain data integrity and perform complex payroll calculations in accordance with prevailing law
• Benefits Administration: Manage new hire enrollments for medical, dental, life, ancillary and 401(k) plans; coordinate annual open enrollment, including external vendors and their programs/services
• Leave Management: Administer leaves of absence, including FMLA, short-term disability, and other protected federal and state leaves
• Compliance & Reporting: Ensure compliance with all applicable federal laws and state regulations; maintain accurate payroll and benefits records
• Data Integrity & HRIS: Maintain the HRIS system ensuring data accuracy for employee data and changes
• Customer Service: Responds to employee inquiries regarding payroll, benefits, leaves and deductions

Payroll Administration:

• Process compliant weekly payrolls for all employees, including tax filings, levies/garnishments, child support orders, HRIS data review, preparing payroll transactions, preparing special reports and related compliance documentation in accordance with all federal, state and local payroll and tax regulations
• Review and reconcile payroll registers and resolve discrepancies prior to final transmission
• Calculate New Hire, Termination and Leave of Absence payroll transactions
• Responsible for payroll review and coordination of any necessary research or contact with payroll vendor
• Resolve payroll discrepancies; respond to inquiries and requests for payroll information
• Communicate payroll-related matters clearly and professionally to all levels of staff and management
• Proactively identify and address payroll-related issues/matters
• Perform compliance checks against legal and company policy requirements; report violations
• Administer Employee Self Service, including login support and direct deposit troubleshooting
• Maintain employee records in compliance with company policy and applicable federal/state/local regulations
• Partner with HR, AP/AR, accounting/finance, and payroll-related and tax-related vendors to provide support
• Generate and distribute payroll reports (e.g., general ledger files) and partner with accounting on reconciliations and journal entries
• Support quarterly (941s) and year-end payroll reporting including W-2s, 1095s and other related filings
• Review and reconcile company payroll invoices for accuracy
• Filing applicable BLS reports (e.g., Multiple Worksite Report)

Benefits Administration:

• Manage timely and accurate enrollments, COBRA, terminations, dependent verification, qualifying life event changes, beneficiaries, disability/accident/death claims. Maintain employee benefits files, group benefits database and update employee payroll records within HRIS and carrier systems
• Maintain and distribute benefits communications and materials for orientations, open enrollment and summary plan descriptions
• Support and communicate annual open enrollment updates
• Administer leaves of absence; review reports, take required actions and provide support/assistance to employees through the leave process
• Document and maintain administrative procedures and policies for assigned benefits processes.
• Manage inbound/outbound data feeds between HRIS and vendors, carriers, and other systems
• Conduct regular data audits to ensure integrity across payroll and benefits platforms
• Coordinate daily benefits processing and reconcile monthly benefits billing, including resolving discrepancies
• Serves as primary contact for vendors, third-party administrators and employees benefits inquiries
• Coordinate data transfers for services, premiums and plan administration
• Support internal/external plan audits and prepare, collect and organize data for actuarial assessments
• Provide customer service support to internal and external customers
• Collaborate with HR on benefits-related tasks and leaves
• Work with providers and brokers to ensure effective program delivery
• Support quarterly and year-end benefit reporting including 1095s and related filings

Compliance, Reporting & HRIS Support:

• Ensure compliance with wage and hour laws and company policies related to payroll.
• Provide required SOX/Audit data.
• Ensure accuracy, validity, and timeliness of all payroll tax filings and issuances (including W-2s).
• Support system implementations, upgrades, and configuration enhancements through monitoring, testing and conducting data validations
• Troubleshoot system discrepancies and coordinate issue resolution with vendors

Other:

• Handle a dynamic workforce (yard staff, drivers, office employees) including assisting employees with limited digital access
• Filing Workers’ Compensation First Notice of Injury and OSHA 300 reports
• Daily Reporting on company-wide absence/appointments
• Administration of company’s drug testing program
• Responsible for Labor Law Posters
• Proactively identify opportunities for process improvement, innovation and efficiency
• Perform additional duties as assigned

Travel

• Some travel across all company locations may be required

Full Time Benefits

• Medical Insurance & Prescription Drug Plan
• Dental Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account
• Health Savings Account
• Employee Purchase Discount
• 401(k) Plan
• Discretionary Bonuses
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Time Off
• Volunteer Time Off
• Group Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance
• Short Term Disability Insurance
• EAP and Work Life Plan
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Outings
• Employee Charge Accounts

Requirements

Core Competencies

• Accountability
• Communication
• Customer Focus and Teamwork
• Effectiveness
• Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

Role Specific Competencies

• Analytical and Problem-Solving
• Attention to Detail
• Confidentiality
• Extreme Ownership
• Responsiveness
• Time Management

Additional Eligibility Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on experience in payroll, HRIS and benefits administration, with demonstrated expertise in full-cycle payroll processing
• Advanced Excel® proficiency required including use of pivot tables, VLOOKUPs, and formulas
• Experience and general comfort with digital collaboration and communication tools (e.g., Zoom, Teams)
• Cybersecurity awareness to safeguard personal and organizational information
• Comfortable working with a mix of office and field-based employees
• Experience with HRIS and benefits databases
• Knowledge of all pertinent federal and state regulations, filing and compliance requirements, both adopted and pending, affecting employee benefits programs, including ERISA, COBRA, FMLA, ADA, Section 125, workers' compensation, Medicare, COBRA, and Social Security and DOL requirements.
• Ability to manage multiple complex projects under pressure and to meet deadlines
• Strong discretion in dealing with highly confidential and sensitive information exhibited at all times
• Proven ability to work effectively in a team environment with the ability to work independently and take ownership of payroll operations
• Capability of effective planning and priority setting
• Strong decision-making skills that incorporate diverse perspectives.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in business, human resources, accounting or related field preferred. Equivalent work experience will be considered
• 3 - 5 years of related payroll, employee benefits administration, accounting and HR experience
• One or more of the following preferred: CPP, PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, or CEBS