Principal Associate, Benefits Plan Program Management

Principal Associate, Benefits Plan Program Management The Principal Associate, Benefits Plan Program Management plays a critical role in ensuring the seamless delivery, administration, and continuous improvement of the organization’s Health & Wellness and voluntary benefit programs. This individual serves as a key operational anchor, managing a portfolio of vendors (e.g., on-site clinics, dental, vision, mental health, education, family support and commuter), resolving complex issues, and supporting the successful execution of strategic initiatives and Request for Proposal (RFP) processes.  This individual must be able to work independently to drive work forward with support from internal and external partners.

1. Vendor Management & Governance Own Plan Program Management for on-site clinics and pharmacies, dental, vision, life insurance, LTD, AD&PL, mental health, family formation and support, MSK, executive physicals, and commuter benefits.  Develop a network and build trust-based relationships with vendors and cross-functional partners to get work done. Performance Monitoring: Attend regular partner meetings and actively monitor vendor adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and performance guarantees (PGs) to ensure vendors deliver on contracts.   Partner with Enterprise Supplier Management (ESM) to execute all required vendor management tasks to ensure compliance and mitigate risk (e.g.,  business reviews, risk assessments, data share requests). Manage processes for on-site clinic staffing, including updating access in our vendor management portal and ensuring physical access to the campus. Continuous Improvement: Create analytics to leverage data to generate insights on vendor capabilities and recommend plan or program improvements based on benchmarking data, areas of employee abrasion, compliance updates, or emerging market trends.  Considers broader and longer term impact to create value. Stay up to date on new programs or offerings from vendors and support the Policy & Design team with input on investment decisions. 2. Operations & Program Administration Issue & Escalation Resolution: Maintain comprehensive, up-to-date issue logs for each vendor. Drive timely resolution of tracking items and document outcomes. Manage annual program implementation changes with vendors (excluding Workday feeds). Ensure changes are properly implemented and tested.  Core Administration: Handle all administrative tasks related to the assigned plans with a sense of urgency, while balancing quality, to ensure smooth day-to-day operations. Navigate any ambiguity to assess various situations to determine the proper course of action.  Internal Communications: Own and maintain internal intranet pages for your plans to ensure benefit program information, FAQs, and resources are accurate and accessible. Partner with HR Communications to make needed changes.   3. Associate Experience Cross-Functional Collaboration: Own complex, tier-3 employee escalations for your plans end-to-end. Work with members to understand the situation, investigate root causes, interface with vendors for resolutions, and implement processes or solutions to prevent future errors. Understand associate experience (how claims flow, customer service support, etc) to recommend and execute improvements.  Oversee the monthly benefits and wellbeing newsletter to increase plan utilization and drive awareness of benefits.  Develop a project plan with monthly themes, partner with stakeholders to provide relevant content, socialize as needed to support key HR initiatives, and work with HR Communications on production. Leverage data to support key messages and partner with HR Communications to design and execute on a communications plan to drive understanding of benefit and how to access/ use. Review communications recommended by vendors and partner with HR Comms on a view point for which should be sent, and timing.  Provide input into the