A Career of Your Calling

About Blue Cross

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is one of the most recognized and trusted health care brands in the world with 2.5 million members. We’re committed to reinventing health care to improve health for our members and the community. We hope you'll join us.

How is this Role Important to Our Work?

As Benefits Manager, you will play a critical role in designing, implementing, and managing U.S. benefit plans including health & welfare, retirement, ancillary benefits, and wellbeing programs within the organization.  This position requires a thorough understanding of benefit design, finance, administration, compliance, and a commitment to ensuring that associates receive a competitive and comprehensive benefit package. The Benefits Manager will work closely with internal departments including HR, Finance, Sourcing, Legal and Communications as well as external vendors and consultants to develop and administer benefits and wellbeing programs that align to the company’s goals and HR/Total Reward guiding principles. This role will be also responsible for identifying opportunities to continuously improve and evolve the Benefits function.

Within 12 months you will: 

• Lead strategy to align benefits and time off programs to newly established philosophy and guiding principles.
• Partner with finance to build benefits finance practices.
• Evaluate and manage vendor relationships and performance.
• Help to create a wellbeing strategy and roadmap.  
• Lead implementation of new vendor for LOA, Life & Disability programs.   
• Support efforts to reimagine retirement benefits and executive perquisites.  
• Develop, support, and upskill the benefits team.
• Lead team through refining HRIS configuration and processes.
• Guide team through escalated member issues.
• Partner with key internal stakeholders on content strategy and design.

• Strategy:  Develop and implement benefits and wellbeing strategies aligned to the company’s goals and HR/Total Rewards guiding principles and support associate wellbeing.                   
• Administration:  Manage performance and relationships with benefit vendors, providers, brokers, and consultants. Collaborate with benefits providers and brokers on renewals or service bids, utilization experience, cost management, and plan design options; review vendors' performance and recommend changes to management.
• Financial Management:  Analyze benefits spend, approving invoices up to signing authority level; partner with Sourcing to negotiate cost-effective contracts.   Monitor activities to stay within the established budget, working closely with Finance to forecast and monitor budget related to benefits programs.
• Engagement / Communications: Improve associate awareness and utilization of offerings by developing effective communication strategies, campaigns, and educational sessions. 
• Analytics: Analyze data to evaluate program effectiveness, identify cost-saving opportunities, and provide insights for decision making; generate reports and key metrics/dashboards.  
• Compliance / Governance:  Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations.  Remain current on industry benefits practices and changing legal issues, assessing, and communicating potential impact on the business, along with providing recommendations/solutions to address any concerns. Review and recommend changes to benefit documentation, including contracts, plan documents and summaries.
• People Leadership: Directly manage a team of benefits professionals creating a high performing department. Grow and develop a team through coaching, goal setting, listening and quality communications.
• Benefits Knowledge: Have a working knowledge of multiple benefit areas including but not limited to medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, wellness programs, leave of absence administration and retirement plans.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
• Project management skills.
• Financial and analytical skills. 
• 7-10+ years of related professional experience. All relevant experience including work, education, transferrable skills, and military experience will be considered.
• 5+ years of experience managing individual contributors.  
• Strong systems experience (e.g. Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Teams).
• Strong HRIS skills (prefer Workday experience).  
• Compliance and operations knowledge across all benefit programs including health and welfare and retirement.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Skilled in developing and delivering clear, succinct, persuasive presentations to varying audiences including employees and executive management.
• Ability to think strategically and continually review and improve processes.
• Excellent ability to apply logical reasoning to data analysis and think through details.
• Ability to solve moderate to complex problems.
• Ability to be self‐directed and to handle large, concurrent projects with minimal supervision while adhering to strict guidelines.
• Ability to develop strong relationships with key stakeholders and foster trust in handling confidential situations.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., CEBS) preferred. 

Make A Difference

Blue Cross is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer that values diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Reasonable Accommodation for Job Seekers with a Disability: If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to talent.acquisition@bluecrossmn.com.

All roles require a high school diploma (or equivalency) and legal authorization to work in the U.S.

Blue Cross® and Blue Shield® of Minnesota and Blue Plus® are nonprofit independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.