Payroll Specialist

The Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC) and its member Colleges each have Human Resource (HR) teams, which work collaboratively to provide strategic HR services across the spectrum of Human Resources and Organizational Development. Joining us, you will be a part of the GMHEC Payroll Team. As a Payroll Specialist, you will service our member institutions in regular bi-weekly payroll cycles. This will include data analytics, payroll validation, overall payroll preparation and processing.

The Specialist is expected to provide high-quality and timely service and support to all the departments and employees that rely on our services, as well as our vendors.

This position will work closely with the college HR and Finance teams. Located in Shelburne, Vermont, this position reports to the Payroll Shared Services Leader of the Consortium.

The successful candidate will be a part of a team-oriented organization servicing three very successful higher education institutions.  We are guided by our principles which recognize that our member organizations come first, continuous process improvement is a given, communication is transparent and visible, and we value our unique culture which includes being innovative, flexible and focused on wellbeing.  

The Payroll Specialist's responsibilities include:

• Processes regular payroll cycles for member organizations
• Maintains payroll operations giving attention to detail and following instructions
• Maintains payroll information by calculating, running reports including for time and labor and absence, analyzing and entering data for processing
• Prepares and runs payment runs
• Prepares and submits tax filings
• Works with customers on special projects
• Generates reports as required to provide audit and validation
• Reviews, reconciles and audits payroll data
• Ensures controls are in place, adhered to and regularly monitored
• Creates training reference guides, websites and videos for customers and trains customers in person or over video conference or via other menthods.
• Performs all assigned tasks accurately, efficiently, and in accordance with applicable policies and procedures of the Consortium and, where applicable, the Colleges including following payroll rules and regulations
• Validates direct deposits processing and diagnosis and resolves ACH rejections
• Services College employees and other vendors by responding to emails and phone calls on questions, issues utilizing our ticket system within timeframes contractually agreed upon with our members.
• Communicates with College and consortium customers via phone calls, zoom, emails and in-person
• Maintains confidentiality and privacy of employee and company sensitive data
• Participates in quarterly system update testing and validation
• Works closely and collaboratively with team members
• Provides back-up and support for other payroll personnel
• Other duties as assigned

Ability to:

• Organize and prioritize work, take initiative, resolve problems and manage multiple tasks simultaneously
• Recognize several likely causes of events, analyze relationships among several parts of a problem or situation and formulate a multi-step response if required
• Build strong, positive relationships with external and internal contacts
• Communicate effectively both verbally and in writing
• Manage and analyze financial data accurately
• Interpret and apply company policies and procedures
• Meet deadlines for daily, weekly, annual and project workload goals
• Maintain confidentiality and appropriately handle sensitive information with tact and discretion
• Work closely as a team member in a small cooperative, open office environment and/or in a remote environment
• Independently achieve results and self-direct work responsibly
• Deeply commit to continual process improvements and learning
• Contribute to a leading edge, creative team that is highly focused on success for our College partners

Knowledge of: 

• Payroll software
• Basic knowledge of general accounting principles
• Time and absence and payroll processing
• Form W-2 processing
• Internal Revenue Service and other federal and state regulations related to reporting, taxation and compliance
• Data collection, data entry and reporting
• Microsoft Office: Word, Excel (including pivots and XLOOKUP), Outlook
• Google Suite: Google Drive, Google Calendar
• Adobe Acrobat

Experience:

• Three to six years of payroll experience  
• A Bachelor's degree in a related field