Absence and Disability Coordinator, Full-time, Days (Hybrid)

At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better healthcare, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. At Northwestern Medicine, we pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, we take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

The Absence and Disability Coordinator reflects the mission, vision, and values of NM, adheres to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program, and complies with all relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and all other regulatory and accreditation standards.

The Absence and Disability Coordinator will be responsible for day-to-day operations of Absence Management program(s).  Absence and Disability Coordinator provides direction on HR department objectives, absence & disability technicalities and policy issues. Absence and Disability Coordinator coordinates administration of absence and disability management while partnering with key organizational stakeholders and vendors.  Provides consulting with the case management of absence and disability claims.

Responsibilities:

• Provide managers and Human Resources Business Practice (HRBPs) Absence Management products related support including but not limited to Disability, FMLA, State Leaves, Personal Leaves, Long Term disability.
• Supports employees with all paid time off programs. To include PTO, Service Anniversary, Personal Holiday, and Union programs. Conducting audits and reconciling balances.
• Support the HR Business Partners and employees with State and City of Chicago Job Protected time. Conducting audits and reconciling balances.
• Will assist employees and family members related to Life Insurance products, explaining benefits and processing claims.
• May support physician’s disability, leaves and Life programs by providing communication and engagement of MD compensation for disability calculations.
• Ensures vendors are performing day-to-day operations compliant with state/federal regulations and company leave policies. Engage vendor(s) as appropriate to address areas of concern.
• Identify trends, root causes, or other areas of opportunity to reduce costs of continuous leaves and abuse of intermittent leaves while improving program administration.
• Review the business unit’s specific trends of disability absences continuous leaves, intermittent leaves, PTO and other absences.
• Share reports and correspondence to ensure communication between employees, managers, Human Resources Consultants or HR Business Partners, Payroll, IT, Workers’ Comp, MD Comp, and external vendors.
• Collaborate with management, human resources consultants, legal, payroll and absence management vendor on complex absence cases.
• Work with employees, managers, physicians, absence management vendor(s), and payroll and to coordinate benefit payout (timecard coding) during their absence using appropriate systems including UKG, PeopleSoft & carriers’ systems.
• Remain current on related state and federal law changes as they relate to leave management.
• Track and monitor benefits arrears and terminate benefits when appropriate for failure to pay.
• Responds to service tickets from employees and physicians.
• Assists coordination between Workers’ Comp (WC) and vendor(s) to track concurrent FML time for employees out on Workers’ Comp leaves.
• Coordinates return to work in collaboration with employees, HRBP, managers and Workers’ Comp Coordinator.
• Communicates effectively with all levels of the organization and ensure understanding of the company’s responsibilities during an employee’s leave of absence or accommodation.
• Recommends ways to improve current processes to eliminate non-value-added work.
• Conducts ongoing training sessions either in person or using Teams related to leave management for assigned business units(s).
• Supports vendor implementation, new technologies related to Absence Mgmt. programs and supports testing of new systems. 
• Supports integration acquisition activities including but not limited to mass communications, training, and onboarding of new staff for the acquired population.
• Assists with timecard coding when needed.
• Performs other benefits-related duties as required and assigned.

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, human resource preferred or equivalent experience and
• 3-5 years of leave of absence management or relevant experience.
• Must have working knowledge of Excel (including pivots andVLOOKUP).   
• Excellent critical thinking, analytical, problem solving and interpersonal skills
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing, at all levels within and outside the organization.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships inside and outside the organization.
• Ability to follow thru and provide accurate timely response to internal and external customers.
• Ability to commute between locations and regions as needed.
• Excellent attention to detail

Preferred:

• 1-2 years of absence management (FMLA, STD, LTD, Life and/or WC)
• Thorough knowledge of FMLA, State Leaves and related legislation desired.
• PeopleSoft, Kronos, Powerpoint and Excel experience desired.

Northwestern Medicine is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of age, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected status.

If we offer you a job, we will perform a background check that includes a review of any criminal convictions. A conviction does not disqualify you from employment at Northwestern Medicine. We consider this on a case-by-case basis and follow all state and federal guidelines.

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits that provide employees with tools and resources to improve their physical, emotional, and financial well-being while providing protection for unexpected life events. Please visit our Benefits section to learn more.