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Company Description

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?

Job Description

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). The Absence and Disability Coordinator provides direction on HR department objectives, absence & disability technicalities, and policy issues. The Absence and Disability Coordinator coordinates administration of absence and disability management while partnering with key organizational stakeholders and vendors. This role 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, LTD, all leaves, PTO and Life Insurance.
• 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 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, HRMS, IT, My NM Service Center, Workers’ Comp, MD Comp and external vendors.
• Collaborate with management, human resources consultants, legal, and compensation, payroll and absence management vendor on complex absence cases.
• Work with employees, managers, physicians, absence management vendor(s), and payroll and compensation representatives to coordinate benefit payout (timecard coding) during their absence using appropriate systems including Kronos, PeopleSoft & carriers’ systems.
• Remain current on related state and federal law changes as they relate to leave management.
• Recognizes the need to know internal absence related HR policies including Leave of Absence (LOA), Personal Leave of Absence, Paid Time Off, Attendance and Workers’ Comp.
• Track and monitor benefits arrears and terminates 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 program and/or ADA 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 onboarding training & ongoing training sessions either in person or using WebEx related to leave management for assigned business units(s).
• Performs other benefits-related duties as required and assigned.
• Supports vendor implementation, new technologies related to Absence Mgmt. programs and supports testing of new systems.
• Maintains Absence Management related content on NM intranet & vendor systems for consistent communications 
• Supports integration acquisition activities including but not limited to mass communications, training, onboarding of new staff for acquired population. 

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, insurance/risk management, human resource management, public administration, related field  or  3+ years of relevant experience
• Must have working knowledge of Excel (including pivots andVLOOKUP).   
• Excellent critical thinking, analytical, problem solving and interpersonal skills
• Excellent attention to detail
• 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 through and provide accurate timely response to internal and external customers.
• Ability to commute between locations and regions as needed.

Preferred:

• 1-2 years of absence management (FMLA, STD, LTD, Life and/or WC) and/or return to work program experience.
• Thorough knowledge of FML and related legislation.
• PeopleSoft, Kronos and Excel experience.

Additional Information

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.