Payroll Administrator

About Pacific Blue Cross

Pacific Blue Cross (PBC) has been British Columbia's leading benefits provider for over 80 years. We are an independent, not-for-profit society with strong roots in BC’s health care system. We provide health, dental, life, disability, and travel coverage to 1 in 3 British Columbians through employee group plans and individual plans.

About Pacific Blue Cross

Pacific Blue Cross (PBC) has been British Columbia's leading benefits provider for over 80 years. We are an independent, not-for-profit society with strong roots in BC’s health care system. We provide health, dental, life, disability, and travel coverage to 1 in 3 British Columbians through employee group plans and individual plans.

We are fueled by a commitment to keep health care sustainable for all British Columbians. Through our PBC Health Foundation, we fund projects that improve health outcomes directly related to mental health and wellbeing as well as the prevention and/or management of chronic disease. We are interested in finding people who want to make a difference and who are looking to grow their career with us.

Perks

• Work-life balance with flexible working hours of 7 hours per day, Monday to Friday (i.e., 35 hours per week).
• Paid vacation starts at 3 weeks per year, and increases with years of service.
• Hybrid work environment (i.e., a combination of work from office and work from home days).
• Generous benefits, including extended health and dental insurance; these benefit premiums are 100% paid by PBC.
• Company pension contributions after 1 year of service.
• Education allowance up to $1,000 per calendar year.
• Onsite gym, cafeteria, and access to virtual doctors/counsellors 24/7 via our Employee Family Assistance Program!

About The Position

• We are searching for one temporary Payroll Administrator to join our Payrolll and Benefits team.
• This position is unionized and part of the CUPE 1816 Bargaining Unit. This position is paid at hourly rates and receives wage increases in accordance with the Collective Agreement. The wage for this position is: $5,458 per month to start (equivalent to $63,744 per year) and then progressing up to $6,484 per month (equivalent to $77,808 per year).

Job Summary

Under general supervision of the Assistant Manager, Payroll and Benefits, the Payroll Administrator administers payroll and benefits services for bargaining unit employees to ensure prompt and accurate processing of employee bi-weekly compensation, deductions and related benefits records submitted through PBC’s payroll processing system. Issues Record of Employment (ROE) for bargaining unit employees. Prepares and balances annual T4 and prepares T2200 tax return slips. Troubleshoots, analyzes, and corrects coding and other variances identified following the process through adjustments to the interface or by manual journal entries. Prepares miscellaneous manual journal entries as well as balances and reconciles a variety of payroll general ledger accounts. Participates in the testing process for upgrades, patches or other changes made to the automated payroll system. Performs a variety of duties relating to the recovery of overpayments. Responds to inquiries, as required.

Job Duties

Payroll Processing and Administration

Benefits

Administers payroll and benefits services for bargaining unit employees to ensure prompt and accurate processing of employee bi-weekly compensation, deductions, and related benefits records submitted through PBC’s payroll processing system by:

• monitoring the processing of selected payroll data such as changes in salary, department, job status, overtime, meal allowance, acting pay, return to work from a variety of leaves, retroactive pay, benefit adjustments, sick time payout, vacation payout, ad hoc payments, and related transactions affecting payroll by generating and checking system and manual reports to identify and correct variances; makes manual adjustments as required.
• processing a variety of manual transactions such as paybacks, pay loss, statutory holidays, and other adjustments for family responsibility leave, flex time, banked overtime, vacation, leaves without pay, taxable benefits, time bank adjustments, float payouts, and special payments such as 48-hour terminations.
• downloading, balancing, preparing, and entering system reports on statutory deductions, pension, garnishments, RRSP/TFSA contributions, union dues, sick accrual, WCB, and other benefit premiums/payroll deductions; prepares and reconciles remittances and forwards for payment processing within established deadlines.
• verifying and investigating the accuracy of wage loss disability payments from insurers including gradual return to work payments.
• applying a variety of rules and guidelines concerning payments, benefits, and entitlements including statutory regulations, collective agreements, and internal policies, and verifying accuracy of payments in relation to the established rules.
• checking total hours recorded for each pay period, identifying variances, and following up with Human Resources and/or department schedulers to verify action required; codes short term disability top up and other leave hours including Union leave of absence; processes completed timesheets for final processing in accordance with established deadlines.
• monitoring status of automated system processing and referring deviations from normal processing times to Human Resources or technical specialists for further investigation.
• preparing a variety of reports such as audit reports, special payments, pension contributions, standard payroll, and ad hoc reports, on request

Issues Record of Employment (ROE) for bargaining unit employees.

Prepares and balances annual T4 tax return slips, and prepares T2200 tax return slips.

Troubleshoots, analyzes, and corrects coding and other variances identified following the process through adjustments to the interface or by manual journal entries.

Prepares miscellaneous manual journal entries as well as balances and reconciles a variety of payroll general ledger accounts.

In Collaboration With Human Resources And Finance

• verifies pre-authorized debit amounts for employees commencing unpaid leaves of absence for processing.
• corresponding with retirees concerning premium rate changes in retiree benefit plans, maintaining liaison with internal team members concerning set up and collection of pre-authorized payments, and recording the payment of the company portion of invoices and the reimbursement of the employee portion of the invoice.
• receiving and processing invoices from Alberta Blue Cross for employee short- and long-term disability plans, coding G/L accounts and preparing journal entries; notifies reinsurers of long-term disability amounts, produces premiums paid tax letters for employees at year end and produces reconciliations and reports on an ad hoc basis.

Participates in the testing process for upgrades, patches or other changes made to the automated payroll system using testing guidelines determined by Human Resources and Payroll to ensure functionality of payroll-specific procedures. Tests new tax tables issued by Revenue Canada. May prepare salary history reconstructions in a test environment as requested by HR.

Recovery of Overpayments

• on request, investigating overpayments made to employees receiving disability or other third-party insurer benefits such as ICBC, CPP, and WCB and providing salary details to Human Resources for the initiation of recovery action.
• validating salary amounts paid by various parties to facilitate settlement allocation and identifying related income tax implications.
• administering settlements of recovery including communicating with Alberta Blue Cross and confirming recovery offsets against billing from Alberta Blue Cross.
• providing cheques received for settlement of PBC portion of recovery to cashiers along with appropriate coding.
• preparing journal entries to record recoveries and maintaining related recovery records.

Customer Service

Responds to inquiries from employees such as payroll and benefits rules, entitlements and specific payments or deductions made through the payroll processing system. Provides statistical and other payroll-related information to auditors and management.

General Team and Department Support

As directed by management, provides formal work training to payroll team members in the execution of payroll duties, as needed.

Prepares payroll records for offsite storage on an annual basis.

Maintains up-to-date knowledge of changes in statutory rules and guidelines affecting payroll administration, internal rules, policies, procedures, system requirements and other information related to the provision of payroll and benefits administration through continuous learning initiatives.

On a relief basis, performs the duties of the Payroll Coordinator position.

Performs other assigned duties related to payroll administration or clerical support which do not affect the rating of the job.

Qualifications

• High school graduation, or equivalent.
• Completion of the Payroll Compliance Practitioner (PCP) program leading to the PCP designation (144 hours), or equivalent.
• Completion of an intermediate Excel course (18 hours), or equivalent.
• Demonstrated proficiency with basic Word and intermediate Excel.
• 4 years of previous related experience preparing payroll.
• Demonstrated experience preparing payroll journal entries, reconciliations, and remittances.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

PBC is an Indigenous Works employer of choice, an Insurance Business Canada Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award winner, one of Canada’s Greenest employers, a Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) employer partner, and a Pride at Work partner.

We strive to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and employees feel empowered to freely participate and contribute regardless of Indigenous identity, race, colour, ancestry, place or origin, political belief, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, physical or mental disability. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all qualified candidates.

To request an accommodation in completing this job application, testing, interviewing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to View email address on click.appcast.io. These accommodation requests will be reviewed confidentially a

While we thank all applicants for their interest, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.