Payroll & Benefits Specialist

Garda is seeking a Payroll & Benefits Specialist to support our North America employee base. This is a vital role in managing payroll processes, administering employee benefits, and ensuring compliance with financial and HR regulations. This position offers an exciting opportunity to leverage your expertise in payroll management and benefits administration within a collaborative environment committed to excellence. Your proactive approach and attention to detail will help us deliver seamless payroll services and comprehensive benefits programs that support our employees throughout the full employment lifecycle.

Primary responsibilities for the role include:

Payroll Administration

• Independently manage end-to-end bi-weekly payroll for employees across five multi-state locations (calculation of wages, overtime, bonuses, and deductions), ensuring accuracy, compliance, and timely processing.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local payroll tax regulations, labor laws, and wage and hour laws, including multi-state tax filings and reporting.
• Maintain and update the payroll system (Paychex) to ensure accurate employee data, pay rates, deductions, and benefits are reflected correctly.
• Serve as the company’s payroll subject matter expert and primary escalation point for complex payroll, tax, and compliance matters.
• Identify opportunities to improve payroll processes and systems, ensuring efficiency, accuracy, and compliance.
• Ensure 401(k) files for bi-weekly payroll are accurately sent to administrator
• Maintain payroll records, including new hires, terminations, promotions, leaves of absence and pay changes.
• Audit timekeeping data and resolve discrepancies with managers and employees.
• Prepare payroll reports for Finance as needed
• Manage quarterly and year end payroll tax filings, including federal, state, and local taxes, and ensure timely submission of tax forms such as W-2s.
• Investigate and resolve payroll tax discrepancies, notices, and agency inquiries.

Benefits Administration

• Administer employee benefits programs, including health, dental, vision, life insurance, HSA, FSAs, disability, retirement plans, COBRA.
• Coordinate open enrollment, benefits changes, and employee education sessions.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for employees regarding benefits questions and issue resolution.
• Maintain accurate benefits records and ensure timely enrollment and termination processing in the HRIS & Benefit Platform
• Work with vendors and brokers to manage plan updates, billing, renewals, and compliance.

Human Resources Support and Compliance

• Assist with 401(k) and other audits annually as needed
• Coordinate background checks and assist in the onboarding process for new hires
• Work closely with the broader Human Capital Management team to ensure proper recording of employee data in our HRIS system (BambooHR) such as new hires, terminations, salary changes, and benefits enrollments.

Qualifications & Desired Skills 

• Minimum of 7 years of payroll and/or benefits administration experience.
• Strong knowledge of payroll regulations and benefits compliance.
• Experience with HRIS, payroll, Finance, and IT systems, including data extraction, reconciliation and reporting.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
• Expert level Excel proficiency, proven analytical, modeling, and reporting capabilities.
• Understanding of HR processes, policies, and regulations related to payroll and benefits administration
• High attention to detail and understanding of downstream impacts of data errors.
• Embrace a shared drive to learn, improve and achieve lasting impact.
• Self-starter with the ability to work both independently and collaboratively, managing priorities effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across diverse teams and stakeholders