Benefits & Wellness Manager

About Us Lush North America supports over 262 (and growing!) retail stores in Canada and the USA, a mail order business based in Vancouver, and manufacturing centers in both Vancouver and Toronto. We're known worldwide for our unique bath and beauty products. We pride ourselves on amazing skin and hair care, personalized customer service, environmental activism and a vibrant store atmosphere. Charitable giving is at the heart of our business, and we believe it's our responsibility to advocate for the environment, animals and people in need. Lush is a values-led organization where decisions about our people programs have a direct impact on thousands of employees across North America. In this role, you will have meaningful scope to influence how benefits operate. This role will suit someone who enjoys taking ownership, creating structure, solving complicated benefits challenges, and making programs easier for people to understand and use. The Role As the Benefits and Wellness Manager , you will positively impact the staff experience at Lush, by ensuring that benefits programs are of exceptional value, and highly valued by our staff. You will ensure that our benefits processes are well-communicated, transparent, and user-friendly. You have sound knowledge of benefits program design and administration best- practices in US and Canada, as well as the capacity to influence across the organization to ensure consistent application of benefits policies and processes and thorough understanding of benefits and wellness programs. Reporting to the Assistant Controller, the Benefits and Wellness Manager will be responsible for managing relationships with US and Canadian Benefits vendors, creating and executing an annual plan for benefits and wellness communication and education, overseeing the efficient administration of staff benefits, and measuring and reporting on the success of such programs. Your core RESPONSIBILITIES will include: Oversee the administration of the benefits plans including researching/recommending strategies related to benefits costs, improving processes and leading changes to plan design or carriers. Collaborate with all People and Culture departments, Payroll and Finance to ensure Canadian and US Health, Dental and Vision Benefits, RRSP & 401k and other programs are managed effectively. Spearhead the annual planning of the evolution of benefits and wellness at Lush, including the annual review of costs, ensuring that the budget is managed efficiently, and that benefits are good value for the company and the staff. Develop and coach the Benefits team by providing guidance, feedback and support to ensure they are effective in their role Lead the annual review of retirement plans including monitoring of trends, best practice, utilization and cost/benefit analysis to recommended opportunities for enhancements Ensure that STD and LTD claims are well-managed to control costs and enhance employee experience. Collaborate with managers, HR Partners and vendors to ensure roles are well-understood and the claims process is transparent and effective Communicate benefits options during leaves and partner with payroll/accounting as required to ensure that premiums are paid Partner with internal stakeholders to execute all aspects of Employee Benefit communications including, inquiries from employees, open enrollment, new hire orientations and special communications Ensure that staff are provided with current, engaging information on benefits and wellness, including changes to benefits, benefits premiums, and education on benefits use. Provide effective communication tools and training to Managers and Business Partners to ensure they can support staff questions about benefits. Share results to stakeholders on benefits KPI’s on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis Participate and collaborate on initiatives and projects across the employee life cycle which affect staff’s journey and well-being in Lush including ad hoc support for t…