Employee Benefits Associate

At Mercer, we’re creating a culture where you can bring your authentic self to work. When you join us, you bring your inclusive energy and enthusiasm to a team that values you personally and professionally - regardless of who you are, what you look like, where you were raised or born, who you love or what your religious beliefs are. You are welcome here.

**Employee Benefits Associate**

**What can you expect?**

Mercer allows its employees to personalize their roles and careers within the Company. We encourage the sharing of intellectual capital in a spirit of partnership. You can expect to be challengedand to be rewarded for your achievements.

The Actuarial Employee Benefits Associate will provide accurate and timely data and financial analysis on various projects for medical, dental, life and disability programs. The Employee Benefits Associate will:

- Participate in delivering impactful solutions for organizations of any size and varied industries and have a direct impact on their employees.
- Work in a collaborative environment on a wide variety of client teams with any number of our 20+ Health colleagues in Ottawa and 60+ Health colleagues in Montréal.
- Support clients in the financial and strategic management of their employee benefit programs through analysis and communication.
- Perform basic or complex calculations with respect to the costs of our clients’ employee benefit plans and insurance arrangements, including using Mercer’s internal tools to price plan design changes and prepare future cost projections.
- Develop project management and consulting skills including: managing the quality and timeliness of client deliverables, participating in client calls and meetings as appropriate and assisting with the preparation of client-friendly communications.
- Develop deeper understanding of the following, through online training, group sessions, or one-on-one training with colleagues: Health and Benefits products, services and technical tools offered by Mercer, vendor/carrier markets, basic underwriting skills, budget-setting, rate-setting and evaluation.

**What is in it for you?**
- Be part of our great training and development programs, including our continuing education program
- Have the opportunity to work with the best tools, resources and some of the smartest people in the industry
- Be part of a work environment that promotes social connection and work-life flexibility
- Be provided opportunities to personalize your role and career
- Be rewarded for your contributions

**We will count on you to**:

- Validate and compare premiums for group benefit plans under vendor renewals, quotes or benchmarking exercises with other companies in the industry;
- Produce quarterly experience monitoring reports for clients and analyze the impact of any recent changes;
- Analyze financial statements of group insurance plans and review the financial agreement to suit the client needs;
- Analyze cost drivers by reviewing client's utilization data and looking for year-over-year trends or comparisons to external benchmarks using data provided from client's vendor reports or raw data from external databases
- Perform technical reviews of any of the above when prepared by a junior member of a client team
- Gather necessary data from the vendor or client; review to ensure it is complete, accurate and reasonable; and prepare data in a particular template or format for use in basic or advanced financial analyses.
- Work with your client teams to develop recommendations and reporting for clients based on your analysis
- Provide coaching and guidance to junior members of client teams
- Participate in actuarial valuations of post-retirement and post-employment benefits, including data validation, setting assumptions, analyzing plan gains and losses and preparing the valuation report;

**What you need to have**:

- 3-4 years related experience in employee benefits consulting or financial underwriting group benefits
- Detail-oriented, strong mathematical skills
- Strong organizational skills
- Strong oral and written communication skills
- Ability to handle multiple tasks in a demanding fast-paced work environment
- Ability to work in a team environment where the priorities and requirements may change quickly
- Time management skills
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Powerpoint)
- Will be required to obtain and maintain appropriate licenses as required by provincial regulations and Mercer policies

**What makes you stand out**:

- Post-secondary degree or equivalent experience in mathematics, accounting, finance, actuarial science, or statistics
- Strong preference will be given to students demonstrating progress towards the ASA/FSA designation.
- Have or working towards a relevant certification (e.g., insurance license, CEBS, CHRP, etc.)
- Familiarity or experience with group insurance benefits (through work experience, CEBS GBA designation or working towards it)
- Bilingual (French & English)