Payroll and Total Rewards Specialist

**OUR COMPANY BACKGROUND & CULTURE**
University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) is a new jointly sponsored pension plan (JSPP) and the first of its kind in Ontario’s university sector. We currently serve members and pensioners at Queen’s University, the University of Guelph, the University of Toronto, Trent University, the University of Toronto, and Guelph University Faculty Associations, and UPP employees. We plan to add other Ontario universities who wish to join.

UPP currently serves approximately 37,000 members and manages assets of roughly $11 billion and the related pension obligations.
At UPP, we are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and reconciliation - across race, place, culture, gender expression and sexual identity. We actively seek talent who share in this commitment and bring their whole selves to work. We are committed to supporting our employees to do their best work and develop in their career.

**THE ROLE**
This is an incredible opportunity for an experienced and passionate professional with 2 - 4 years of relevant Payroll experience to join a high-performing organization and make a significant impact. In addition, this role is an excellent opportunity to grow and build your Total Rewards experience in compensation, benefits, recognition, etc. within a fast-paced and growing environment.

As the Payroll and Total Rewards Specialist, you are a problem solver who is detail-oriented, organized, and has a keen eye for accuracy. Reporting to the Director, Total Rewards, you are an analytical thinker, have an entrepreneurial spirit, open to learning new things and take pride in guiding and mentoring others.

You have related experience in a fast-paced working environment. Ideally, this includes startup and/or new program development initiatives - we’re still building from the ground up at UPP Strong communication skills, attention to detail, drive, and care for this important work are keys to success in this role.

And as an integral member of UPP’s People team, you will lean into and support a culture defined by meaningful work, ample fun, deep employee engagement and strong, inclusive leadership. Individually, but more importantly together as a team, the UPP will outperform peers as an employer of choice.

UPP is based in Toronto’s financial district and has a hybrid work setup (~2 days / week in office).

**KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES**:

- You will be responsible for administering payroll and total rewards in an efficient and accurate manner, ensuring compliance with all legislative and regulatory requirements
- You will take an entrepreneurial approach to payroll and total rewards administration by proactively providing strategic input/insights and solutions on how to simplify administration and make existing processes more efficient

**Payroll Administration**
- Responsible for managing the full cycle payroll processing including additions (e.g., new hires), changes, terminations, and ad-hoc/off-cycle requests
- Assist with any setup and maintenance of employee payroll records
- Responsible for payroll information management (e.g., collecting, calculating and entering data)
- Resolving any payroll discrepancies by collecting and analyzing the information
- Consolidate, analyze, and submit bi-weekly payroll on-time and accurately
- Manage and assist with year-end reporting and filings (e.g., T4s and related remittances)
- Perform reconciliations of payroll deductions and benefit accounts
- Audits bi-weekly data entries and supports all auditing processes (internal and external)
- Assists with the processing of mass system adjustments whether retroactive or processing pay increases
- Completes and prepares all ad-hoc, periodic and annual reports related to payroll information for internal and external purposes (i.e., vacation, sick leave, etc.)
- Respond to employee inquiries regarding payroll related issues
- Provide support on Payroll and HR initiatives/projects
- Protect confidential payroll operation information and maintain employee confidence
- Support any other payroll duties as required

**Total Rewards Administration**
- You will support the new hire benefits enrollment information sessions, as applicable
- Processing all benefit transactions for new hires, transfers, employee changes and terminations
- You will respond to inquiries regarding the benefits program, coverage and policies as required
- Ensure compensation information in the system is always accurate and up-to-date
- Support the year-end compensation (bonus payout, merit increase) cycle
- Support on compensation initiatives with guidance from the Director, Total Rewards
- Provide analytical and modelling support in developing compensation recommendations
- Support the job evaluation process, facilitate and conduct job evaluations for new roles, maintain job code database/job architecture, and assist with documentation
- Support the total rewards benchmarking processes including environmental scans, survey compl