At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better health care, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. We pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, our goal is to take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

This is hybrid a role - 2 days in the office at the downtown campus and 3 days remote.

The Absence and Disability Coordinator II reflects the mission, vision, and values of NM, adheres to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program, and complies with all relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and all other regulatory and accreditation standards.

The Absence and Disability Coordinator II will be responsible for day-to-day operations of Absence Management program(s).  Absence and Disability Coordinator provides direction on HR department objectives, absence & disability technicalities and policy issues. Absence and Disability Coordinator II coordinates administration of absence and disability management while partnering with key organizational stakeholders and vendors.  Provides consulting with the case management of absence and disability claims.

Responsibilities:

• Provide managers and Human Resources Business Practice (HRBPs) Absence Management products related support including but not limited to Disability, FMLA, State Leaves, Personal Leaves, Long Term disability.
• Supports employees with all paid time off programs. To include PTO, Service Anniversary, Personal Holiday, and Union programs. Conducting audits and reconciling balances.
• Support the HR Business Partners and employees with State and City of Chicago Job Protected time. Conducting audits and reconciling balances.
• Will assist employees and family members related to Life Insurance products, explaining benefits and processing claims.
• Ensures vendors are performing day-to-day operations compliant with state/federal regulations and company leave policies. Engage vendor(s) as appropriate to address areas of concern.
• Lead or assist on special projects related to departmental goals.
• Serves as a data liaison for key stakeholders including but not limited to internal HR customers and external customers such as vendors.
• Provide analytical support and/or analysis of departmental plans as needed.
• Supports vendor implementation, audits, RFPs, new technologies related to Absence Mgmt. Programs and supports testing of new systems.
• Provide support for HR file feeds, format set up to ensure accuracy of information to vendor.
• Recommends ways to improve current processes to eliminate non-value-added work.
• Develop and maintain departmental information content on NMI.
• Identify trends, root causes, or other areas of opportunity to reduce costs of continuous leaves and abuse of intermittent leaves while improving program administration.
• Communicate effectively with all levels of the organization and ensure understanding of the company’s responsibilities during an employee’s leave of absence or accommodation.
• Review the business unit’s specific trends of disability absences continuous leaves, intermittent leaves, PTO and other absences.
• Support locations within NM’s expanding footprint.
• Recommends ways to improve current processes to eliminate non-value-added work.
• Collaborate with management, HRBP’s, legal, and compensation, payroll, and absence management vendor on complex absence cases.
• May support physician’s disability, leaves and Life programs by providing communication and engagement of MD compensation for disability calculations.
• Assists coordination between Workers’ Comp (WC) and vendor(s) to track concurrent FML time for employees out on Workers’ Comp leaves.
• Supports integration acquisition activities including but not limited to mass communications, training, and onboarding of new staff for acquired population. 
• Coordinates return to work with employees, HRBP, managers and Workers’ Comp Coordinator.
• Conducts onboarding training & ongoing training sessions either in person or using Teams related to leave management for assigned business units(s).
• Responds to service tickets from employees and physicians.
• Performs other benefits-related duties as required and assigned.
• Remain current on related state and federal law changes as they relate to leave management.

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, human resources preferred or equivalent experience and  
• 5+ years of relevant experience with HR/benefits management and project management.
• Must have working knowledge of Excel (including pivots andVLOOKUP).   
• Excellent critical thinking, analytical, problem solving and interpersonal skills
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing, at all levels within and outside the organization.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships inside and outside the organization.
• Ability to follow thru and provide accurate timely response to internal and external customers.
• Ability to commute between locations and regions as needed.
• Excellent attention to detail

Preferred:

• 3+ years of absence management (FMLA, STD, LTD, Life and/or WC) experience preferred.
• Thorough knowledge of FMLA, State leaves and related legislation desired.
• PeopleSoft, Kronos and Excel experience desired.

Northwestern Medicine is an equal opportunity employer (disability, VETS) and does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of age, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected status.

Background Check

Northwestern Medicine conducts a background check that includes criminal history on newly hired team members and, at times, internal transfers. If you are offered a position with us, you will be required to complete an authorization and disclosure form that gives Northwestern Medicine permission to run the background check.  Results are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and we follow all local, state, and federal laws, including the Illinois Health Care Worker Background Check Act.

Artificial Intelligence Disclosure

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools may be used in some portions of the candidate review process for this position, however, all employment decisions will be made by a person. 

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits that provide employees with tools and resources to improve their physical, emotional, and financial well-being while providing protection for unexpected life events. Please visit our Benefits section to learn more.

Sign-on Bonus Eligibility (if sign-on bonus offered for position): Internal employees and rehires who left Northwestern Medicine within 1 year are not eligible for the sign on bonus. Exception: New graduate internal employees seeking their first licensed clinical position at NM may be eligible depending upon the job family.