UPMCs Health Plan is hiring a Staff Development Specialist for its Leave Specialist Team. This role will work standard daylight hours, Monday – Friday and may work remotely.

The Staff Development Specialist facilitates training and mentors new Workpartners employees following new hire and embedded base training. This position is responsible for onboarding activities to ensure solid understanding of policies, processes, and systems utilized by the Absence team. This position will also be responsible for identifying a need, developing, and refreshing content. Position will provide workload assistance to members of absence department when active training and mentoring is not occurring. This individual must be passionate about improving performance through education and instruction. Our ideal candidate understands Integrated Absence Management and is experienced in classroom facilitation. The individual must be comfortable creating and explaining real case examples to allow opportunities for engaging and participative approach to learning. 

Responsibilities:

Design, develop, and deliver training programs on Workpartners Absence Management products: These programs should be targeted to the specific program or line of business within each department. Partner with leaders to assess team needs for new hire and embedded base training curriculum including refresher training, client-specific training, coaching for quality, process, and system training opportunities. Create structured training plan for all new and existing employees. Help drive professional growth by engaging staff in Workpartners Absence Management’s staff development program. Oversee the Training and Resources Documentation Library to assess for clarity, usability, and consistency. Update and refresh outdated documentation and determine when archiving is required. Regularly collect feedback from stakeholders to continuously improve documentation. Mentoring: Create structured mentoring plan for all new employees. Support department productivity improvements by assisting other employees with workload assistance when mentoring is not required. This may include casework or specialist projects as assigned by supervisor. Work with business leaders to review current materials, understand business priorities and ensure curriculum is available and appropriate for all new employees. Provide mentoring support to employees dealing with challenging leave issues such as extended time away from work, complex medical diagnoses and recertification issues. Partner with leaders to identify individual employee needs for supplemental education. Facilitate learning session using tell-show-do method of job instruction. Provide engaging and motivational learning experience for participants. Adjust style to meet the needs of learners. Educate and instruct on the theory, concepts, and hands on experience in absence management to one or more employees, at times with employees in multiple job roles. Provide feedback to leaders on the progress and success of learners as well as identify areas of opportunity. Position does not carry an assigned caseload but is required to demonstrate consistent productivity with mentoring, casework, employee calls, and project work. Assist in the identification of recommendations to positively impact the efficiency and quality of service delivery. Provide feedback on client documentation, system workflows, and other client processes. Support new hires during the transition from classroom-based training onboarding to client-specific learning. Workload Assistance: Follow all client-specific protocols and program expectations through use of documentation. Support all types of polices and processes including FMLA, Military, Company-specific leaves, PFML, STD, Salary Continuance, etc.), in addition to supporting HR Professionals, Payroll/HRIS updates, employee/manager communications and case tracking. Track employee leave of absences as reported via web, fax, phone and e-mail. Coordinate the leave process; verify eligibility, determine leave approval, coordinate applicable client leave polices including integration with state leave laws, and support the return-to-work process. Perform initial evaluation via phone with employee and employer for assigned cases. Review estimated disability duration and return to work potential. Reviews medical documentation in order to analyze, investigate and make decisions for the approval of benefits on initial, ongoing and re-opened claims Responsible for all communications with the employee, employee’s manager, human resources and all integrated partners e.g., disability management coordinator in the event of transitional return to work. Monitor Disability guidelines and when disability durations fall outside of standards, review claims as appropriate with treating physician, clinical case manager or medical director. Provide consistent customer service to internal customers and employees through timely responses to all inquiries, telephone calls, e-mails and case follow-ups, while delivering on service commitments. Reviews claims in accordance with guidelines established by the client, state and federal regulations, as appropriate. Support outbound employee absence-related calls. Provide detailed case documentation to ensure continuity when specialist returns from absence. Support department productivity by assisting other employees with casework. Demonstrate consistent productivity with casework and project work as assigned.