Position Summary

The Specialist, People Services is a hybrid HR and payroll role that provides functional payroll expertise and high-quality operational support across the employee lifecycle. The role supports HR administration, payroll processing, data management, reporting, troubleshooting, and guidance for employees and managers.

Working closely with cross-functional partners, the specialist helps maintain system accuracy, improve processes, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, technically proficient, customer-focused, and comfortable balancing recurring operational responsibilities with project-based improvements.

The role provides Japan operational expertise and supports Korea HR Services activities according to assigned country responsibilities. Country coverage, payroll approval authority, and the division of responsibilities among People Services, Payroll, People Partners, Finance, and external providers must be clearly defined.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

HR Operations & Employee Support

• Support HR processes throughout the employee lifecycle, including hiring, onboarding, transfers, promotions, and separations.
• Provide timely, accurate, and customer-focused responses to inquiries from employees and managers.
• Support onboarding, HR policy interpretation, immigration inquiries, and People Services programs.
• Provide guidance on established HR policies within approved procedures; escalate complex policy interpretation, exceptions, and legal or tax matters to People Partners, policy owners, Legal, or appointed specialists.
• Promote consistent HR processes and reinforce compliance standards.
• Own assigned employee cases through resolution against agreed service levels, maintain clear escalation paths, and coordinate vendor issue resolution and backup coverage.

Local HR Administration, Benefits & Compliance

• Administer country-specific time, attendance, leave, and absence processes, including balance reconciliation, attendance exceptions, overtime inputs, leave-of-absence transactions, and return-to-work administration, in accordance with approved local procedures.
• Coordinate benefits and social insurance enrollment, changes, dependent updates, and cessation; reconcile provider records and resolve employee queries within assigned country responsibilities. Coverage includes Japan health insurance and pension administration and Korea’s four major social insurance schemes, as applicable.
• Administer local benefits and allowances under company policy, including Japan commuting and housing allowances and Korea welfare benefits and allowances, where applicable; validate eligibility, supporting documentation, and payroll interfaces.
• Prepare and maintain employment letters, certificates, contract amendments, and personnel records, including local-language documentation where required, in accordance with approved retention and data-protection requirements.
• Coordinate offboarding administration, including final-pay inputs, unused-leave reconciliation, benefits cessation, social insurance exit procedures, and employee documents; support Korea retirement-benefit and provider coordination where assigned.

Payroll Operations

• Serve as a subject matter expert for Japan payroll processing and local income tax administration.
• Coordinate with the payroll vendor on monthly payroll processing, maintain data accuracy, and support required corrections.
• Validate payroll vendor outputs, investigate variances, reconcile HR, time, benefits, and payroll data, and track corrections through resolution under established approval controls. Final payroll approval and payment authorization remain with designated approvers.
• Support annual payroll and statutory cycles, including Japan year-end tax adjustment and annual social insurance reporting, and Korea year-end tax settlement where assigned; coordinate employee communications, document collection, reporting inputs, and follow-up with appointed providers.

Systems, Enhancements & Projects

• Contribute to HR projects, system enhancements, and implementations.
• Identify opportunities to automate and simplify processes and improve the user experience.

Reporting, Data & Analytics

• Build, maintain, and optimize HR and payroll reports.
• Conduct audits to ensure data quality, compliance, and alignment across systems.
• Provide HR, Finance, and leadership with meaningful insights and data analysis.
• Support compliance audits, SOX activities, and data-related inquiries.

Continuous Improvement

• Stay current on SuccessFactors releases, leading practices, and payroll regulatory changes.
• Recommend improvements that strengthen data quality, system efficiency, and the user experience.
• Support global HR initiatives, process standardization, and system maturity efforts.
• Maintain country SOPs, operating calendars, knowledge articles, and responsibility matrices; document local variations, statutory and vendor deadlines, escalation routes, and business-continuity arrangements.

Qualifications & Experience

• Relevant experience in Japan HR operations and payroll, including local employee administration, benefits, social insurance, and annual payroll activities.
• Experience supporting Korea HR Services, payroll coordination, social insurance, and retirement-benefit administration is preferred; required depth should align with assigned country coverage.
• Japanese and/or Korean language proficiency appropriate to assigned employee support, documentation, and vendor coordination responsibilities.
• Strong payroll reconciliation, HR data management, case management, vendor coordination, confidentiality, and process documentation skills.