UW System Human Resources, Payroll

& Benefits Conference

July 9 – 10, 2014Stevens Point, WI

Where Policy Meets Process

Where Policy Meets Process

AgendaTime Agenda Item

9:45 – 11:00 General Session - Ah-Ha Moments (Nicole Zimm)11:00 – 11:15 Break

11:15 – 12:15How to Identify Benefit Issues (Joanna Bauer)

Foreign National Management(Teri VanGenderen)

General HR Session for Transactional Users (Tami Eberle & Steve Gunderson)

12:15 – 1:30 Lunch (will be provided)

1:30 – 2:45HR Office Best Practices Panel Discussion (Sheryl Van Gruensven, Madeline Holzem, Tim Danielson, Kimberly Danielson, Beth Hill, Sabrina Johnson)

2:45 – 3:00 Break

3:00 – 4:30

OnDemand Processing and ADM events (Joanna Bauer)

General Payroll Session (Kate Ingram)

HR Best Practices(Barb Hanson)

4:30 – 5:00 Wrap-Up (Diann Sypula, Nicole Zimm)

Where Policy Meets Process

Ah-Ha MomentsPart 1

Where Policy Meets Process

Our World in Legacy

Where Policy Meets Process

Working Together with HRS

Where Policy Meets Process

Ah-Ha Moments

Where Policy Meets Process

Agenda

• General Benefits Eligibility• Job Data Entry Deadline – 6:00PM• The Journey of a Missed Payroll

Request and Off-Cycle Checks• Foreign Nationals• Funding• Continuity Codes

Where Policy Meets Process

General Benefits Eligibility

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefit Drivers in HRS

Employment Contract Job Data

Benefits Eligibility

& Benefits Program

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefit Eligibility in HRS

Empl Class FTE Cont

CodeBenefit

Program

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefit Program

Benefit Program

WRS - Unclassified

WRS - Classified

Grad / Short-Term Academic

Limited (LMT)

24 total Benefit Programs – 4 broad categories

Where Policy Meets Process

Graduate Benefits Eligibility at a Glance

Employee Type 12 Month 9 Month

Academic Staff, Limited, OT1

(who don’t meet WRS eligibility criteria)

21% for at least 6 months

28% for at least one semester

Student Assistants and Employees-in-Training

33% for at least 6 months

33% for at least one semester

Note – once employee does not meet FTE requirement, grad benefit eligibility is lost

Where Policy Meets Process

WRS Eligibility at a GlanceWRS Participant* before

07/01/2011WRS Participant* on or after

07/01/2011

Must be expected to work• At least 1/3 Full Time• For at least 1 year

Must be expected to work• At least 2/3 Full Time• For at least 1 year

*Date employee first covered under WRS

1/3 of Full-Time Equals 2/3 of Full-Time Equals

Classified 600 hrs / 29% FTE Classified 1200 hrs / 58% FTE

Unclassified440 hrs /

21% FTE (A-basis) 28% FTE (C-Basis)

Unclassified880 hrs /

42% FTE (A-basis) 56% FTE (C-Basis)

• Must look at employment as a whole, not each position

Where Policy Meets Process

WRS Eligible Employee TypesWRS Eligible Employee Types

AS ACADEMIC STAFFFA FACULTYLI LIMITED

OT1 AD HOC PRG SPEC/CORR TUTOR

CP CLASSIFIED PERMANENT

CJ CLASSIFIED PROJECT

CL CLASSIFIED LIMITED

Where Policy Meets Process

Job Data Entry Deadline6:00PM

Where Policy Meets Process

Job Data Entry Deadline – 6:00PM

Job Data changes entered after 6:00pm will not be picked up by the nightly benefits administration processes.

Where Policy Meets Process

Job Data Entry Deadline – 6:00PMConsequences of entry after 6:00PM• If you enter a job data change that affects benefits eligibility

(ex. empl class change, change continuity code, change FTE, new hire, termination….), the following may occur:• Won’t be assigned to a benefits program or the correct

benefits program• WRS deductions may never start (or stop)• No New Hire benefits event will be created (missed

enrollment)• If entering termination, termination events won’t process

& insurances won’t terminate• HRS may abend one or more times per night

• Staff on-call watching benefits processes• SC staff must manually fix employee(s) who cause

abends

Where Policy Meets Process

Job Data Entry Deadline – 6:00PM

When will job changes be picked up if made after 6:00PM?

• Change will NEVER be picked up until next job entry is done for a different effective date (may have already missed enrollments)

• Which means MSC event could appear much later than the effective date of the change

• A termination will NEVER be picked up (if truly the end of employment)

How can I monitor this?

• Currently no way to monitor this – must rely on strong communication between HR and benefits

Where Policy Meets Process

2013-14 After 6:00 PM Statistics

19,106

Where Policy Meets Process

Job Data Entry Deadline – 6:00PM

Can we change the entry deadline? No simple answer• If you move one process to a later time, you make

then all later (run in sequential order starting at 6:00pm) – all processes must run to get payroll edit reports by morning

• Service Center staff on-call every night watching batch processes and correcting abends

When is it “safe” to enter job data changes?• Once the benefits administration processes end –

typically processes finish no later than midnight

Where Policy Meets Process

Job Data Entry Deadline – 6:00PM

Best Practices

• Don’t enter any job data changes after 6:00PM

• If job data changes are made after that time, HR needs to communicate with payroll and benefits staff to monitor benefits and deductions

• If you notice that HRS didn’t respond correctly to job data changes, contact the Service Center to re-trigger the event so the information is picked up by the benefits processes.

Where Policy Meets Process

The Journey of a Missed Payroll Request and Off-

Cycle Checks

Where Policy Meets Process

Missed Payroll RequestA missed payroll request is often made when there is some form of underpayment to an employee.

Ways to Correct Underpayments

On Cycle:• Let the missed pay process through regular channels in

HRS (enter/approve time for hourly employees)• Payline Request

Off Cycle:• Missed Payroll Request

Best Practice:• Use Missed Payroll Request as last option – always ask

employee if willing to wait for payment on regular check cycle

Where Policy Meets Process

Off-Cycle Process:Journey of a Missed Payroll Request

• Averages out to 34 min/check• 2,121 MPRs since 7/1/13 = ~1,202

hours spent processing MPRs

Where Policy Meets Process

Off-Cycle Check Statistics

Where Policy Meets Process

Foreign Nationals

Where Policy Meets Process

Foreign Nationals• A foreign national in F or J status is charged FICA from

January 1st in the year they become a Resident Alien -- regardless of the date they become substantially present (i.e., F1/J1 who’ll pass the IRS Substantial Presence Test on 7/3/2014, will be charged FICA on 2014 paychecks beginning 1/3/2014, if no student FICA exemption).

• Departments/Employees should consider this when budgeting FICA withholding liability.

• Future employees should be discouraged from visiting US in F/J status in year PRIOR to appointment/study start date, which could ‘waste’ exempt year of IRS Substantial Presence Test http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Substantial-Presence-Test

Where Policy Meets Process

Funding

Where Policy Meets Process

FundingThere have been instances of users updating funding by terminating an appointment and adding a new one or adding additional empl records – NOT necessary and disrupts HRS processes.

Consequences

Job terminations will terminate benefits

Terminations and rehires cause problems with funding entry

Funding may not be properly charged

Where Policy Meets Process

FundingBest Practice• Use information (effective date and organization

department) from Job Data (Workforce Administration>Job Information>Job Data) to update funding on Funding Entry page in HRS

• Funding Entry page (Set Up HRMS > Product Related > Commitment Accounting > Budget Information > Budget Funding Data Entry)

• Updating Appointment Level funding• Fiscal Year 2014 (review KB 17024)• Fiscal Year 2015 (review KB 39862)

Where Policy Meets Process

Continuity Codes

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefits Eligibility in Legacy

Continuity Code

Appointment Start &

End Dates

Benefits Eligibility Manuall

y Determi

ned

Legacy Continuity Codes = 01 (ongoing), 02 (fixed terminal), 03 (fixed renewable), 04 (limited), 05 (acting/interim)

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefits Eligibility in HRS

HRS can’t use appointment start/end dates to determine benefits eligibility – had to come up with an automated way to drive benefits eligibility

HRS Solution = modify continuity codes

Where Policy Meets Process

Continuity CodeCode Description

*01 Ongoing

02A Fixed Term < 1 semester/6 months

02B FT ≥ 1 semester/6 months or < academic year/12 months

*02C FT ≥ 1 academic year/12 months (365 Days)

*03 Fixed Renewable

*04 Limited

05A Acting/Interim < 1 semester/6 months

05B Acting/Interim - ≥ 1 sem/6 mth but < acad yr/12 mth

*05C Acting/Interim - ≥ 1 academic yr/12 months

N None

* Programed “WRS ELIGIBLE” continuity codes – Also drive leave.• Continuity is assigned to each position, but institutions need to

look at the person as a whole, not just each position.

Continuity CodesC-Basis = Academic Year appointment

A- or H-Basis = Annual appointment

C-Basis: Less than 1 semesterA- or H-Basis: Less than 6 months

C-Basis: 1 semester or greater, but less than or equal to academic year (with no expectation of renewal)A- or H-Basis: 6 months or greater, but less than 12 months

C-Basis: Academic year or greater with expectation of renewal the following semesterA- or H-Basis: 12 months or greater

02A

02B

02C

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefits Eligibility in HRS

Empl

Class

FTE

Cont.

Code

Benefit

Program

Where Policy Meets Process

Continuity Codes

Match continuity code to contract

(may require override)

OR

Match continuity code to benefits eligibility/person as a whole

Where Policy Meets Process

Policy Meets ProcessWRS Administration Manual Chapter 3 (section 305) states:• “Any time the employer’s expectation of

hours to be worked and/or duration of employment changes to an extent that the employee will now meet the WRS eligibility criteria, the employee must be enrolled in the WRS at the time the expectation changed.”

Where Policy Meets Process

ExampleNew hire - original contract – fixed terminal, 10 months (Jan 1 – Oct 31, 2014)• Original contract extended by 6 months on Oct

1• At time contract is extended, employee is

expected to meet WRS eligibility requirements (will meet hours & duration)

• EJED changed on job data to April 30, 2015• You have two options:

• Update Continuity Code at time of expectation change; or

• Use override in Eligibility Exception Field

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefits Eligibility Override

• If a benefits eligibility override is entered in HRS (using Eligibility Exception Field), the override will attach to the employee until termination.

• Consequence – job changes could change benefits eligibility but HRS will NOT identify new eligibility and enrollments will be missed (including WRS).

Where Policy Meets Process

Benefits Eligibility Override

• The institution should NOT update the Eligibility Exception Field – contact the Service Center if you feel this field should be updated.

• The override should be an exception – not the norm

• The number of employees who truly need an benefits eligibility override is less than 0.5% of employee population.

Where Policy Meets Process

Continuity Code Changes Once Benefits Eligibility Determined

WRS Benefits• Once employee under WRS, will remain

under the WRS regardless of continuity code selected, as long as in WRS eligible employment class.

Grad Benefits• Grad benefits for SA and ET – must have

02B or 02C to remain benefits eligible

Where Policy Meets Process

Questions?

- Next -Breakout Sessions

Start at 11:15am

• How to Identify Benefit IssuesRoom: Stonefield/Harvest

• Foreign National ManagementRoom: Evergreen/Frontier

• General HR Session for Transactional Users

Room: Expo 4 (this room)