HR / Payroll Conference Call

September 22, 2015

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Agenda

• OM/PA Updates

– IT0041 Review

– New OM Action – 121/Reallocate Pay Plan Change

• Payroll Updates

– Bonus Pay

• Time Updates

– Bonus Leave

– Military Training Leave

– New Job Aid – Time FAQ’s

• Benefits Updates

– Benefitfocus Transition

IT0041 Review

• The date specification is required for all employees, both

probationary/permanent and supplemental.

• Probationary and Permanent employees must have an original hire

date (01) and an agency hire date (02).

• Supplemental employees must have a Supplemental Hire Date

(08).

• IT0041 is usually maintained within an action or via PA30.

Date Specifications:

• 01 – Original Hire Date

• 02 – Agency Hire Date

• 03 – Last Day Worked

• 04 – Judicial Anniversary Date

• 06 – Notification of RIF

• 08 – Supplemental Hire Date

• NR – 457 Catch-Up Date 3

IT0041 Review (continued) –

Maintenance is Key!!

• Upon initial hire (new hire or non-Beacon to Beacon), a permanent

or probationary employee will receive an original hire date (01) and

an agency hire date (02). The system will automatically default both

dates to the date of hire, and you must save the infotype.

• When processing a reinstatement from an LOA, IT0041 will appear

with the same original hire date and agency hire date from the

previous record. Only the effective date of the IT0041 entry will

change to match the date of the reinstatement action. The agency

hire date will not automatically reflect the date of reinstatement from

LOA, and it is not necessary to change it. You must still save the

infotype.

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IT0041 Review (continued) –

Maintenance is Key!!

• Example – employee has original State hire date of 8/13/2005, hired

by a new agency on 9/1/12, and reinstated from LOA on 8/14/14:

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IT0041 Review (continued) –

Maintenance is Key!!

• On Transfer actions and reemployments from separation, the

agency hire date will automatically reflect the date of transfer or

reemployment. You must ensure that both the original hire date and

agency hire date are on the record. If there is a Last Day worked

(03) date type (reemployments only), please delete that date type.

Then you must save the infotype.

The original hire date is being used to determine

eligibility in the new Benefitfocus system. It is

imperative that the original hire date be on the

employee’s record if the employee is in an active

Probationary or Permanent status.

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IT0041 Review (continued) –

Temporary Employees

• B0086 Supplemental Staff Estimated Assignment End Date has

been updated to look at IT0041 – Supplemental Hire date (08). Any

active supplemental staff employee without a supplemental hire date

will automatically show at the top of this report.

• Reminder on Supplemental Hire date:

– Purpose: To track supplemental employees hire dates on IT0041. Date type 08

will automatically populate on IT0041 with the date of the action on new hires

and reinstatement actions as outlined below. On new hires for EE groups O and

X, it will come up after IT0008 is saved.

– New hires for Judicial with subgroup for temps, it will come up after IT0007 is

saved.

– For reinstatements with reason 19 – Return to supplemental (including Judicial

temps) it will come up after IT0007 is saved.

– On a reinstatement, it will also delimit the previous record and remove the last

day worked. This will leave only the new date type 08.

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New OM Action – 121/Reallocate Pay

Plan Change

• A new OM action has been created and is now available for use.

Reallocation horizontal will no longer be used for Graded to Banded

and Banded to Graded reallocations. The OM position actions job

aid has been updated with the new definition:

Reallocate Pay Plan Change 121 – This action is used to assign a

position from a Job in one pay plan to a job in another pay plan

Example: Graded to Banded, Banded to Graded

http://www.osc.nc.gov/training/osctd/help/Organization%20Manageme

nt/Job%20Aids/OMPositionActions.pdf

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PAYROLL UPDATE

• BONUS PAY

– Will be paid in December 2015 on a separate payment

• Check Date TESTING

– Will be direct deposit

• TESTING - Concerns with Main Bank and Other Bank accounts

– Will be taxed at withholding rates effective on check date

• Extra Tax withholdings will come out of the bonus pay

– Mandatory Deductions ? TESTING

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Bonus Leave - Reminder

• As of 9/1/2015, a new A/A Type (9100 – Bonus Leave) can be

keyed to consume Bonus Leave, Quota 50.

• Time Sheet User Exit: A hard stop on the time sheet will prevent

an EE from recording A/A 9100 - Bonus Leave if Comp Leave

balances exist.

• CAT2

• ESS

• Note: The CAT2 and ESS user exits will perform similarly to the

existing user exit that stops AW from being recorded if Comp

Leave balances exist.10

Bonus Leave

• If employees have any Approved Leave time they want reclassified

to Bonus Leave for dates prior to September 1, they have until

September 30, 2015 to submit the Bonus Leave form.

• Please remind employees to record A/A 9100 on their timesheets

to consume Bonus Leave for any dates on or after 9/1/2015.

• We will remove the Bonus Leave form from the BEST website

since it is no longer applicable.

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Delimiting Military Training Leave

If an EE is no longer eligible for Military Training Leave (Quota 85)

which accrues annually on 10/1, you can prevent the EE from

accruing by creating IT2012 / ZMLE.

This infotype was introduced in the system in January 2014.

The Job Aid is located on the training website under Time

Management.

Link to Job Aid:

http://www.osc.nc.gov/training/osctd/help/Time%20Management/Job

%20Aids/PA61DelimitMilitaryLeaveTraining.pdf

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New Job Aid Available – TIME FAQs

• The BEST Training Team along with Time Production Support

have posted a new Job Aid for Frequently Asked Questions

related to Time.

• Please review and advise if you have additional questions that

you think should be included in this list.

• Here is a link to the Job Aid:

• http://www.osc.nc.gov/training/osctd/help/Time%20Management/

Job%20Aids/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.pdf

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The Benefitfocus Benefits Transition

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Transition Adjustment Period – 9/15/15-10/14/15

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Accessing the new ESS Portal

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Benefitfocus Benefits Enrollment System –

Normal Process – Electronic File Transfers

• BEACON will send eligibility/demographic information to

Benefitfocus that allows employees to enroll using the Benefitfocus

online system

• This is generated from the BEACON Personnel Action / Infotype

0000

• Employees will NOT be able to access Benefitfocus to enroll until

the PA action has been processed in BEACON AND the data has

been transferred to Benefitfocus

• Benefitfocus will send enrollment data to BEACON for payroll

processing

– HBR’s can continue to use existing BEACON reports and display

transactions.

• Eligibility/Demographic & Enrollment data will be shared between

Benefitfocus & BEACON DAILY!

• NC Flex Enrollments will be sent by Benefitfocus to the Flex vendors

weekly

• State Health Plan Enrollments will be sent by Benefitfocus daily17

Benefitfocus Benefits Enrollment System –

Interim Process – Hand Keyed Data

• IMPORTANT!

– Electronic file transfer process between Benefitfocus & BEACON

is still being developed, tested & finalized

– Until the electronic file transfer process is implemented:

• Eligibility/Demographic data is being hand keyed into Benefitfocus

by BEST

• Enrollment data is being hand keyed into BEACON by BEST

• This may result in a delay in New Hires being able

to access Benefitfocus to enroll

• Employees will not be able to access Benefitfocus

until their PA action has been entered in BEACON

& demographic data has been entered in

Benefitfocus18

Basic Enrollment Process –

New Hires/Annual Enrollment

• Agency HBR– Educates employee on process & provides Benefits/Enrollment/QLE Information

– Reviews & maintains supporting documentation (dependent/QLE verification)

– Assists employee with enrollment

• Employee – Enrolls online &/or creates QLE online

– Provides Agency HBR supporting documentation (dependent/QLE verification)

• BEST / BEACON– Provides Benefitfocus with eligibility data

– Approves/Rejects online QLE changes

– Communicates approval/rejection info to Agency HBR/Employee

– Runs comparison reports to authenticate enrollment data & ensure accurate payroll processing

– Assists employee or Agency HBR as needed

• Benefitfocus– Provides enrollment data to BEACON for payroll processing

– Provides employee customer service regarding benefits/enrollment inquiries

Qualifying Life Events (QLE)

• Like Aon, Adjustment Reasons (IT 0378) will not be used by

Agency HBRs with the Benefitfocus system

• Employees will be able to create their own QLE in Benefitfocus

• Employees have 30 days from the date of the QLE to complete

the enrollment

• Dependent or QLE supporting documentation does not need to

be uploaded into Benefitfocus OR provided to BEST

• Employees will be expected to provide supporting documentation

to their Agency HBR

• Dependent verification (birth certificates, tax forms, adoption

papers, etc.)

• Status Change or Life Event documentation (certificate of

coverage for other insurance plans, marriage or divorce decrees,

etc.)

• Supporting documentation should be verified & maintained at the

Agency level20

Qualifying Life Events (QLE) - Process

• Agency HBR

– Educates employee regarding the QLE requirements & process

• This includes notifying the employee that supporting documentation must be submitted for verification

– Reviews &/or requests supporting documentation for validity (dependent verification &/or QLE documentation)

– Maintains any QLE supporting documentation provided by the employee

– Assists the employee with QLE enrollment, if needed

• Employee

– Creates QLE event in Benefitfocus

– Enters the QLE enrollment change online in the Benefitfocus system within the applicable time frame

– Provides Agency HBR supporting documentation (dependent verification &/or QLE documentation)

• BEST / BEACON

– Reviews QLE & approves QLE event in Benefitfocus system ‘Task List’

– Provides the Agency HBR a list of approved QLEs to ensure supporting documentation is obtained

• If documentation cannot be obtained or if documentation is invalid, Agency HBR should notify BEST

• BEST will reverse any QLE enrollments based on Agency notification of unsubstantiated documentation

– Runs comparison reports to authenticate enrollment data & ensure accurate payroll processing

– Assists employee or Agency HBR as needed

• Benefitfocus

– Provides QLE change data back to BEACON for payroll processing & to the applicable Insurance vendor

– Provides customer service support regarding QLE enrollment questions

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QLE – State Health Plan

State Health Plan - Employees should be able to log into the

Benefitfocus system to create the QLE event and make the

enrollment change.

QLE – State Health Plan, continued

QLE – State Health Plan, continued

• Employees will be prompted to choose a QLE reason– Loss of other coverage

– Life or family change

• Employees will follow the prompts to complete the enrollment change

QLE – State Health Plan, continued

• Once the health plan

QLE is saved, the

election will show as

‘Section Complete’

• NOTE: Since NC Flex

plans are not listed,

employees will NOT

be able to complete

Step 3. Confirmation.

This will not affect

the health plan

change.

QLE – NC Flex Plans

– Normal Process – NC Flex QLEs will follow the same process as the State Health Plan:

• Changes to be processed in Benefitfocus by the employee.

• This refers to any New Hires that completed their new hire enrollment in Benefitfocus.

– Interim Process – for converted 2015 NC Flex Plan Changes

• Since current 2015 Flex enrollment data is not in the Benefitfocus system, employees will need to contact their Agency HBR & have the HBR submit a ticket to BEST.

• BEST will make the change in BEACON & work with the NC Flex vendor to ensure the changes are updated in the vendor’s system.

• QLE changes can be confirmed from the BEACON system once the ticket has been processed & closed.

QLE Processing Considerations

QLEs will NOT be processed & forwarded back to BEACON for payroll processing until BEST reviews & approves the QLE in Benefitfocus.

REMINDER:

• QLEs will be automatically approved by BEST, assuming the Agency has obtained supporting documentation.

• BEST will provide the Agency with a list of approved QLEs.

• BEST will reverse QLE processing based on notification from the Agency HBR that supporting documentation could not be obtained.

NC Flex Beneficiary Info

• Beneficiaries will be designated & housed in the Benefitfocus

system

• Beneficiaries will NOT transfer back into BEACON

– Beneficiaries were removed from the BEACON system effective

6/1/15 with the Aon implementation.

– Therefore, Beneficiary info will no longer show on the BEACON

Benefit Confirmation Statement.

– When the beneficiaries were removed from BEACON, the

information was still on file with the appropriate NC Flex vendor.

NC Flex Beneficiary Changes

• Current employees who need a beneficiary change:

– Since current 2015 Flex plan data is NOT in Benefitfocus, employees will need to complete & submit the applicable beneficiary form to the specific Flex plan vendor.

– Forms can be found on the www.ncflex.org website. Employees need to keep a copy for their records.

• New Hire employees who need a beneficiary change:

– New Hires will be able to enroll in Flex plans; therefore, New Hires will be able to make designate & make changes to beneficiaries in the Benefitfocus system.

• Annual Enrollment:

– Employees will be able to see Flex plans in their 2016 annual enrollment shell.

– Employees can then reassign the beneficiaries when completing annual enrollment for the 2016 plan year.

– NOTE: Any beneficiary information changes that are submitted by form for 2015 will not be listed in Benefitfocus for the 2016 annual enrollment shell.

LOA Processing

• As long as the employee is in pay status exhausting leave, the employee data will be reported to Benefitfocus as eligible for insurance & all current insurance deductions will continue without interruption

PROCESS:• Agency HR/Designee

– Completes LOA personnel action in BEACON system

– Sends employee the LOA Continuation Notice Letter

• BEST will monitor LOA for exhaustion of leave/non pay status– BEST to run monthly Deduction-Not-Taken (DNTK) report to identify

employees who did not have deductions taken & identify leave without pay status (LWOP)

– At the point the employee hits LWOP/9400 status, plans will be termed

– BEST to cross reference w/ LOAs eligible for benefits (FML, STD >5, MIL-RAD State Call Up, WC) to ensure continuation of health coverage

– BEST will terminate applicable plans: NCFlex and SHP

– BEST will provide Agency a list of employees whose plans were termed

Reinstatement from LOA

• Agency HR staff enters Reinstatement from LOA Action

• BEACON will send eligibility data to Benefitfocus based on

the reinstatement action processed

• Benefitfocus will open enrollment platform in ESS

• BEST will provide Agency HBRs a list of employees who

reinstate

– Report will be provided twice a month

• Agency HBR will remind employee to re-enroll upon return to

work

• Employee will have 30 days from reinstatement to re-enroll in

plans

– EOIs may be required

Transfers

• Employees who transfer between State Agencies without a break

in service cannot make changes to benefit elections or elect new

benefit options

• Employees must transfer existing benefits to the new employing

Agency

• Agency – Enters Transfer personnel action in BEACON

• BEACON – Sends Transfer action data to Benefitfocus

• Benefitfocus – Receives Transfer data & removes employee from

releasing Agency’s insurance group & enrolls employee into

receiving Agency’s insurance group

• Non Beacon to Beacon OR Beacon to Non Beacon

Benefit Terminations

• Agency HR staff processes the Separation action in BEACON

• BEACON will send termination data to Benefitfocus based on the separation action processed

• Benefitfocus receives employee separation data & automatically terms benefits plans & transfers termination data back to BEACON

– Separations effective through the 1st - 16th of the month – Plans are termed at the end of that month

– Separations effective after the 16th of the month – Plans are termed at the end of the following month

– Exceptions: Death & RIF separations – Plans are termed at the end of the month in which the death or RIF occurs

• Benefitfocus will notify Insurance vendors of term to ensure appropriate COBRA offers are generated

• BEST to run Term Program to term plans in BEACON the same night as separation action processing & file goes to Benefitfocus to update in Benefitfocus

• BEST will provide term reports to the Agency

• Agency HBR will mail employee Benefits Termination Notice

Exceptions Process

• Agency HBRs will still submit exception forms to SHP/Flex

• Benefitfocus will be notified by secure email from Flex/SHP of the approval or denial

• Benefitfocus will make any approval/denial changes in Benefitfocus system

• Benefitfocus will notify the applicable insurance carriers & BEST of changes made

• Benefitfocus changes will transfer back to BEACON for payroll processing

• Reporting can be done by BEST to identify exceptions for reconciliation & comparison