State of Connecticut
Core-CT Project
Application:HRMS
Module:Benefits
Business Process:Administer Event Maintenance
Requirement Number:BN051
Requirement Title:Ability to update life insurance coverage twice per year
Module Leads: Nancy McMahon, John Woodyard
- Requirement Description
Describe the requirement (gap). Include a description of the delivered PeopleSoft functionality.
Currently, a job is run semi-annually in late March and late September to update coverage and premium deductions automatically, based on the employee’s salary as of April 1 or October 1. This job also creates a report showing current coverage and new coverage that is submitted to the agency benefit specialist to review and verify. The job is run based on the payroll data from the paycheck immediately preceding April 1 or October 1; therefore, any salary increases entered on these dates must be processed manually. Additionally, retroactive adjustments are not allowed; therefore, any salary changes entered after April 1 or October 1 are not contemplated.
Changes/corrections/adds/deletions are reported to Central Benefits. Deduction maintenance is done manually by the Agency Benefit Specialist. All other information is updated and maintained by the Central Benefit Specialist.
PeopleSoft’s Benefits Administration can be configured to use events to trigger benefit changes for employees. The event can be a salary increase, promotion, etc. PeopleSoft can also be configured to ignore salary changes and never automatically increase insurance coverage amounts. The State does not change an employee’s Life Insurance coverage amount at the time of a salary increase. Instead, the State updates the new life insurance coverage amounts only on April 1 and October 1 for all employees that experienced a salary change during the previous six months. PeopleSoft, as delivered, cannot do this.
- Business Need
Provide a justification for the requirement. Include information about frequency, volume, number of users impacted, etc.
As per State Statute (Section 5-257 of Connecticut General Statutes) the basic life insurance coverage for employees is only updated twice per year, on April 1 and October 1, not as salaries increase. On these dates, coverage and rates for employees whose annual salary has increased during the previous six months is increased. If an employee has changed to a job with a lower salary or lower life coverage, he has the option to keep the higher coverage. The employee must request to have the insurance amount lowered.
- Required By: (Y/N)
Federal ____Agency ____Bargaining Unit ____
State Statutory _Y___State Regulatory ____State Procedural ____
- Requirement Priority
__High__(High, Medium, Low – please see “Requirements Prioritization Criteria”)
- Recommended Solution
Enter an “X” next to the appropriate category
______Process Solution
___Option Number
___X___Application Modification
_2__Option Number
- Explanation for Recommendation
Provide reasons for recommendation. Please do not re-state the description of the solution itself.
Proposed solution would require a one time fix and is completely automatic, thus reducing future workload and is a permanent solution to the problem. The only maintenance would be of the life insurance eligibility table if/when the eligible coverage amounts outlined by the State Comptroller changed (this has not happened for several years).
The as-is process for updating life insurance coverage amounts is automatic, with an audit report, thus the PeopleSoft solution should also be automatic with an audit report. Approximately 35,000 state
Employees have basic life insurance.
- Organizational Impact of Recommendation
Describe the changes to the organization that result from the recommended solution. Include a description of any role, process, statute, or bargaining unit agreement affected.
Roles and responsibilities of users would not change. The need for audit of the process would continue to be required of Agency and Central Benefits Specialists.
- Process Solutions
Describe the possible Process Solutions. Include a description of impacts and benefits of each solution.
Option 1.
The Agency HR Specialist would notify the Agency Benefits Specialist when an employee’s salary increased. The Agency Benefits Specialist would enter the new life insurance coverage amount that the employee is eligible for in the Annual Base Benefit Rate (ABBR) field on the Job page with an effective date of April 1 or October 1. (The Agency Benefits Specialist would use the new salary and the Life Insurance guide from the Comptroller to determine the amount).
Note: Any work-around will need to address the last minute changes/updates, such as promotions effective on April 1 or October 1.
- Application Modifications
Describe the possible Application Modifications. Include a description of impacts and benefits of each solution.
Option 1.
Modification Type (On-line, Batch, Interface, Report, Workflow): Report
Complexity (Easy, Medium, Difficult): Easy
Description:
Develop a report, to be used by all agencies, which would identify all employees whose compensation has changed during each six month period. The Agency Benefits Specialist would have to review the list, verify the salary increase and then enter a new row on the Compensation page to change the ABBR.
The manual update of the ABBR field will take a lot of the Agency Benefits Specialists’ time, especially in larger agencies. The report should require low to medium developer time.
Note: The process needs to be run after the close of business on April 1 or October 1, to include any last minute changes/updates.
A report should be created for audit purposes that identifies which employees where updated and their old and new ABBR.
Option 2.
Modification Type (On-line, Batch, Interface, Report, Workflow): Batch
Complexity (Easy, Medium, Difficult): Medium
Description:
Create a custom SQR to review employee salaries as batch process after the close of business on April 1 and October 1. It would compare a custom life insurance table and the compensation rate to determine if the employee’s Annual Benefits Base Rate (ABBR) should be updated on the Job record. This modification would require medium developer expertise to write the SQR to perform the comparison and insert the new row into the Job record. However, this option requires minimal time/effort from the Agency and Central Benefits Specialists continuous basis.
The SQR should produce a report for audit purposes that identifies which employees were updated and their old and new ABBR
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