2007 Open Enrollment information

Open Enrollment and Benefits Fair kick off October 1

Look for mailings and visit the HRS Open Enrollment web site for the latest information

Eagles dental plan ends this fall

State-sponsored plan changes for 2008 include vision, dental, and more

UF-sponsored plans also available during Open Enrollment

Health and life insurance premiums for 2008 show minimal increases on employer and part-time employee contributions

Enhancement made to “My Self Service” in myUFL

New domestic violence leave policy introduced

Under a new Florida law, as of July 1, 2007, Florida employers must provide employees up to three days of leave in a 12-month period if the employee or a family or household member is a victim of domestic violence. The following activities are covered by this law:

• Seeking an injunction for protection against domestic violence or repeat violence, dating violence, or sexual violence
• Obtaining medical care, mental health counseling, or both for the employee or a family or household member to address injuries resulting from domestic violence
• Obtaining services from victims’ services organizations, such as a domestic violence shelter or rape crisis center
• Making the employee's home secure from the perpetrator of domestic violence or finding a new home to escape the perpetrator
• Seeking legal assistance to address issues arising from domestic violence or attending or preparing for court-related proceedings arising from the act of domestic violence

For additional information visit http://www.hr.ufl.edu/leave/domesticviolence.asp

Questions? Contact Central Leave at 392-2477 (SC 622-2477) or central-leave@ufl.edu.

Last month, the State of Florida’s People First web site underwent a major redesign that provided online users new functionality to make certain changes to benefits and access to data previously unavailable, while still maintaining a user-friendly enrollment process. Some of the enhancements included:

• Ability to review enrollment history
• Access to additional premium information
• Availability to request early effective dates for health and life insurance
• Ability to view additional dependent information and documentation
• Access to vendor contacts, brochures, and other plan information

In an effort to leverage the system’s efficiency and a quicker enrollment process, employees who are completing new hire elections, qualified status change (QSC) events, and Open Enrollment elections for state-sponsored plans are now responsible for completing their own transactions online through the People First web site.

As a reminder, all new hires must complete their enrollments within 60 calendar days from the date of hire. Enrollment is not automatic and cannot begin prior to the employee’s start date. Due to this limited time window, it is critical that appointments be processed in the payroll system in a timely manner by hiring departments and that the employee does not delay in signing up for benefits.

Current faculty and staff experiencing certain QSC events also have a limited time-frame of 31 calendar days from the date of the event to make changes to their plans. Employees will need to make the appropriate elections online and submit any required documents related to the change.

All elections/changes made during the annual Open Enrollment period may be completed online or by other enrollment options available through the People First Service Center as outlined on our 2007 Open Enrollment web site.

Additional resources for new hires regarding available enrollment assistance can be found under the Group Benefits Enrollment section on the HRS web site. A short instruction guide also is available on the 2007 Open Enrollment web page for employees making general QSC or Open Enrollment changes.

For general questions, please contact University Benefits and Retirement at 392-2HRS (SC 622-2477) or e-mail benefits@ufl.edu.

New, earlier application deadline for HEO is November 1; information session to be offered

The University of Florida’s Higher Education Opportunity (HEO) provides children of full-time TEAMS employees with the opportunity of tuition assistance for an undergraduate education at the University of Florida.

In March 2008, Human Resource Services will select at random from a pool of eligible HEO applicants 50 TEAMS employees to participate in this program. Each eligible employee may submit one child’s name into the drawing. To be considered for this benefit, the TEAMS employee must apply for the HEO by November 1, 2007.

An HEO information session will be held on Thursday, September 27, from 9 to 11 a.m. in Room 120 of the HRS Building located at 903 W. University Avenue.

Employees interested in participating in the HEO are encouraged to attend the information session. Please sign up via myUFL (My Self Service > Training and Development > Request Training and Enrollment). The course code is "GET013."

For more information about the Higher Education Opportunity, please visit www.hr.ufl.edu/heo or contact Amanda Moore at (352) 273-1761 or amanda-moore@ufl.edu.

Nomination forms for the 2008 Prudential Financial Davis Productivity Awards program, which annually honors state government employees throughout Florida, are now being accepted.

In addition to honoring “innovation, creativity, and smart work,” the awards program recognizes individuals and work units that have adapted or implemented previous years’ award-winning achievements to create added value. Eligible for nomination are individuals, teams, and work units as well as entire state agencies or their divisions, regions, districts, and institutions. Nominations are accepted each year in the fall with award-winners announced in March.

This year, the Davis Productivity Awards nomination forms will be completed and submitted online. Visit HRS’ web site to link to the Davis Productivity Awards site and begin the nomination process. Instructions will be available to walk you through the new online process.

Nominations for the 2008 Davis Awards must be submitted online to UF’s Davis Awards coordinator, Amanda Moore, by Friday, September 28, 2007.

The Davis Awards program presents cash awards ranging from $250 to $2,500 as well as commemorative plaques, certificates of commendation, and letters of honorable mention. For information, please visit http://www.hr.ufl.edu/awards/davis.

The following are the award categories for the 2008 Prudential Financial - Davis Productivity Awards (DPA):

INDIVIDUAL NOMINATION - One state employee. 

TEAM, WORK UNIT, OR PARTNERSHIP NOMINATION - Teams, work units and partnerships consisting of two or more persons.

EXEMPLARY ACHIEVEMENT OF A STATE AGENCY NOMINATION - Heads of agencies ONLY may nominate an Agency, Division, District, Institution, or comparable organization (consisting of 100+ employees).

ADAPTING AND IMPLEMENTING NOMINATION - Individual, team, or work unit recognized for adapting or implementing a previous Davis Productivity Award.

SUSTAINED EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE NOMINATION - Previous DPA winners who have demonstrated exemplary performance for five years or longer.

RECOGNITION OF LONG TIME NOMINATORS - Individuals who have submitted nominations to the Davis Productivity Awards program over a period of ten or more years.

The Prudential Financial - Davis Productivity Awards program is chaired by Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp and is sponsored by Florida TaxWatch, The Florida Council of 100, and the State of Florida.

If you have any questions regarding the new online nomination form or the nomination process, please contact Amanda Moore at amanda-moore@ufl.edu or (352) 273-1761.

2007 University of Florida Community Campaign kicks off this month

September 24 marks the beginning of the 2007 UF Community Campaign (UFCC). The UFCC provides UF faculty and staff with an opportunity to make a positive difference in our community by contributing to organizations that support the needs of North Central Florida.

The agencies in this year’s campaign cover a wide spectrum of support services that have touched many employees personally. All money raised through the UFCC supports the work of local agencies that provide a wide variety of services ranging from child care, recreational opportunities, counseling, and legal help to environmental protection, disease prevention, and medical assistance. In addition, some of these agencies are partners with UF through the funding of research projects focused on curing disease or improving the quality of life for those afflicted with disease.

Last year, University of Florida employees contributed more than $1 million to support the 80 agencies eligible for the Community Campaign. This year’s campaign goal is $1,234,567.

For more information on the campaign, please visit http://www.ufcc.ufl.edu.

Sick Leave Pool Open Enrollment begins October 1

Qualifying University of Florida employees may sign up for the Sick Leave Pool during its Open Enrollment period from October 1 to 31 or during the 30 calendar days following their first year of employment. During the Sick Leave Pool open enrollment, all applications must be received by Central Leave Administration by 5 p.m. on October 31.

Please note that Open Enrollment for the Sick Leave Pool is a separate process from UF’s benefits Open Enrollment period and has its own deadlines.

The University of Florida’s Sick Leave Pool enables participating employees to combine a portion of their individually accrued sick leave for collective use. As a member of the Sick Leave Pool, you may draw upon the pool—with approval from the Sick Leave Pool Committee—in instances in which you have used all of your leave hours because of personal, not family, catastrophic injury or illness.

All Academic Personnel, TEAMS, and USPS employees are eligible to participate in the Sick Leave Pool. Additionally, employees must have completed one year of employment with the University of Florida and have a minimum balance of 64 hours of sick leave. If the employee is a part-time employee, the minimum sick leave balance requirement is pro-rated.

Once the application is approved, employees will contribute eight hours of sick leave to the Sick Leave Pool that will be deducted from their account automatically. This is a one-time contribution of eight hours, unless the total available hours in the pool drops to an unacceptable level.

Applications for membership may be obtained at any human resources satellite office or online. Current members of the Sick Leave Pool do not need to rejoin. For more information, please contact Central Leave Administration at 392-2477 (SC 622-2477) or central-leave@ufl.edu.

Leaving university employment? What you need to know about leave cash-out

USPS and TEAMS employees as well as many faculty members are eligible for certain leave payments (based on accrued leave balances and years of service) upon termination. Your departmental payroll administrator is responsible for terminating your employment and initiating the leave cash-out transaction in the myUFL system after your end date is entered. Cash-out amounts of less than $2,000 will be issued as a check and sent by your departmental representative to you at the address listed on your W-4 form or another address you provide to him or her. Cash-out amounts of less than $2,000 are subject to federal withholding, Medicare, and OASDI.

Since the fall of 2006, all cash-outs equal to or exceeding $2,000 (up to the limit imposed by the IRS for the plan year) are deposited into a Retirement Special Pay Plan, a 401(a) plan administered by BENCOR.   

Advantages of the plan include the following:

• The plan provides the maximum tax advantages on sick and vacation leave payments for both the employee and the university.
• Participating employees do not pay social security taxes for the funds invested in this plan. and social security taxes are never due on these funds.
• Contributions to this plan are pre-tax. Therefore, the total amount of taxes paid will be reduced. No taxes are paid on the contributions until they are withdrawn.
• The account balance is portable, and there are no administrative fees or surrender charges.

More information on the plan may be found at: http://www.hr.ufl.edu/retirement/other/specialpayplan.asp  

Information on withdrawals of funds may be found at:  http://www.hr.ufl.edu/retirement/other/specialpayplan.asp
#withdrawals    

The BENCOR Distribution Form may be found at : http://www.hr.ufl.edu/retirement/forms/SPP/
SPP_distribution_form.pdf

Questions about withdrawals from your BENCOR account? Call 1-888-258-3422.