Purpose

Benefits Administration (Ben Admin or BA) automates benefit enrollment activity in CHRS. This guide is for CSU Central HR and Academic Personnel staff who enter employee information and need to understand how their entries affect Benefits processing.

What Ben Admin does automatically

Based on Job Data and Modify a Person data, Ben Admin:

• Assigns or re-assigns the employee to the correct Benefit Program
• Determines eligibility, continued eligibility, or loss of eligibility for each benefit plan
• Processes benefit transactions such as enrollments or dis-enrollments

What this guide covers

• Job Data and Personal Data (Modify a Person) entry transactions
• Updates to specific Job Data and Modify a Person fields
• Non-routine transactions, including corrections, retroactive actions, deletions, and mass updates

Why accuracy matters

• Information entered into Personal Data and Job Data records is used to decide an employee’s benefits eligibility.
• Data must be entered correctly the first time.
• For a New Hire transaction, enter all fields as of the Hire Effective Date:
  • Local home address
  • SSN
  • Date of Birth
  • Gender
• Missing benefit-related data can delay an employee’s enrollment in benefit plans.

How BAS events are created

• When Job Data is saved, a BAS event is created and added to the Review BAS Activity page.
• When home address changes (zip code, state, country) are saved in Modify a Person, a BAS event is also created and added to the Review BAS Activity page.
• Behind the Review BAS Activity page is the BAS_Activity record.

BAS event processing

• The Review BAS Activity page is the Ben Admin processing queue.
• BAS events remain on the page until they are processed.
• Processing options:
  • Nightly CSUBAS process (starts at 7 pm for all campuses)
  • On Demand Event Maintenance page (processed manually by Benefits Officers)
• Once processing begins, the event leaves the Review BAS Activity page.

Job Data Action/Reason mapping

• Job Data Action/Action-Reason codes are mapped to specific BAS events (Event Classes or BAS Actions).
• These mappings determine how benefits processing occurs in Ben Admin.
• Job Data Action/Reason codes also set the Benefits Employee Status, which is critical for:
  • Ben Admin eligibility rules
  • Ben Admin processing
• Benefits Employee Status is separate from:
  • PeopleSoft Payroll Status
  • PeopleSoft HR Status
• Benefits Employee Status can only be set through a Job Data Action/Action-Reason code..

BAS events and the Benefits Employee Status are tied to Action/Action-Reason code configuration. Access to this Workforce Administration module configuration table depends on your PeopleSoft security.

Navigation:

• Click the NavBar icon.
• Follow the menu path to the Workforce Administration configuration table
  • Menu > Set Up HCM > Product Related > Workforce Administration > Action Reasons..

1. Enter an Action code. Use the lookup icon to see a list of available Job Data action codes.
2. If you know the Reason Code if know. Otherwise, keep this field blank.
3. Select the Include History checkbox.
4. Click on the Search button.
5. The Search Results list appears.

• Select the desired Action/Action-Reason Code combination.
  • The example below shows that the LOA/MED action/action-reason code sets the Benefits Employee Status to Leave of Absence for the employee and creates the LVE BAS event for Ben Admin processing. The LVE BAS event in CHRS allows all of the employee’s benefit coverages to be canceled (waived).

Delivered PeopleCode creates the ADR BAS event when an employee’s home address zip code, state and/or country changes.

• Home Address Postal Code
• Home Address State Code
• Home Address Country

Delivered Ben Admin processing uses the following employee and dependent demographic field values to determine benefit plan participation eligibility:

• Effective Date
• Date of Birth
• Gender

Why this matters

Using correction mode in Job Data to:

• change an effective date
• change an action code
• change an action-reason code
• delete a Job Data row

How to minimize impacts

Follow these steps with your Campus Benefits Office before making corrections in Job Data:

1. Workforce Administration
   • Contact the Campus Benefits Office.
   • Explain the needed correction (effective date, delete row, or change action/action-reason).
   • Provide the employee ID, employment record numbers, and effective date.
   • Stop. Do not continue until the Benefits Office gives approval.
2. Campus Benefits Office
   • Review whether any BAS events linked to the row need to be voided.
   • Print the employee’s current benefit elections if re-entry may be needed.
3. Campus Benefits Office
   • Void the applicable BAS event(s).
   • Check Base Benefit pages (Health, Life/AD&D, Disability, Spending Accounts) to confirm affected enrollments are deleted.
4. Campus Benefits Office
   • Tell Workforce Administration that they can proceed with the correction.
5. Workforce Administration
   • Make the Job Data correction/deletion.
   • Notify the Benefits Office once complete.
6. Campus Benefits Office
   • Process the new, corrected BAS event(s) as needed.
   • Re-enter benefit enrollments if necessary.
   • Reprocess any impacted BAS events using On Demand Event Maintenance.
   • Notify benefit carriers or CalPERS if required.

What it means

• A BAS event is flagged Out of Sequence when:
  • It comes before events that have already been processed, or
  • It has a lower Event Priority value than another event for the same employee.
• The flag indicates that eligibility information for this event may have changed.
• These events may need to be reprocessed in the Benefits Administration System.

Common causes

• Retroactive hires
• Retroactive terminations
• Retroactive transfers

These transactions often require extra review by benefits staff and can delay when an employee’s benefits become available.

What to do

• Some retroactive changes are unavoidable (for example, due to campus classification reviews or bargaining unit changes).
• When retroactive changes are entered:
  • Workforce Administration must notify the Benefits Office.
  • Benefits staff should monitor the BAS_ACTIVITY table (Review BAS Activity page).
  • Ensure the employee’s benefits are corrected and updated as needed.

What it means

• A BAS event is marked Out of Sequence when:
  • It comes before other events that have already been processed, or
  • It has a lower Event Priority value than another event for the same employee.
• This flag means the event’s eligibility information may be impacted by earlier events.
• The event may need to be reprocessed in the Benefits Administration System.

Common causes

• Retroactive hire transactions
• Retroactive terminations
• Retroactive transfers

These transactions often require extra review by benefits staff and may delay the availability of benefits.

What to do

• Retroactive changes are sometimes unavoidable (for example, due to classification reviews or bargaining unit changes).
• When retroactive changes are entered:
  • Workforce Administration must inform the Benefits Office.
  • Benefits staff should monitor the BAS Activity page (BAS_ACTIVITY table).
  • Reprocess or adjust benefits to ensure the employee’s coverage is correct.

Purpose

The Notify button lets you quickly send workflow notifications or emails to co-workers about a specific employee.

What happens

• The email includes a direct link to the application page that needs review or reference.
• This makes it easy for co-workers to go straight to the correct page.

Notes

• Notify is a standard PeopleSoft feature.
• No special setup is required to use it.

After you click the Notify button, a generic email notification (workflow) is created. The next snapshot shows an example of the email that is generated.

• Be sure to copy yourself on the notification so you have a record of it.
• Enter your message in Message.
• Below is a snapshot of the email notification the recipient receives (in their email “in” box).