New benefits web site helps users weigh options and minimize errors

Some employees now have the option of signing up for benefits at the University’s Human Resources web site, www.uiowa.edu/~hrpersvc/ benefits/index.html. Photo by Rex Bavousett.

Richard Saunders, assistant director of human resources, is talking about the new system for enrolling in the 2001 University benefits programs.

For the first time, University employees can complete their enrollment forms on the University benefits web site. This feature enables employees to calculate electronically their benefits, to save the results for later, and when they’re ready, to submit them. A summary statement can be printed from the computer screen and a confirmation statement will be sent to users through campus mail.

"This first year we’re just taking relatively simple enrollments on-line," Saunders says. Anyone who is changing dependents and/or beneficiaries on their policies or switching care managers in the UI Care plan must still fill out the paper form.

"Next year we hope employees will be able to make more complicated changes," Saunders says. Last year, of the nearly 9,000 forms distributed by University Benefits, between 5,000 and 6,000 came back with changes.

Employees will find the enrollment form at www.uiowa.edu/~hrpersvc/benefits/index.html. The first screen will ask users to enter their social security number and password. Employees should have received their passwords in campus mail a few days after benefits enrollment materials arrived.

Once logged onto the site, employees will see their current benefits plans highlighted in gray. As they choose new benefits, those options will be highlighted in pink and costs are automatically calculated. The site also enables visitors to save benefits choices and revisit those options later.

The convenience factor will also be appreciated by University Benefits employees. Each year they spend long hours entering data from enrollment forms. Now, when employees sign up for benefits on line, the data are automatically entered.

"Sometimes, while filling out forms by hand, people change their minds and cross things out and they’re hard to read," Saunders says. "Now we’ll have fewer errors. Also, we won’t burden campus mail as significantly."

The system was a collaboration between Larry Meyer, senior information manager, systems analysts Carol Drum and Mike Kaplan, and staff in Saunders’ office. Although the plan had been discussed as a possibility for some time, work on the project began in earnest in August.

"There was a lot of back and forth collaboration on all levels on this," Kaplan says. "The system is very secure and very flexible."

"The system allows employees to try out more ‘what ifs’ and see the immediate results," Saunders says.

But even if employees don’t plan to make any changes, Saunders cautions that they should still make sure to look over their enrollment packets carefully.

"This is your chance to make sure the benefits you choose are right for your life right now," Saunders says. "Salaries, age, University contributions, and family status can all change."

The benefits enrollment period ends on Nov. 17, the Friday before Thanksgiving. At that time the system will no longer be accessible.

"It’s important that people have their forms in by the deadline," Saunders says. "That way their Jan. 1 paychecks will accurately reflect their choices."

Article by Linzee Kull McCray