Earlier this year, the Employer Relations Team modified how we offer Employer Basics. The ASRS Employer Basics webinar is essentially a walk-through of the ASRS Employer Manual. We cover topics such as membership eligibility, enrollment processing, contribution reporting, health insurance premium benefits, long term disability, and hiring retirees. Although it was originally offered as a half-day in-person workshop, out of necessity during the pandemic Basics became a series of videos.
One of the first things all ASRS employers should do to assist their employees, is to ensure that they are enrolled with their ASRS employer. Online Enrollment instructions, along with each employer's unique enrollment code, are available under the manage enrollments tab of the Employer Secure Account.
Effective June 28, 2022, Senate Bill 1082 allowed ASRS employers to prepay pension contributions with the ASRS and designated that they may utilize funding to be applied towards employer contribution payments for a self-designated time at some point in the future. The employer may also opt to leave the prepaid contributions, allowing the amount to continue to accrue earnings based on the amount contributed as a prepayment. This became the Contribution Prepayment Program or CPP.
The most common issue employer web contact the ASRS about when registering or resetting their password is “My employer’s name is not in the drop-down list. What do I do?”
Under the statutes governing the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), and the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS), a retired PSPRS member who returns to work with an employer participating in the ASRS and receives PSPRS pension payments during such employment is not exempt from membership in ASRS, if the PSPRS retiree otherwise satisfies the ASRS membership requirements during such period of re-employment.
From September through the first week of October, the Employer Relations Team hosted eight virtual Employer Conferences. Last year was our first attempt at incorporating breakout sessions where attendees could customize their conference schedule and pick topics that pertained to their specific responsibilities. We kept that same format again this year with a shorter schedule.
Every five years, the ASRS develops a new Strategic Plan. This plan is meant to identify key areas the agency wishes to enhance and optimize, as well as areas we’d like to monitor and maintain. Our newest plan, which began on July 1, 2023, will run until June 30, 2028.
The goal for our new strategic plan is to excel in the areas of:
One of the steps ASRS retirees are required to complete when they return to work (RTW) for an ASRS employer is the Working After Retirement smart form, also sometimes referred to as the RTW form, through their myASRS secure account within 30 days of returning to work. This requirement is outlined in Arizona Administrative Code (A.A.C.) R2-8-117 (B).
