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. We offered the first live virtual Basics in the spring of 2022 and took lessons from that experience to improve the format.
Employer Basics is fundamental training for new ASRS employer web users. It is a lot of information to absorb in one sitting, and sometimes, the topics may not pertain to your role, so in July 2023, the format was changed to allow employers to register for just the topics they wanted to learn about. We also promoted the series as a quarterly offering, so our next Employer Basics is scheduled across 2 weeks in December. Registration is now open through your ASRS employer secure account.
If you have new employer web users who have not yet attended an ASRS Employer Basics webinar, this is their opportunity to get that needed training. We also encourage anyone who may need refresher training on particular topics to register.
There will be two interactive sessions scheduled per day for each topic listed below, at 9:00 AM, followed by another at 1:00 PM. You only need to register for one of the sessions scheduled that day. Four of the webinars will be led by a member of the Employer Relations team and a subject matter expert from our Financial Services Division to help answer your questions. Barry O’Dowd from Broadspire, will lead the Long Term Disability webinar.
The dates and session topics offered in December are:
- Tuesday, December 5, 2023: Health Insurance Premium Benefit Program – This webinar will cover the health insurance forms that employers are required to submit for the Health Insurance Premium Benefit to be properly disbursed to eligible retirees and Long Term Disability (LTD) members. You will also learn how to access and review the monthly reconciliation report and when forms are needed to change or delete coverage. [Note: This training is not intended for state agency employer partners.]
- Thursday, December 7, 2023: Service Verification (Service Purchase, Refunds & Retirement) and Hiring Retirees - For those who have the designated role of CNW and Military Call Up Specialist, Leave of Absence Specialist, and/or Ending Payroll Specialist, this webinar will cover the different service purchase options members have and what information employers must provide. You will also learn how to complete Ending Payroll Verification (EPV) forms for employees who retire or refund. We will discuss pay types, define “other contributions” and the difference between the Termination Date and End of Membership, and discuss hiring ASRS retirees.
- Monday, December 11, 2023: Membership Eligibility & Enrollments – Learn all about the benefits of ASRS membership, how membership eligibility is determined, who can waive membership, and why completing the enrollment process is so crucial to your employees.
- Wednesday, December 13, 2023: Long Term Disability – For those who handle the LTD program for their employer, this session with our LTD administrator will cover in great detail the claim packet requirements, how to submit documents, and how to access the Broadspire portal.
- Friday, December 15, 2023: Compensation & Contribution Reporting – If you have questions on what reportable compensation is, how to make adjustments to contribution summary reports, how to report alternate contributions, or how to remit late charges, this webinar is for you.
Written by Genevieve McBride, Employer Relations
Published November 2023