If you attended Benefits U last fall, you may have heard about MOSERS' upcoming transition to a new pension administration system called Phoenix. The new system will store your employees' demographic, service, salary, and contribution records so we can administer benefits for your employees.

As an employer representative who works closely with MOSERS, you will interact with Phoenix each pay period to ensure the accurate exchange of information from your agency to MOSERS. We have been working closely with our vendor to test the system and remain on track for deployment in the second half of 2024.

Once we have identified a deployment date, we will begin sharing important information with you to help us complete the transition, including how you will receive access to the new system and attend a training session.

In the meantime, please continue to send timely termination, transfer, and leave of absence forms to MOSERS for your employees and work monthly Aged Accounts Receivable (AAR) reports. Carrying past-due AAR errors can lead to inaccurate records for your employees and cause a potential backlog of work when we transition to Phoenix.

As you may have heard, we are building a new pension administration system called Phoenix! The move to Phoenix is a significant multi-year undertaking. We anticipate a go-live date during the last half of 2024.

As an employer representative from your agency to MOSERS, you will be interacting directly with Phoenix. Our goal is for you to find Phoenix to be intuitive and user-friendly.

Register for Benefits U on November 14^th to learn more about Phoenix and the training we will provide to you prior to go-live.

The timeline for Phoenix implementation will be changing. We are working with our vendor to project a tentative date for deployment. We will update you on training dates and post-go-live support as soon as we know more.

In the meantime, please continue to send timely termination, transfer, and leave of absence forms to MOSERS for your employees and work monthly Aged Accounts Receivable (AAR) reports. Carrying past-due AAR errors can lead to inaccurate retirement records for your employees and will cause a backlog of work when we transition to Phoenix.

Please email employers@mosers.org if you have questions or call an Employer Services analyst at (800) 827-1063 option 2.

Please stay current on your monthly AAR reports!  

To ensure a smooth transition to Phoenix this fall, all past-due AAR errors must be resolved no later than September 1. 

It will be imperative to have up-to-date and accurate service and salary data for your employees before we switch to Phoenix. Up-to-date records will help to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a potential backlog of work.  

If you have questions about monthly AAR reports, please contact the Employer Services team by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2. 

Reporting Group: A group that is tied to an employer, with which sections, employees, and employer reps are associated. Each reporting group is associated with a specific pay cycle (e.g., monthly, biweekly, etc.) Permissions to the Phoenix Employer Portal will be based on the reporting group. For SAM II agencies, the reporting group will be a combination of the SAM II agency and organization code(s).

Local Employer Representative (ER): An individual at a non-SAM II agency with secure access to the Phoenix Employer Portal. A Local Employer Representative from each reporting group will be responsible for payroll reports. These reps have access to the expanded or condensed file format (set per reporting group) and may roll forward previous payrolls.

SAM II Employer Representative: An individual at a SAM II agency with secure access to the Phoenix Employer Portal. A SAM II Employer Representative from each reporting group will be responsible for payroll reports. These reps have access to the SAM II (expanded) file format but are not able to upload, download or roll forward.  

We know you have been hearing a lot about the transition to our upcoming new Pension Administration System, Phoenix. We are scheduled to deploy Phoenix in September 2023!

As a reminder, MOSERS has built the new system to:

• Improve accuracy and controls
• Become more nimble through a single integrated solution
• Improve security
• Become more efficient and increase automation
• Sustain and improve customer service

If we progress as anticipated, Employer Training will be held in August. Be sure to read the monthly HR Updates and check your emails from MOSERS in the coming months, as we will be in touch with more Phoenix information. We are excited to finally share this new system with you, our valued employer partners! 

As we prepare for the transition to Phoenix later in 2023, it will be vital that you stay current on monthly error reports and submit any outstanding leave of absence, transfer, or termination forms to MOSERS.

Having as up-to-date and accurate service and salary data as possible for your employees before we switch to Phoenix will help to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a potential backlog of work. 

Maintaining the accuracy of member records is a joint effort between our staff and covered employers. Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

For more information about error reports, please view our Aged Accounts Receivable and Termination Error Reports Video and Employer Error Report Webinar.

You may recall receiving periodic updates regarding the new pension administration system we’re developing called Phoenix. Phoenix is a modernized system that will be more intuitive and help us – MOSERS and its covered employers – to be even better at administering timely and accurate benefits to state employees. Staff and other key stakeholders are fine-tuning the project timeline, and we anticipate launching Phoenix later in 2023. We look forward to sharing details in the coming months and will provide training opportunities before we deploy this new system. Stay tuned! 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our recent Phoenix Training survey! We offered the survey to 401 employer reps and received responses from 132 reps from 31 different agencies, which is a great response!

In case you are not familiar with Phoenix, it is MOSERS’ new pension administration system, which contains all the demographic, service and salary, and contribution data needed to administer benefits for all MOSERS members. As the source of this vital information, you, the employer representatives, will be interacting directly with Phoenix. 

We anticipate going live with Phoenix in the Spring of 2023, so we are developing training for you now. We are confident you will find Phoenix to be intuitive and user-friendly and that it will provide you with more access to important benefit information for your employees.

Here is a summary of what we learned in the most recent survey:

• 62% of respondents work in Central Office whereas 38% work at a local facility
• 56% of respondents have been interacting with MOSERS as an employer rep for more than 5 years
• 83% said they spend less than 5 hours per week interacting with MOSERS
• 69% prefer online training; 26% prefer in-person training in Jefferson City; 5% prefer in-person training in “my area of the state”
• 99% prefer daytime training
• 82% have a work laptop they can bring to in-person training
• 16% (20 people) volunteered to review materials and demo training prior to the full rollout (Thank you!)

When we asked how well informed you feel you are regarding Phoenix, the responses were:

• 7% - very well informed
• 34% - somewhat informed
• 40% - a little informed
• 19% - this is the first I’ve heard of Phoenix

Watch HR Update for announcements about training beginning in early 2023!

Curious about where to find the latest updates on Phoenix?

We know you have been hearing a lot about the transition to our upcoming new Pension Administration System (Phoenix). We understand all this information can be overwhelming, so we have created a place where you can find all the latest Phoenix updates. The Phoenix page is your one-stop shop for introductory materials, demo videos, process maps, FAQs, and all things Phoenix.

Ultimately, Phoenix will be the means through which we partner together to provide timely and accurate benefits to MOSERS members. As we move closer to deploying the new system in 2023, we look forward to sharing more and providing in-depth training opportunities. Stay tuned! 

In last month’s edition, we reported that leave of absence forms will be a thing of the past when Phoenix launches in 2023. We are excited to announce the same applies to termination forms! Phoenix will streamline the process for reporting employment status changes and eliminate the extra work of submitting termination forms.

For SAM II employers, Phoenix will capture terminations directly from SAM II based on the ESMT personnel action/reason code and employment status. With this, MOSERS will be notified automatically of the reason for a termination, kicking off critical behind-the-scenes processes. For example, terminations due to the death of an employee will initiate the process of contacting surviving beneficiaries to notify them of any benefits due. Therefore, it will be imperative that you enter the correct personnel action/reason code for terminations in SAM II.

For non-SAM II employers, terminations will be captured when your payroll file is submitted. User-friendly errors or warnings during payroll submission will help you identify employees that might need to be terminated if no pay was received.

Just like leaves of absence, capturing terminations is vital to administering an employee’s pension, life, and LTD benefits through MOSERS. When an employee separates, they may be eligible for future retirement benefits or could take a refund of the money they contributed to MOSERS. Capturing employment status changes automatically as they occur, rather than manually through a subsequent form submission, helps to ensure the accuracy of member records and the efficient delivery of important benefits employees rely on.

For additional reference, check out this high-level process map of Reporting Termination Dates. Keep in mind that this is just a “sneak peek,” and we will provide you with training and resources before Phoenix goes live.

Hello Phoenix, goodbye leave forms! You read that right, upon the launch of Phoenix in 2023, leave forms will be a thing of the past!

For SAM II employers or non-SAM II employers using the expanded file format, Phoenix is designed to capture leave events and other status changes automatically from your payroll system. This efficiency in Phoenix will eliminate the need for you to do the double work of entering leave into your payroll system and then reporting the leave separately to MOSERS. In addition to saving you time, this feature will greatly benefit your employees' by significantly reducing the possibility of variance between your records and the employees' official MOSERS service record. Your employees' future pension is based on their total service credit and average salary. In other words, the greater their service credit, the greater their lifetime pension.

Thus, it is essential that your employees experiencing valid leave events, such as leave due to illness, receive full service and salary credit towards their future pension. Capturing this information automatically, but still giving you the ability to make manual adjustments, if needed, will strengthen data reporting to MOSERS and help ensure the accuracy of employee benefits. For additional reference, check out this high-level overview of the process map of Capturing Leave Events in Phoenix. Keep in mind that this is just a “sneak peek,” and we will provide you with training and resources before Phoenix goes live.

You may be familiar with our Aged Accounts Receivable (AAR) error report. The AAR report is one of the ways we reconcile discrepancies in service, salary, and contribution data between MOSERS member records and payroll files received from employers.

The most common discrepancy found is our records reflecting that a member is actively employed, but no pay was reported for that employee on the last payroll file. This likely means the employee is on a leave of absence or terminated, but we have not been notified of such. Another common discrepancy is our records reflecting that an employee has life insurance, but the premium was not deducted from their last paycheck. This could mean the employee recently added coverage and there wasn’t enough time to start the deduction before payroll was processed. These are just a couple of examples of how a discrepancy can occur, but many other examples can be noted.

Fortunately, only 1% of member records require reconciliation after payroll uploads. However, when you consider that there are over 40,000 active state employees covered under MOSERS, this process requires a significant amount of attention each month. Although most state employees are paid twice per month, we currently receive payroll files only once per month. This lag in receiving data delays the process of resolving discrepancies. With the implementation of Phoenix, MOSERS will receive data more frequently. This will lead to increased efficiency and accuracy, and ultimately, better customer service.

Phoenix will eliminate the need for the AAR report. Instead, payroll files will be uploaded to Phoenix as they occur. You, our valued partners, will be asked to reconcile any identified discrepancies before the final submission of payroll to us. Ultimately, Phoenix will facilitate a more efficient exchange of information between MOSERS and its covered employers, resulting in more timely corrections to member data and improved accuracy of member records.

In this brief Prepare Payroll Report video, which applies to SAM II and non-SAM II employers alike, we demonstrate how Phoenix will alert you to potential discrepancies before payroll is finalized. Keep in mind that this is just a quick preview, and thorough training will be provided prior to the implementation of Phoenix.

When hiring a new employee, your first step with MOSERS, though indirectly, is determining the benefit eligibility of the position. An employee hired into a benefit-eligible position is entitled to service and salary accruals towards the calculation of their future pension and, depending on the agency, may also be eligible for life and long-term disability insurance through MOSERS. Therefore your entry of a new benefit-eligible employee into SEBES establishes the employee’s official record under MOSERS.

The implementation of Phoenix will not change the new hire process as it relates to MOSERS. Phoenix will consume data from SEBES just as our current system does, and benefit-eligible employees entered into SEBES will automatically be recorded under MOSERS. However, a unique feature of Phoenix called the SAM II Daily Feed will improve the accuracy of service, salary, and contribution data of employees paid through the SAM II system by double-checking the benefit-eligibility status of employees.

If you are a SAM II employer representative, please take a moment to view this short demo of the SAM II Daily Feed in Phoenix.

As you may know, we are currently building a new pension administration system called Phoenix that is on track for completion in early 2023.

Phoenix is analogous to the central nervous system of MOSERS – it contains all of the demographic, service and salary, and contribution data needed to administer benefits for all MOSERS members.

In the year leading up to the new pension administration system (PAS) launch, we have created a Phoenix webpage specifically for you, that will serve as your go-to place for both background information and ongoing updates about Phoenix from now on. Check it out today! 

If you attended Benefits U, then you received a sneak peek of Phoenix! Phoenix is the new pension administration system, which you will be using to interact with MOSERS starting in the next 12 to 18 months. Those who were able to join us at Benefits U saw how efficient and automated Phoenix will be as it interacts behind the scenes with SAM II and non-SAM II payroll files. This level of automation will improve the accuracy of our member data which ultimately increases customer service. Although there was a lot to take in with all the Phoenix demos, those that attended noticed the ease of use and how intuitive it is. There are errors and warnings built in to call your attention to invalid pieces of data that do not pass the controls programmed into the system. Phoenix will give you direction on what needs to be addressed and how. Think of it as having a personal assistant coaching you through the process.

If those of you who attended were overwhelmed with all the information, don’t worry! Within the next few weeks, we will upload the recorded video session demonstrations to the Benefits U page. Keep in mind that this was only a sneak peek. Thorough training and ongoing support are in the future and will be provided closer to our go-live date. We cannot do what we do without YOU! Thank you for all of the work you put in to help serve our members.

If you were unable to attend BU this year, stay tuned because we will be posting the recorded sessions in the coming weeks. Check the BU page for updates!

We extended an invitation to attendees of Benefits U to ask for what they would like to see in Phoenix. Carson Lepper, Phoenix Project Manager, asked payroll reps to email PMO@mosers.org with their requests using the following format “As a_______________I want________________so that _______________. To give you an idea of what a completed statement like this might look like here are some examples.

As a payrep/human resource manager

I want to access any member's service history

so that if an employee has breaks in service, I can accurately calculate their Leave Progression Date for SAMII purposes.

As a personnel officer at DPS

I want the Eligible to Retire Report to allow me to select multiple organizations in one run

so that I can run the organizations I am responsible for and see them all at one time.

As a payrep/human resource manager

I want a report of changes made to the submitted payroll file

So that I can accurately request 1DEDs/NDED in SAMII.

As a payrep/human resource manager

I want the Phoenix/PMO support staff to be easily accessible during implementation, either via phone, virtual meeting, or email

so that if I have difficulty uploading payroll, I have the extra support to walk me through the screens.

If you submit an idea to PMO@mosers.org we will reach out to you so we can fully understand your request. Providing your idea in the given format, allows us to begin thinking about the scope, complexity, and value of your idea. We look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you to all who participated in the employer survey regarding our new pension administration system (PAS)! Your input will help us gauge the overall understanding of the PAS among employer representatives and help guide us regarding future communications to you about the PAS. We will continue to update you through HR Update and the upcoming Benefits U conference.