Employees required to sign up for 2017 benefits

In order to receive benefits in 2017, benefits-eligible employees must sign up during this year’s mandatory Open Enrollment, which is scheduled to occur from Oct. 3 – Nov. 4 for full-time and full-time equivalent school employees.

According to the summer edition of the Open Enrollment Guide mailed home and emailed to employees, benefits will not automatically roll over as they have in previous years. This means that any eligible employee who wants health, dental, legal plan, identity theft, flexible spending or health savings account benefits must sign up during the Open Enrollment window.

How do employees enroll?

The Consolidated Benefits Office (CBO) is launching an online benefits enrollment platform, BENEFITFOCUS, where employees will be able to enroll in their benefits online. A second edition of the Open Enrollment Guide will be mailed home just before the start of Open Enrollment. It will include step-by-step instructions on how to log in to BENEFITFOCUS, review plan options and enroll in benefits for 2017.

To prepare, employees are also encouraged to:

Check their address to make sure it is up-to-date on the WISE Employee Self Service system or download the “Address Change Form” and submit it to Human Resources;
Mark their calendar as a reminder to sign up for benefits;
Gather all required dependent documentation that will be needed to enroll dependents (i.e., Social Security numbers, marriage license);
Check/update network access since employees will be required to enter their Virginia Beach City Public Schools username and password; and
Enroll in Self Service Password Reset (SSPR) so that you can reset your own password, if necessary, without any assistance from the Department of Technology (DOT). Otherwise, employees who need help with resetting usernames and passwords should contact their school’s technical support technician (TST), if assigned to a school. Any employee may also request assistance through DOT’s Customer Support Center at (757) 263-1111.

The CBO is hosting host nine open houses in October and November to assist employees with their 2017 Open Enrollment elections.