2021 Accomplishments Onboarding Implementation

2021 Accomplishments
Onboarding Implementation
On August 16, 2021, People First implemented the onboarding system which is the newest
addition to the People First talent management system offering which also includes recruitment,
learning management and performance management modules. This system allows agencies to
initiate new hire employees into an electronic onboarding process to complete new hire paperwork
and acknowledge agency policies in an electronic format. Additionally, the system is integrated
with the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify system to confirm the new hire employee’s
eligibility to work (I-9 verification).

Qualified Status Change Automation
On July 31, 2021, People First implemented qualified status change (QSC) automation within
the People First system to allow employee self-service to complete most QSC events. Prior to
this enhancement employees had to contact the People First Service Center to process their
QSC elections. Prior to the enhancement, over 1,600 calls were placed to the service center
each month to process a QSC. This automation streamlines the employee QSC process and
empowers employees to take charge of their insurance benefits elections through self-service
capability.

People First Annual Survey
The Department of Management Services (DMS) surveys People First users to gauge customer
satisfaction with the People First system and service center. People First is the state’s human
resource information system and includes a service center to assist users with human resource
transactions. Each user’s feedback is critical in helping us determine the effectiveness of the
system and service center and to identify opportunities to improve services. The survey is
randomly submitted to 25,000 current and former employees. For 2021, the survey was
administered May 14 – 28, 2021. There was a total of 3,592 survey respondents, with an overall
satisfaction rating of 87.5 percent, which represents the highest overall satisfaction since People
First began the survey in 2007.

Process Improvement – Inbox Tasks
On May 22, 2021, People First implemented changes to combine human resource and talent
management tasks into the People First Inbox. This enhancement allows employees to see their
assigned tasks for both the enterprise People First system and the enterprise talent
management system upon logging in to the People First system. Prior to this change employees
had to access each system separately to see the related tasks.

Process Improvement – Streamline Timesheet Entry
On March 13, 2021, People First implemented user-friendly, process enhancements to the
timesheet in People First to simplify the use of charge objects (time reporting codes) and the
process for resubmitting unapproved (rejected) timesheets.

COBRA Subsidy Implementation
On May 8, 2021, People First implemented new COBRA Subsidy Plans and required notices in
accordance with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP). Over 3,300 former employees

were sent required notices and given the opportunity to enroll in the new COBRA Subsidy Plans
for April 1 through September 30, 2021.

Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account Elections Update
On April 24, 2021, People First implemented changes allowing employees to update their
dependent care flexible spending account election for plan year 2021 up to $10,500. This
change was implemented in accordance with ARP and only applies for plan year 2021. The
annual election maximum will revert to $5,000 for plan year 2022.

2020 Accomplishments
Amended and Restated People First Contract
On Dec. 22, 2020, following months of negotiations, the People First Team completed both an
Amended and Restated People First contract and a 5-year contract renewal. The renewal is
effective Aug. 21, 2021 through Aug. 20, 2026. As part of the renewal the State was able to
save approximately $15 million compared to the original contract terms. Additionally, as part of
the renewal the team was able to include a dependent eligibility verification gap audit at no cost
to the State. The gap audit includes dependents added since the 2018 audit and prior to the
start of the on-going audit that started on July 1, 2020 (approximately 49,000 dependents). The
team was also able to negotiate a full upgrade of the recruiting marketing website, as well as the
implementation of additional customer service technology components (e.g., call-back feature,
chatbots).

Tax Watch Productivity Awards
The People First Team received awards from Florida Tax Watch for implementing two new
online ticket processes that reduced calls and eliminated faxes to the People First Service
Center, resulting in time savings for the impacted State of Florida employees; and for
implementing single sign-on capabilities within the People First System to allow users to
securely access their CVS Caremark and Healthcare BlueBook accounts directly from within the
system.

Online Benefits Statements
Starting with the 2021 Open Enrollment period, People First implemented online benefit
statements within the People First system. Providing the statements electronically makes them
available to employees two weeks in advance of Open Enrollment beginning, instead of waiting
to receive the statement in the mail. It also allows employees to go back and access their
benefits statement whenever needed.

Total Compensation Statement and Estimator
On December 31, 2020, People First implemented a new process that will allow employees to
view their personalized Total Compensation Statement in the People First system. The
statement provides an overview of the employee’s salary and benefits package, providing a
comprehensive view of the monetary value of their total compensation as an employee of the
State of Florida. Employees also have the ability to create a “What If” estimate that can be used
as a strategic tool for recruiting and retaining a high quality, high performing workforce.

Data Purge
On Oct.17, 2020, People First completed the process of purging (removing) older data currently
stored in the People First data warehouse (DW). A total of 1.9 billion rows of data were removed
from the DW. This new process will allow for an annual purge of older records, keeping only
records required under data retention rules and has resulted in quicker nightly data refreshes
and quicker report results.

Creating Mass Loads for Pay Increases
In accordance with Section 8, Employee Compensation and Benefits - Fiscal Year 2020-2021,
General Appropriations Act (GAA), eligible salaried employees received a 3% (or $1,000) pay

increase effective Oct. 1, 2020. Some classes of salaried employees, (e.g. security services),
received an additional pay increase based on specific eligibility criteria outlined in the GAA. The
People First Team assisted agencies by creating mass loads for agencies to validate, change,
and approve for updating in the People First system. The mass load process eliminated the
need for agencies to manually complete payroll actions directly in People First for each
employee eligible for the pay increase. In total, 97,535 records were updated via mass load.
Processing the mass load created an estimated time savings of 2 minutes per transaction,
resulting in a time savings of approximately 3,251 hours for agency HR staff.

People First Learning Management System
On Jan. 13, 2020, People First implemented an enterprise-wide Learning Management System
(LMS) for all salaried and Other Personal Services (OPS) employees. The LMS is available for
the State Personnel System agencies, Florida Department of Lottery, Justice Administrative
Commission, and the State Courts System, regardless of whether the agency previously had an
in-house LMS. The new LMS allows agencies to create and deliver training based on the
agency’s chosen practices including: agency specific online training, scheduling classroom
training and mandatory yearly training, and the ability to cascade training based on specified
criteria (e.g., new hire training that automatically pushes out to all new hires in the agency). In
addition, the LMS allows agencies with enterprise responsibility (e.g., the Department of
Management Services (DMS), the Department of Financial Services (DFS)) to publish
enterprise-wide training (e.g., DMS published the Shared Savings training, DFS published the
PALM trainings). Over 320,000 course completions were completed in the new system within
the first five months. Agency administrators have reported positive feedback from their
employees about the LMS and the intuitiveness of the system.
Dependent Eligibility Verification
On July 1, 2020, the dependent eligibility verification process for all new dependents who are
added to health insurance coverage transitioned from the Division of State Group Insurance to
the People First Service Center. Services include updating dependents as eligible or ineligible;
removing ineligible dependents; reinstating eligible dependents based on appeals; and other
related administrative actions. This process will help ensure that only eligible dependents are
covered under the state group insurance plans, ensuring integrity of those plans. Based on the
results of the previous dependent eligibility audit, if 50 dependents are removed annually, the
state’s cost for these services will be recovered. Any additional dependents removed will result
in additional realized savings for the state.
State Emergency Response Efforts
   o Stopped Insurance Suspension Process – In an effort to ensure members had access
       to their health and pharmacy benefits, a process was implemented to pause the
       suspension and cancellation of health and pharmacy insurance benefits due to non-
       payments for the duration of the health emergency.
   o Reinstated Chard Snyder Benefit Cards – Reinstated previously suspended Chard
       Snyder benefit cards (over 1,200 cards were reinstated) and paused the card
       suspension process for the duration of the health emergency. This process change
       provides access for members to use their flexible spending account, health savings
       account and health reimbursement account funds while having outstanding claims that
       are pending verification.
   o Transformed the Refund Paper Process to Digital – Implemented an electronic
       process for employee refunds and disability payments, reducing the need for paper

forms. These processes were designed and implemented to ensure seamless
       continuation of operations for member refunds and disability payments.
   o   Programmed Retirement Codes – Implemented two new retirement codes, Temporary
       Rehired Retiree Medi Only (MM) and Temporary Rehired Retiree (MR), to accommodate
       the rehiring of recent state retirees to support emergency efforts as authorized by
       Executive Order 20-88.
   o   Implemented New Leave Codes – Implemented three new leave codes, Federal FMLA
       – 0097, Federal Sick Leave – 0098, and Admin – Poll Worker – 0099. Leave code 0097
       provides paid emergency Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave to all employees,
       including Other Personal Services (OPS) employees. Employees were provided up to
       267 hours (full-time salaried and OPS) for use of continued care for a child whose day
       care and/or school is closed. Leave code 0098 provides up to 80 hours of federal sick
       leave granted to all employees, including OPS employees who have never been eligible
       for leave. This leave is available for use for Coronavirus related illnesses and childcare
       issues. Leave code 0099 allows employees to record up to 42 hours of administrative
       leave for completing poll worker training and working during the primary or general
       election in accordance with Executive Order 20-149.
   o   Provided Data Reports – Created and provided over 115 reports to agency human
       resource offices and leadership to assist in managing resources during state
       emergencies. Examples of reports include employees with a child under age 18, value of
       leave used, employee leave balances for all leave types as of a specific pay period with
       supervisor information, and employees using emergency-related charge objects and
       leave types on timesheets.

IRS Form W-4 – Following the IRS release of a new 2020 W-4 form, modified the existing W-4
form in People First to meet the new federal requirements, and updated how the form looked
and functioned. The division also worked closely with the Florida Department of Financial
Services’ Bureau of State Payrolls to ensure the updates were properly included in the nightly
interface that occurs with them to process employee payments.

2019 Accomplishments
Tax Watch Productivity Award
The People First Division received an Agency Tax Watch Productivity Award for the People First
Portal Upgrade in recognition of the major overhaul of the People First system and employee
self-service enhancements that were implemented as part of this upgrade. Some of the major
enhancements included making the system available for all major internet browsers (Chrome,
Internet Explorer, Firefox and Edge), as well as significantly improving the user-friendliness of
the system.

Consolidation of People First Service Centers
People First provides an enterprise-wide suite of human resource and insurance benefit
services to state employees and retirees through outsourced service center staff with Alight
Solutions, Inc./NorthgateArinso. In the early years of People First, two service centers were
available to assist customers, one in Jacksonville, Florida, and the other in Tallahassee, Florida.
As time evolved, many of these services were moved to the Tallahassee service center, with the
exception of organizational management functions (establishing and updating positions, position
actions, employment status changes, payroll processing, and other fiscal activities). In May
2019, the service centers consolidated and now all services are provided from the Tallahassee
location. The move was successful and provides for more effective contract management
oversight and opportunities to collaborate on issues locally.

hrX Assist Go-Live
A new case management system, hrX Assist, was implemented in June, 2019. This new case
system streamlined the case management process for agency human resource staff. hrX Assist
replaced the previous case management system, eCase, and eliminated the need for agencies
to submit cases to a variety of separate email boxes, depending on what the case was in
reference to. Utilizing this system also eliminated the use of fax numbers and allows users to
monitor and validate cases online. Agency human resource staff received multiple
correspondences regarding the launch of hrX Assist and were provided an instructional guide,
general correspondence and reminders on this new functionality.

Agency for State Technology (AST) to Department of Management Services/Division of
State Technology (DST)
As part of the 2019 legislative session, the Agency for State Technology was abolished, and the
AST positions and employees were moved to the DMS / Division of State Technology. The
People First Division worked with the DMS/Office of Human Resources to successfully to move
the AST positions and employees to the DMS/DST using an automated mass load process. The
mass load process allowed us to process a total of 3,212 position and employee records in an
automated fashion, reducing the administrative burden on the DMS/Office of Human Resources.

July 1, 2019 Pay Increases
As part of the 2019 legislative session, employees in law enforcement and correctional
probationary officer classes received a legislative pay increase. Employees in specific classes in
the Justice Administration Commission and Department of Children and Families also received
a legislative pay increase. The pay increases were effective July 1, 2019. The People First
Division worked with the impacted state agencies to process automated mass loads for their
eligible employees. The mass load process allowed us to process 4,848 pay changes and 242
pay additives in an automated fashion, reducing the administrative burden on the agencies.

2020 Plan Year Open Enrollment (OE) & MA-PD Plans
The 2020 plan year Open Enrollment saw 160,913 election changes, with 97% of changes
being processed on the People First website and 3% processed by a call to the service center.
With this, the service center saw an average of 1,402 calls per day during the Open Enrollment
period, which was a significant decrease compared to the prior year’s average of 2,016 calls per
day.

A big change for retiree benefits included implementation of new Medicare Advantage and
Prescription Drug Plans (MA-PDs). The Division worked with the service provider to include
these new plans allowing retiree participation in one of three qualified MA-PDs.

Implementation of New Single Sign-On
The People First site has decreased the number of sites users have to visit as well as the
number login credentials they have to be maintain by creating single sign-on capability with both
Healthcare Bluebook (Shared Saving provider) and CVS Caremark (pharmacy provider). After
logging into the People First system, users can go to these sites without any additional
authentication to take advantage of the services they offer.

2018 Accomplishments
Chard Snyder Survey
Chard Snyder, the state’s Flexible Spending Account and Health Savings Account
Administrator, sent their annual 2017 Participant Experience Survey to 2,000 randomly selected
participants on Jan. 9, 2018. The survey included components related to satisfaction with
customer service, claims processing, the Benny prepaid benefits card, participant portal, mobile
app and overall satisfaction with Chard Snyder. The response rate was 19.7% and the overall
customer satisfaction rating was 94.3% of respondents being either satisfied or extremely
satisfied with Chard Snyder. While this is a good satisfaction rating, Chard Snyder is reviewing
opportunities for improvement by considering the verbatim comments. Chard Snyder continues
to improve awareness of the mobile app, online claim submission, investment information and
provide general education of all participants.

Portal Upgrade
On Monday, March 26, 2018, approximately 230,000 People First customers were presented
with a new and improved People First system. In fact, the system was officially deployed two
days earlier than expected (Saturday, March 24, 2018) as a “soft” launch. Five years of
planning, building, testing, training, and step-by-step communication with a variety of
stakeholders resulted in a very successful system deployment. This project has been a
monumental undertaking since it began in 2013. This was a coordinated effort between the
Department of Management Services People First Division and NorthgateArinso who spent
countless hours ensuring all steps in the process were effectively carried out while staying on
schedule. For the first three days after deployment, there were 160,734 successful logins and
6,679 successful password resets. Initial comments have been overwhelmingly positive and
employees have commented on the improvements in functionality, aesthetics, and intuitiveness.
Florida now has a system that can grow and transform along with the needs of our state for
years to come.

Prudential Productivity Awards
The People First Division won two Prudential Productivity Awards. One award was for the
People First Contract Administration and Service Center Oversight Team comprised of Andrea
Simpson, Gina Moat, Lydia Stafford, Rachel Roberts and Norma Davis. The award was for the
team’s efforts in implementing call calibration sessions with the People First Service Center to
monitor the quality of calls. The other award was for the Insurance Reinstatement Process
Improvement Initiative and the team was comprised of People First Division members Andrea
Simpson, Gina Moat, Lydia Stafford, Jimmy Cox and several Division of State Group Insurance
team members. Members of the division attended the Prudential Productivity Award ceremony
which was held on June 5, 2018.

Legislative Appropriations System/Planning and Budgeting Subsystem (LAS / PBS)
Annual Transfer
The People First Division successfully completed the annual fiscal year transfer of employee
salary and position data from the People First system to the LAS / PBS system. The transfer of
People First data expedites the collection of information needed for financial analysis and for
executive and legislative decision making. The transfer of People First data into LAS / PBS is
critical as the information is used by agencies to produce their annual Legislative Budget
Requests and is made available to the Executive Office of the Governor and the Legislature as
part of the budgeting process.

Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) Procurement
The Health Reimbursement Account Administrative Services procurement concluded on June
12, 2018, with a contract award to NorthgateArinso / Chard Snyder. The contract was signed on
July 30, 2018. The People First Division and NorthgateArinso / Chard immediately held a kick-
off meeting on Aug. 16-17, 2018 to determine implementation next steps. The timing of the
implementation decisions are critical to meeting open enrollment communication and
programming deadlines. The HRA product will be available to Shared Savings Program
participants beginning Jan. 1, 2019.

July 1, 2018 Pay Increases
As part of the 2018 legislative session, law enforcement employees, Juvenile Justice Detention
Officers and Firefighters received a legislative pay increase effective July 1, 2018. During this
period, the People First Division worked with the impacted state agencies to process a mass
load for their eligible employees. The mass load process allowed us to process 6,172 pay
changes and 278 pay additives in an automated fashion, reducing the administrative burden on
the agencies.

Chard Snyder Benefit Card Redesign
The redesigned Chard Snyder benefit card was launched on Sept. 1, 2018. While the card has
a new look, participants will still experience the same convenience they are used to with the
current Benny card. Participants will still be able to use their Benny cards until they expire. The
new Chard Snyder card will be sent to new enrollees and anyone who requests an additional
card or reports their card as lost / stolen / damaged, after Sept. 1, 2018. The benefit card allows
participants to pay for eligible expenses at the cash register in stores and at doctors, dentists,
orthodontists and optical providers. The card recognizes which items and services are eligible
for the state’s plan. It can also be used at some dependent care locations, too. To date, 95
percent of claims are auto-adjudicated, meaning once the participant swipes the benefit card, no
additional documentation is needed to substantiate the claim. From the inception of the Program
with Chard Snyder (Jan. 1, 2016), 25,643 benefit cards have been activated by participants,
accounting for more than 250,000 benefit card swipes, representing 90 percent of the claims
processed.

Data Center Migration
The People First provider, NGA, completed the data center migration, swapping the production
and back-up data sites between Atlanta (now production site) and Jacksonville (now back-up
site). As part of this move, the production environment was moved to new, updated servers. The
People First Division participated in numerous readiness activities and validation activities to
ensure this transition occurred smoothly. Additionally, Division members visited the new
production data center site (with our IV&V consultant in attendance) to ensure everything was in
order. Overall, the migration was very smooth and successful, and provided a slight increase in
the performance speed of the People First system.

SAP Business Objects Reporting Solution Implementation
On Oct. 29, 2018, People First transitioned from the legacy front-end reporting tools and ad hoc
reporting functionality to SAP Business Objects (BOBJ). SAP BOBJ, Web Intelligence (WebI),
replaced the existing Oracle APEX toolset, as well as the existing Cognos Impromptu ad hoc
toolset. People First Division staff managed a project plan that resulted in: (1) providing ad hoc

data warehouse user training to 91 “super” users, representing 30 agencies over seven three-
day sessions; (2) developing a significant amount of training materials including an online video
and user guides; (3) communicating and briefing users and various stakeholders; (4)
implementing a go-live process that required six stage gates being met prior to implementation;
(5) implementing post-deployment Hypercare activities to ensure any issues were resolved
quickly; and (6) holding additional computer lab help sessions for agency staff. The benefits of
transitioning to BOBJ included the following:

   •   Eliminated the need for over 500 agency ad hoc users to maintain client-specific
       querying software (i.e., IMPROMPTU) on their computer.
   •   Leveraged the latest SAP reporting tools versus using outdated (i.e., Oracle APEX) and
       unsupported tools (i.e., IMPROMPTU).
   •   Improved data security by requiring re-authorization of data warehouse access for data
       warehouse ad hoc users, including approval by the agency’s HR officer.

Consolidated all reports into one seamless user experience for pre-build/canned reports.
2019 Plan Year Open Enrollment (OE) & Shared Savings Program
As part of the People First Portal Upgrade, the Division worked closely with the service provider
to redesign the insurance benefits enrollment process in a manner to allow employees to easily
make changes to their insurance benefits. Additionally, the Division worked with the service
provider to implement a new online password reset process that included two factor
authentication. These processes were built with OE in mind and were built to be secure and
user friendly. As a result of these changes, the 2019 OE Period, saw a significant increase in
employee self-service. The number of employee elections increased compared to prior years
(2014-2017) with over 97 percent of the elections being completed online and less than 3
percent being completed through a call to the service center. In prior years (2014-2017), the
online percentage averaged 95 percent. Password resets increased during open enrollment to
approximately 91 percent being handled online, where in prior years this was a much lower
online percentage.

2017 Accomplishments

New Performance & Talent Management System
On January 7, 2017, the People First Team successfully launched its new State of Florida job
site, hiring center and performance management systems. These new sites were designed to
improve the overall experience for applicants and employees and offer enhanced usability and a
modern look. This project was a large undertaking and required People First staff to work with
personnel from other agencies to determine how best to develop the sites to meet the unique
needs of all of our state agencies. The team also worked hand in hand with its vendor,
NorthgateArinso, to ensure that the state was receiving the best product possible.

The team worked extremely hard over many months to ensure the successful launch of these
systems, and their diligence and attention to every minor detail paid off. These new sites will
enhance the state’s ability to draw top talent to state government and streamline the
performance management process for our current employees and managers.

Refund Process
The People First team, Division of State Group Insurance (DSGI) and NorthgateArinso
implemented a major process improvement that will save agency and university HR office time
and reduce employee frustration. An automated People First system move money process was
implemented that systematically moves employee overpayments for insurance plans to
underpaid months for the same employee, for the same insurance type (e.g., health, life,
supplemental). Prior to this enhancement, the process to move money required the state
agency and university Human Resource (HR) office to manually create a request and submit to
People First for processing. This new system enhancement went into effect on May 22, 2017,
and will streamline and automate the move money process.
In addition, People First has automated the refund process for health and insurance participant
premium overpayments. In conjunction with the above move money process, the automated
refund process will eliminate agency and university HR offices’ manual process of manually
requesting employee refunds due to insurance premium overpayments. A DSGI Management
Advisory was distributed to agencies and universities on May 18, 2017, describing the process
and indicating the People First Automated Premium Overpayment Refund Initiative
implementation beginning May 27, 2017.
Insurance Reinstatement Process Rollout
On April 24, 2017, a new reinstatement process was implemented. We worked in conjunction
with Division of State Group Insurance (DSGI) and NorthgateArinso to streamline the process
when our participants request reinstatements. The service center agents and reinstatement
team were trained on the new process and the online reference guide used by the service
center staff was updated. The People First team has received positive feedback from the
service center staff and has heard an improvement in the satisfaction of the participants during
weekly call calibration sessions.

Davis Productivity Awards
This year our team was honored with two Davis Productivity Awards. The first nomination is for
the Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) Redesign Project. The previous IVR that supported the
People First system was cumbersome, inefficient, and needed to be streamlined to better
service the customers of People First. Based on post-production IVR testing, the time it takes
for a participant to complete an average call through the IVR is just under 1 minute. An average

of 35,000 calls are received through the IVR each month. The new IVR realizes a cost
avoidance of $134,000 annually.

The second nomination was for the People First Next Generation Procurement and Negotiation
Team who negotiated the People First Next Generation Human Resources (HR) outsourcing
contract that reduced the annual contract price ($27.5 million over 5 years; $70 million over 10
years), leveraged the intellectual property and investment in the ERP SAP software, improved
HR services and system functionality, enhanced vendor transparency, and strengthened vendor
performance requirements. The People First Next Generation contract became effective on
August 21, 2016.

Chard Snyder Live Chat Feature
On August 28, 2017, the People First team launched a new Live Chat feature for participants to
use to contact Chard Snyder’s customer service representatives regarding their Flexible
Spending Account and Health Savings Account Advantage accounts. Live Chat is an additional
means for plan participants to connect with Chard Snyder to get answers to questions about
how their plan works, which items or services are eligible, or other assistance with their account.