Transaction Supervisors Forum - July 2020

Facilitator: State Controller's Office
Contact: SCOTransactionSupervisors@sco.ca.gov

State Controller's Office – Personnel and Payroll Services Division

Customer Relations Survey

How would you like to receive information from us during this time?  Please send suggestions to our HR Suggestions Inbox at PPSDHRSuggestions@sco.ca.gov.

COVID-19 Update

  • The Personnel and Payroll Services Division (PPSD) is monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic closely. At this time, PPSD is open for business as usual.  PPSD will continue to stay on top of the latest COVID-19 information and update departments of any changes that may impact services to our customers. PPSD is updating the State Controller's Office (SCO) State Human Resources and State Employees webpages with service information as it becomes available. These webpages will be updated regularly, as necessary.
  • SCO has developed streamlined processes to expedite financial transactions and reporting.
    • PPSD will accept electronic signatures. Please follow your electronic signature protocol.
  • Updates have been made to the COVID-19 Emergency Family Medical Leave Act (E-FLMA) calculator. Please be sure to use the most up to date version of the calculator.
  • The State Controller’s Office (SCO) has made a permanent decision to no longer impose restrictions identified in the Personnel and Payroll Services Division’s (PPSD) Decentralized Security Program Manual and Decentralized Security Guidelines below:
    • Access and use of  SCO’s systems shall only be initiated from workstations that are owned or leased by the state agency and that are physically located within a facility that is owned or leased by the state agency and;
    • Access and use of SCO’s Human Resource Management Systems shall only be initiated from workstations that are owned or leased by the state agency and that are physically located within a facility that is owned or leased by the state agency.
    • Instead, agencies and campuses should review and adhere to the following policies and procedures for remote access of information systems.     
    • Updates to PPSD’s Decentralized Security Program Manual and Decentralized Security Guidelines to reflect this change in policy will be made as soon as practical.
  • For more information, please access our COVID-19 FAQs.

Email Subscription Service

Personnel and Payroll Operations Bureau (PPOB)

  • Statewide Disability Program – Karin Johnson-Anderson
    • The Statewide Disability Program is continuing to utilize email to assist in expediting Std. 674 D - Industrial/Non-Industrial/State Disability/Adjustment Requests in need of correction.  A Disability Specialist will email the PR 250 (irregularity notice) to the Agency Specialist and will accept the corrected document(s) returned via secure email, fax (916) 327-7205, or mail.
    • To assist the team in processing Disability documents timely, please put your first and last name, phone number- including extensions and email address on Disability documents/674D's so that the team is able to contact you.
    • Documents are now accepted via secure email to PPSDTempOps@sco.ca.gov. Include Disability in the subject line to ensure documents are routed to the appropriate unit. 
    • Karin Johnson-Anderson- Interim manager for Direct Deposit and Position Control, if you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to Karin Johnson-Anderson at (916) 322-3497 or kjohnsonanderson@sco.ca.gov.
  • Direct Deposit Initiative – Jill Souza
    • Please be on the lookout for a survey regarding the direct deposit initiative coming this month.
    • In October 2019, the State Controller's Office launched an initiative to increase Statewide participation in Direct Deposit.
    • At that time, participation was at 76.9% statewide. The goal was to achieve 85% participation by June 2020.  We came very close to meeting our goal, with current statewide enrollment is 81.57%
    • Department specific enrollment data is available and can be requested by email to jsouza@sco.ca.gov.
  • Position Control
    • Position Control forms can be sent to SCO to PPSDPositionControl@sco.ca.gov or PPSDTempOps@sco.ca.gov. Include Position Control in the subject line to ensure documents are routed to the appropriate unit.
    • Karin Johnson-Anderson- Interim manager for Direct Deposit and Position Control, if you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to Karin Johnson-Anderson at (916) 322-3497 or kjohnsonanderson@sco.ca.gov.
  • Statewide Customer Contact Center (SCCC) – TJ Alves
    • HR Suggestion Box- PPSDHRSuggestions@sco.ca.gov
      • Suggestion box- please feel free to submit your suggestions/feedback
    • Temporary Operations Box- PPSDTempOPS@sco.ca.gov
      • Temp Ops Email Instructions
      • This email box was created for electronically sending documents to be processed due to the impacts of COVID 19.
      • Subject line requirements: Type the name of the SCO Personnel and Payroll Services Program to which the document should be routed for processing.
      • Do not include or attach Full SSNs.
      • PPSD will also accept electronic signatures. Please follow your electronic signature protocol.
      • Please review the auto-reply message for useful information.
    • PPSD Operations Box- PPSDOps@sco.ca.gov
      • This email box was created for submitting escalations. Escalation Email Instructions
        • Subject Line requirements: (Agency Name, Name of EE, SCO Program requested, Last 4 SSN)
          • Examples of issues to escalate may include:
            • Not receiving a return call after two business days
            • Issues related to punitive actions
            • Pay adjustments due to mid-month separations as directed by CalPERS.
            • Employee grievances
            • Personnel/payroll/benefits requests for Judges, Legislators, and other statutory employees
      • Please review the auto-reply message for useful information.
  • Statewide Civil Service (CS) Audits – Renee McClain
    • Fallout/Exceptions Report Update
      • The Audits Team Completed Listings:
        • 315 transaction for Semi-Monthly
        • 350 PLP/Furlough for Semi-Monthly
        • 350 PLP/Furlough for Monthly and Part-time
        • SSA for Rank and File Excluded
        • 505 BU 2 and BU 9 Retirement change
        • Listings remaining:
        • BU 18 GEN/SAL (est. 250 records)
        • Minimum Wage (est. 500 records)
        • Departments that have employees (EEs) that are retired and eligible for a salary increase (SAL) will need to post it.
    • Departments should not respond to email confirmations they receive when CS Audits receive a Personnel Actions Request (PAR).  This is informational only, and questions will not be answered to. Please contact the SCCC at (916) 372-2700 with any questions or communication.
    • Please allow up to two days before contacting SCO in regards to a confirmation of your PAR package being received.
    • If you receive a PAR package back with a PSD40 (ding notice), please make the necessary corrections and resubmit it with the PSD 40 attached as the first page of your package.  This will ensure it will not be placed in the backlog and will be given back to the specialist that sent the PSD40 to process it as soon as it is received.
    • Departments must remember to complete Item 962 for separating employees that are subject to PLP/Furlough. 
    • Please do not submit any duplicate PARs unless it has been requested by the staff.  This will prevent multiple PARs from being logged in the PAR tracker and numerous staff from receiving the same one.
  • Statewide Civil Service Payroll – Renee McClain
    • Please complete STD. 674s with the dates and hours of dock on STD. 674s and STD. 674 ARs.  This is one of the top issues documents are returned for corrections.  The dock time and time worked in 6B must equal the time possible for the pay period.
    • If you receive a 674/674 AR back with a PR250 (ding notice), please make the necessary corrections and resubmit it with the PR250 attached as the first page.  This will ensure it will not be placed in the backlog and will be given back to the specialist that sent the PR250 to process it as soon as it is received.
    • To ensure that documents are routed to the appropriate area and worked timely, please include the proper PPSD Unit Destination in Box 1 of the STD. 674/674 AR.
    • Method Changes for an AR should be completing the 674 AR with the appropriate PPSD Unit Destination in Box 1 and, if possible, identify the batch # that established the AR in the Remarks section.  This will ensure your request is routed to the appropriate area.  For example, if a method change is for an AR that was established for benefits, please route the method change request to the Benefits Unit.
  • Statewide Civil Service Benefits – Rebecca Doctolero
    • Staff Updates: 
      • Five new staff –
      • Three newer Specialists who are being trained by three seasoned Specialists,
      • 1 Payroll Officer – Bladimir Trejos with prior Personnel experience but learning SCO processes.
      • New manager – starting on August 3.
      • Currently have staff from other units helping with the backlog.
    • Retirements in the Customer Contact Center have caused the benefits unit to lend a Specialist from the group to help out full time until it is backfilled.
    • Oldest Dates - Due to staff teleworking, there have been a few anomalies in reporting the oldest dates. This has been addressed, and we are working blitzing the Flex backlog.
    • Back Log - Staff teleworking has slowed the process down quite a bit as we develop the most effective way to retrieve documents to be worked.
    • The Benefits team is accepting Electronic Signatures and forms submitted to the PPSDTempOps@sco.ca.gov email inbox. This box is not the escalated email inbox. Please do not send documents to this inbox with the expectation that they will be worked ahead of the oldest dates.
    • Open Enrollment 2020 – Dates for 2020 have shorten processing times for SCO approximately 2 days less.  Please do not hold documents until all of your employees have submitted theirs. Send documents on a flow basis. Please watch for communication from SCO about any upcoming changes with document submittals this year.

Project Management Analysis Bureau (PMAB)

  • California Leave Accounting System (CLAS) – Tim Ramsden
    • Paid Leave Program (PLP) and Furlough letters will be published soon.  PLP and Furlough hours will be posted late in July so we can capture everyone whose pay issues during the last green cycle.  PPSD/CLAS will post for full-time and part-time.  You will need to key intermittent employees.
    • Timing of PLP and Personal Holiday (PH) is posted in CLAS at the beginning of July; PLP and Furlough are posted at the end of July.  Remember, July changes will appear on your remittance advice at the end of August.
    • Leave Cap: Some Bargaining Units have increased their leave caps. The CLAS team is in the process of making system changes to accommodate those updates.  In the meantime, please disregard any irrelevant "over the cap" messages.
  • Statewide Personnel and Payroll Training–Tim Ramsden
    • While the Statewide Training team is restricted from conducting classroom training, the team is converting portions of our classes into online eLearning modules.  We previously posted Employment History and Stipulations modules.  Coming next are State Disability Insurance (SDI) and Fundamentals of Payroll modules.  Next month the team will release more modules, including Lump Sum deferral.  The duration of each module to under an hour.  The Training encourages your staff to utilize the eLearning modules, and appreciate your feedback.  If you have other feedback, please contact Tim Ramsden TRamsden@sco.ca.gov.
    • Thank you for participating in the latest training needs assessment. The team appreciate that during this pandemic, training may not be your highest priority, but the team is continuing to find new and creative ways to meet your training needs.  Eventually, the team looking forward to returning to classroom training. 

California State Payroll System (CSPS) Project

Cal Employee Connect (CEC)

  • Cal Employee Connect Implementation – Stephan Higginbotham
    • As of June 15, 2020 all state employees have access to CEC
    • As of July 28, there were 144,000 registered users
    • For staff assisting employees with registration, the May 2020 PPSD Register article provides some helpful tips on how to calculate total deductions using POIS/HIST
  • Direct Deposit Advice (DDA) Suppression – Stephan Higginbotham 
    • Cal Employee Connect Letter #20-003 notifies departments that SCO will permanently suspend the printing of direct deposit advices for most state employees
    • If an employee chooses not to use CEC to access their earnings, departments will need to work with the employee to furnish them with a copy of their earnings through any available means
    • PPSD will not process pay history requests submitted by employees if the department has access to the information being requested
    • As functionality in CEC is expanded, HR offices will be provided with the ability to generate DDAs for employees using a dedicated Admin Console – this functionality is tentatively targeted for end of 2020. 

Contact

California Department of Human Resources

  • Presenter -  Kim Herlache
    • As of July 2020 furlough will begin to reflect for the pay period, and the following month (August) Paid Leave Program (PLP) will be begin.
    • Email sent to personnel officers regarding the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA or Act) PLP, and Furlough Program.
    • Department of Labor implemented Family's first Corona virus app. The language in the law says that the pay has to be at employee's regular rate of pay.
    • Leave has to be paid at the unreduced salary, but the supplementation is not under the Department of Labor's law for, which is at the unreduced rate of pay. The State Controller's Office will help with the issue of math errors for people who are using it intermittently and who may be working partial days.
    • There is still a lot of old furlough/PLP hours that have not been used.
    •  We are encouraging departments to pay attention to the leave that their employees are using and come up with a mechanism every month that if the employee is submitting 40 hours of vacation, and they have 24 hours of PLP (even the old 2010/2012 and now 2020) that PLP and furlough hours are being used first.
    • Departments are still required to have employees that are over max on a leave plan use their PLP first.
    • Leave caps will be increased for July if employees are getting 16 hours of PLP. This means that the 40 hour leave cap is increasing 16 hours.
    • According to the agreement with SEIU, intermittent workers that make $15 per hour are not subject to the PLP. Those in this group will get a pay differential to bring them up to the $15 an hour.
    • There are also other SEIU groups that are not eligible for health benefits. If an employee is not eligible for health benefits that means they won't get the $260 stipend or pay differential for the health benefits.
    • If employees are not eligible for a health benefit (it doesn't mean they have to be enrolled to be eligible), we would not give them PLP. Please remember to check if permanent intermittent employees are eligible for health benefits in that control period.
    • An amendment to the Furlough/PLP policy is coming in August which will include language about the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Act (EFMLA) and the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA).
  • Presenter - Wendy Yang
    • Affordable Care Act (ACA) training is currently unavailable due to COVID-19
    • Please utilize the ACA SharePoint to find tools and resources such as policy memos.
    • If you have any questions or feedback regarding ACA, please email ACA.policy@calhr.ca.gov or call (916) 324-0866.
    • If you have any changes within your personal office, and would like to provide your ACA contact for your department you can send an email at ACA.policy@calhr.ca.gov
  • Presenter - Sandra Lobatos
    • The Safeguard HMO prepaid plan has now been changed to MetLife. The name change will not affect any of the rates. Publication updates are coming soon.
    • Open Enrollment is September 21, 2020 through October 16 2020.
    • CalHR is currently working Open Enrollment material (toolkit, website)
    • CalHR is working with CalPERS to ensure retirees are up to date with any changes that occur at the time of Open Enrollment.
    • When you are sending dental appeals, send all information that applies to the appeal to avoid confusion and give a better review on what appeal is about. Don't forget to use the remarks box on the Standard 692 – Dental Enrollment form.
    • To HR officers, please monitor your Official Personnel Files (OPF files), and delete any ineligible dependents.

Helpful Tools

Disclaimer: This publication is intended for reference only. It does not supersede current applicable laws or regulations, and it is not intended for purposes of providing legal advice.