The Department of Human Resources has received a final directive from the Office of the State Comptroller-Retirement Services Division, that effective immediately all new higher education state employees must make an irrevocable election to participate in an applicable retirement plan offered by the State of Connecticut no later than their first day of employment. New hires with start dates beginning January 31, 2017 who have not yet made a retirement election must also do immediately.
The Retirement Services Division of the Office of the State Comptroller has created tools that will be helpful to new employees when making a retirement election. This information as well as an updated retirement election form is available from the Human Resources website at: http://hr.uconn.edu/retirement-election.
Given the University’s decentralized hiring model, hiring administrators must notify candidates of this state requirement at the time of job offer to ensure the candidate has enough time to make an informed election should they accept the position. Offer letters templates have been updated to include language regarding the new retirement election process. Additionally, the Department of Human Resources has designed a process by which all new hires eligible for a retirement plan will be reminded of the new requirement upon accepting a job offer. Human Resources will be actively communicating with all new hires from the date by which they accept a job through to their first day of employment to ensure they have ample time and information to make this important decision.
As a result of these recent changes it is imperative that new employees attend the biweekly New Employee Orientation sessions at the Department of Human Resources on or before their first day of employment. This will provide employees with a final opportunity to obtain important information and ask any outstanding questions regarding the available retirement plans.
For more information, contact: Human Resources Operations Team at 860-486-3034 or hr@uconn.edu