APPENDIX 1 UTAH COUNTY GOVERNMENT HRIS/PAYROLL RFP QUESTIONAIRRE MAY 21, 2012

Transcription

1 APPENDIX 1 UTAH COUNTY GOVERNMENT HRIS/PAYROLL RFP QUESTIONAIRRE MAY 21, 2012 Use as much space as deemed necessary to respond to each question, below. A Microsoft Word version of Appendix 1 is available for ease in answering the questions. 1. CLIENTS 1. How many HRIS/Payroll clients and/or installations does the firm have? 2. How many and what percentage of the firm s clients are governmental agencies or entities? 3. How many of the firm s governmental clients are counties? 4. How does the firm differentiate itself from its competitors? 2. TECHNOLOGY/ARCHITECTURE 1. Provide an overview of the system architecture, including any hardware or "other" software requirements. 2. Describe the system s ability to have a user configure the system vs. having the firm customize the system to meet the user needs. 3. Describe the system security, including any significant failures, breaches or issues encountered in the last five years. 4. Can access to information in the system be established based on the role a person occupies (administrator, power user, manager, employee, etc.)

2 5. Provide a description of the firm's disaster recovery options and methods for data recovery and archiving. 6. Identify ways system utilization has improved overall performance and how frequently these evaluations are done. 7. Is there any limit to how many concurrent users the firm s system can support? 8. Does the firm s system provide for server-side processes? If so, describe these processes. 9. What network operating systems are supported? 10.How is system auditing implemented in the application? 11.Describe the system s ability for scalability and extensibility. 3. PRODUCT DEPLOYMENT 1. Does the firm offer its products as Software as a Service (SaaS), licensed, in a hosted environment, or more than one of these? 2. What is the benefit of each offered option? 3. If the firm offers a hosting solution, what is the data center and network infrastructure? 4. If the firm hosts the system, what types of technical resources are required, including on the County s end? 5. If data centers are physically secured, explain the method/technology used. 6. If SaaS or hosted, what ability would the County have to make modifications screens, tables and fields?

3 4. PRODUCT OVERVIEW 1. Provide a brief overview of the firm s HRIS/Payroll systems with a summary of the functionality. Indicate if components are integral to the system or from a third party. 2. What enhancements are planned for the system over the next three years? 3. Specify the name and version of the HRIS/payroll system referenced in this RFP response. 4. Does the system have the ability for employees or other users with disabilities to increase accessibility, such as increasing font sizes on screen displays or enable reading programs? 5. ENTERPRISE AND ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE 1. Does the HRIS/payroll system support multiple departments, position codes, account codes and job codes? 2. Describe how the system maintains employee report to manager hierarchy data and how/if the system creates organization charts. 3. Describe how the system handles/manages transfers and reorganizations on multiple levels.

4 6. RECRUITING AND APPLICANT MANAGEMENT 1. Provide a brief overview of the recruiting and applicant management system. 2. Describe the candidate pre-screening or qualification process. How much of the screening process can be automated? 3. What formats are supported for candidates uploading resumes and other profile information? 4. What job boards are supported with the system? Describe how jobs are posted to Internet job boards and would be posted to the County s internet and intranet sites. 5. Does the system allow for an automatic response to candidates? If so, describe the communication types included in the system. Can the County customize the responses? 7. HIRING/ONBOARDING 1. How is a candidate transitioned to an employee in the system? 2. Describe the user-configurable new hire workflow. 8. TERMINATION 1. Describe user-configurable termination workflow for terminations. 2. Can the system notify appropriate areas of the organization that an employee, volunteer or independent contractor has been terminated? 3. Describe how the system can trigger events beyond pay for terminated employees (e.g., remove system access, remove PIN numbers, etc.) 4. Describe how a termination action can be reversed on the system.

5 9. HUMAN RESOURCES AND COMPLIANCE 1. Describe the system s human resources/employee demographic functionality. 2. Can pictures be embedded in an employee record? What file types are supported? 3. Is this system integrated with the payroll system? Is any double-entry of information required? If so, describe. 4. Describe the types of historical information the system maintains. 5. Does the system support compliant electronic signatures? 6. How is a re-hire identified and how is previous history and years of service recognized? 7. Can electronic files and scanned documents be stored by employee on the system? What formats are supported? What limitations, if any, exist? As human resource laws and regulations change, how does the firm ensure that the County will be notified of the changes and kept in compliance? 8. Describe how the system facilitates the maintenance of employee data and creation of employee history. 10. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL/MANAGEMENT 1. Describe the system s performance appraisal/management feature. 2. Describe how the system can provide real-time monitoring of performance appraisals and status and alert reviewers and employees. 3. Are performance appraisals integrated into the employee record? If not, can completed performance review images be attached to an employee record? 11. COMPENSATION 1. Provide an overview of the key compensation features of the system. 2. Does the system support civil service salary steps/increases? Explain how annual merit increases/step increases are processed in the system. 3. Does the system support multiple pay tables, pay groups and pay cycles? (i.e., compensatory time, on-call time, dog handling time, physical activity time) 4. Can the system distinguish between which categories of time are eligible for overtime pay rates and which are not or coding of gross pay for 401(k) match, Utah State Retirement credit and other purposes?

6 5. Explain how the system creates and retains salary history and how job information is established and maintained in the system (e.g., grade, FLSA categories or classes, FLSA exemption status, EEO code, etc.). 6. Does the system validate minimum and maximum salary (of pay grade) when pay is changed, and provide warning messages as needed? 7. Explain how pay changes are entered in the system. Can changes by made by group or category (i.e., COLA, elected officials only, all merit employees)? 8. Describe how salary ranges/grades are established in the system, how pay grades are assigned to positions, and how positions are assigned to employees. 9. Can the same individual have two different jobs with different pay rates in the same pay period? 12. BUDGET MODELING/ WHAT IF SCENARIO PLANNING 1. Does the system support what if modeling for pay rate changes, COLAs and employee benefits either for budget planning purposes or grant preparation purposes? 2. Explain how the system allows for planning salary increases online, processing approvals via workflow, and automatically implementing increases on a future effective date. 13. EMPLOYEE RELATIONS 1. Describe the system s capabilities to track progressive discipline, corrective action plans, appeals, complaints and grievances. 2. Describe the system s ability to provide notices to managers and employees regarding follow-up on corrective action plans, due dates for appeals and grievances and other action. 14. EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 1. Describe how employee development, career planning and/or succession planning is accommodated in the system.

7 2. Describe how the employee development feature can be used by employees in employee self-service. 15. OSHA & SAFETY 1. Describe how the system tracks information for OSHA reporting purposes. 2. Describe how the system tracks safety training, issuance of PPE and other safety matters or provides user-defined fields for such purposes. 3. Does the system have a module to maintain worker s compensation claims, costs, tracking lost time, restrictions, legal reporting requirements, regular reporting, etc.? 16. EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 1. Provide a brief overview of the employee benefits administration system. 2. Describe the integration between benefits and payroll. Is there any double-entry between payroll and benefits administration? If so, describe. 3. Explain how the system facilitates eligibility and other reporting to thirdparty vendors, such as insurance and benefit providers. What reporting formats are supported? 4. Does the system allow for tracking of all notes, conversations, etc. regarding benefits and other matters? 5. Does the system create an audit trail on benefit changes? 6. Does the system support reconciliation of billing and census notices from insurance companies and other benefit partners?

8 17.OPEN ENROLLMENT 1. Describe the system capabilities for online benefits enrollment (e.g., eligibility rules, differential premiums, plan dates). 2. Describe how the self-service solution can be used to guide employees through benefits enrollment. 3. What tools does the firm have available for benefit administrators to monitor and provide a smooth enrollment process for the County and its employees? 4. Is workflow included with benefit enrollment? 18.LIFE EVENTS 1. Describe the life events that come standard without configuration. 1. Describe how the available life event options are established and maintained in the system. 2. Can employees make life event changes, subject to approval, in the employee self-service system? 3. Will the system support retention of documents related to life event changes (marriage certificates, physician certifications, etc.) 19.LEAVE AND LEAVE ADMINISTRATION 1. How are leaves of absence identified and processed in the system? (i.e., Vacation Leave, Sick Leave, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Leave Without Pay, Paid Time Off (PTO), Personal Preference Day) 2. Explain how the system facilitates handling the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). 3. Describe how the system maintains leave of absence history records, time/hours used, including multiple leaves in a 12-month period so time off does not exceed maximum time allowed under FMLA. 4. Describe how the system monitors workers compensation and the related leave of absence. 5. Describe the benefit premium collection process when employees are on leave without pay. 6. How are employees on leave notified about open enrollment and their benefit elections processed? 7. Can employees request PTO/Vacation/Sick/Personal Preference Day leave on-line through employee self-service?

9 8. Is there a workflow to support routing leave requests to managers for approval? 9. Describe how the system calculates accrued PTO or other leave types. Can it handle multiple types of time off accounts (i.e. PTO, Vacation, Sick & Personal Preference Day)? 10. Can leave be tracked in quarter-hour increments? 11. Does the system facilitate conversion of one form of leave to another (i.e., sick leave to vacation leave) 20. FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNTS (FSAs), HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS (HSA) 1. Does the system support multiple FSA/HSA accounts? 2. Does the system support notification of third-party FSA/HSA vendors when an employee terminates? 21. UTAH RETIREMENT SYSTEMS (URS) & RETIREMENT PLANS 1. Provide an overview of system s ability to calculate and generate contributions to Utah Retirement Systems (state defined benefit and defined contribution pension system) and to support other retirement plan features. 2. Describe how years of service are managed in the system. 3. Describe how the system exports 401(k), 457 and 401(a) enrollment/change data to a ready-to-send file that can be transmitted to record keeper/trustee on a weekly basis or at initial enrollment. 4. Describe how the system manages 401(k), 457 and 401(a) contribution and demographic changes from third-party vendors. 5. What types of information can the system provide to third-party retirement plan vendors regarding address changes, terminations, etc? 6. Explain how the system will enable the County to handle employee loans against retirement plans, where permitted, including repayment through payroll deductions. 7. Will the system alert to an employee who has an unpaid loan balance at termination? 8. Explain how the system handles maximum IRS allowable annual contributions both regular and catch-up. How is this maximum changed as IRS maximums change? 9. Describe how the system calculates IRS maximum allowable contributions when participant chooses to contribute in both pre-tax and after-tax plans.

10 10.Describe how we can adapt the system to support multiple categories for contributions to Utah Retirement Systems Tier I defined benefit pension program and new Tier II defined benefit/defined contribution pension program? 22.COBRA 1. Describe how the system supports generation of required COBRA notices at the time of hire, upon certain life event changes and at termination? 2. Does the system support calculation of premium for COBRA-eligible benefits? 3. How will the system notify COBRA enrollees about open enrollment? 23.POSITION MANAGEMENT\POSITION CONTROL 1. Describe how the system is set up to be managed by position. What characteristics can be attached to the position? (safety sensitive, exempt vs. non-exempt, etc.) 2. How is status for each position maintained in the system? 3. What information associated with the employee is controlled by the position? 4. Will the system enable us to track positions currently open including those budgeted now, in the future, and in the past? 5. How can we track positions that are underfilled with an employee at a lower level than the position status? 24. PAYROLL 1. Describe the system s payroll functionality. 2. Explain how changes are tracked and viewed throughout the system. 3. Describe tools/features available for employees to submit inquiries on their pay and history. 4. How does the system create an audit trail for payroll changes?

11 25.EARNINGS 1. Are there limits to the number of account codes, project codes, job codes or earning codes that can be established in the system for each position or employee? 2. Can specific earnings be scheduled for a specific future payroll cycle? 26.DEDUCTIONS/BENEFITS 1. When a change is made to an employee s benefit election via self-service (e.g., single- to family-coverage), how does the deduction amount get changed in payroll or other systems? 2. How does the system recover deduction amounts that have been withheld from an employee s pay? 3. Does the system calculate garnishments based on the state and federal calculation rulings and guidelines? 27. CALCULATING PAY 1.Where is gross pay calculated (i.e., payroll or time and attendance system)? 2.Can there be multiple gross pay calculations (i.e., one for 401(k) match purposes, one for URS contribution purposes and one for pay calculation)? 3.Describe how the time and attendance system is integrated into the calculation of pay. 4.Describe how an out-of-cycle check or direct deposit is calculated and processed. 5.Describe how time without pay and partial pay are calculated by the system. Include exempt and non-exempt. 6.Describe how pay is calculated for new hires and terminations. 7.How does the system handle acting pay when an employee is filling in for another employee who is out on extended leave? 8.Describe how adjustments to exempt salaries are calculated, particularly partial pay.

12 28.TAXES 1. Describe resources provided to the firm s customers on tax regulations and tax rates at the federal, state, and local levels? How do customers access this information? 2. Has the firm has developed its own tax calculation system or does it use another firm s tax calculation system? If the firm uses another firm s tax calculation system, explain how it integrates with the payroll system. 3. Does the firm provide full tax filing processes? 29.PAYROLL TIME ENTRY 1. Explain how employee timesheets can be entered on-line. 2. Is a time and attendance system fully integrated with the payroll system? 3. How are these timesheets approved? What is the associated workflow? 30.PAYROLL PROCESSING 1.Describe the process, steps, and time required for running payroll. 2.Describe situations that cause downtime for other areas of the system when payroll is processing. 3.Describe the audit process for each payroll. 4.Describe year-end processing in the system. 5.Describe the adjustment process for a typical payroll. How are quarter-end and year-end adjustments processed? 6.What is the process for re-running a payroll? 7.What payroll reports cannot be accessed while payroll is running? Why? 31.GENERAL LEDGER AND LABOR ALLOCATION 1. Describe how data elements from the HRIS system can be extracted for feeds into the general ledger system. 2. Are all fields available? What formats are supported for data retrieval and reporting? 3. Describe how the proposed system will support multi-tier labor allocations to post actual employee cost by account code and/or job code to the

13 general ledger. This includes the allocation of wages, employee and employer taxes, and employee and employer deductions and benefit costs. 4. Is there a limitation to length, character segments of a general ledger account number? 5. What setup is required for integration (i.e., import and exports)? 6. Explain how the system would allocate costs by different organizational levels and projects. 7. Describe how the system handles employees with multiple rates of pay, job codes, grant-funded programs or other assignments. 8. Describe how the system recognizes overtime for employees who work across various divisions or departments within the same work week. 32.TIME AND ATTENDANCE 1. Describe the Time and Attendance functionality. 2. Does the system allow for daily time entry? 3. Is there a workflow for routing employee time for approval? 4. Does the system include a leave management feature? 33. HISTORY AND CONVERSION 1. Explain the kinds of historical information the system maintains, including any archived records. 2. What would the process be for bringing historical County data into the system? Are there any fees associated with this process? 3. Describe opportunity to connect or re-import data from County s legacy systems, if necessary. 4. How is system performance affected by the growth or volume of the historical records? 5. Define the historical information the system maintains and how long it is available to the firm s customers.

14 34. EMPLOYEE SELF-SERVICE 1. Provide an overview of the system s employee self-service functionality. 2. Explain how the employee self-service feature will assist in the communication between the County and employees. 3. What types of information can be made available to County employees through self-service? 4. Can former employees retain access to the system for historical pay, tax and other records, as defined by the County? 35. MANAGER SELF-SERVICE 1. Provide an overview of the system s manager self-service functionality. 2. Describe how managers are limited to information for only employees under that manager s direct supervision (or within their downline organizations). 3. Describe to what level access to information can be controlled (e.g., screen, field, etc.). 4. What employee data is a manager NOT able to access and do County administrators control? 5. Describe how managers can create and save their own reports. 36. SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION 1. Explain the delivered capabilities for a system administrator to manage the system after installation. 2. What limitations would a system administrator have in a hosted or SaaS environment? 3. Can the County have multiple system administrators? (i.e., one administrator for each module) 37. WORKFLOW OF ALL PROCESSES 1. Describe the workflow capabilities delivered with the system. 2. Describe the workflow setup including where any custom programming is required. Are there any predefined workflow processes? If so, how many are delivered as standard? How much flexibility does the County have in building workflows? 3. Are there multiple levels of approvals for the workflow? (i.e., job requisition, time entry, budget approval, performance appraisals)

15 4. Describe the ability to configure notifications upon hire/termination via both and APIs to external business partners to enable automated business workflow orchestrations. 5. What tools are available to enable workflow in the system? 6. Is there any limit to the number of approvals an action can go through? Can there be different workflow/approval paths based on reason or if/then else logic of a change (e.g. over threshold, level of person requesting the change)? 38. REPORTING 1. Provide a brief overview of the canned reports and the reporting tools and how they are integrated with the HRIS system. 2. Are all data elements in the system easily accessible for reporting purposes? 3. Does the system have point-in-time reporting capabilities for historical recapture? 4. Describe the ability for users to create workforce alerts (e.g., reminders, reports, etc.). 5. Describe the ad-hoc report writer that is delivered with the system. 6. Do hosted clients and non-hosted clients have the same ad-hoc and web reporting capabilities? 7. Does the system support links to external websites? 8. Discuss how a non-technical user can obtain reports from the system without assistance.

16 39. DATABASE 1. What databases does the system support? 2. Describe the vendor and client responsibilities in maintaining and managing the database(s). 3. Does the system allow for backups with no downtime? Does it allow for backups to be unattended? When are backups completed (i.e. time of day)? 4. Describe the ease and flexibility for extracting data from the database(s). 5. Are clients provided with a data dictionary? 6. How does the system handle multi-user contention or concurrency? 7. Does the system allow direct access to the data by permitted County users?

17 40. SECURITY 1. Describe the proposed system s application-level security. 2. Does the system use a secure connection, if hosted? If so, please explain the security model used. 3. Does the proposed system support single sign on and does it provide integration with County s directory, LDAP, e-directory or Active Directory? 4. Is the security role-based or user-based? 5. How are the users and security roles administered? 6. What is the application authentication process? What methods are used to authorize users? 7. Can users have more than one security profile? 8. Does the system allow for global security policies (e.g., number of invalid attempts before reset, time outs)? 9. How is validation for forgotten passwords processed when an employee locks out or has forgotten log-on information? 41. CUSTOMIZATION 1. Describe the delivered tools and methods required to customize the system. 2. Can the County perform these customizations or does the firm need to modify the system? 3. Describe customer configuration vs. vendor customization for system. 4. Can the County customize the look and feel (e.g., logos and colors) in the system? 5. Describe the ability of the County to label fields and reports for its needs. 6. How are customizations preserved during any system updates? 7. What is the effect of future upgrades on any County customizations? 8. Explain the ability to configure data entry screens and to create new inquiry screens.

18 42. IMPLEMENTATION 1. What is the process for effectively managing implementation? 2. How long is a typical system implementation? 3. Describe the typical implementation project team. Who is the primary point of contact during implementation? 4. Describe the approach to identifying, managing, mitigating, and tracking of project risks. Provide a sample risk mitigation plan. 5. Describe the issues management approach and plan. 6. During the implementation process, do the firm s consultants assist with process improvement and/or best practices? Provide examples. 7. What County resources are needed for implementation? 8. What is the process for moving from implementation to customer maintenance? 9. How long does the implementation team stay with client before transferring to the firm s customer service? 43. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (SYSTEM-SPECIFIC TRAINING) 1. Provide an overview of the firm s training programs and delivery methods. 2. Is there a test or demo database for future new employee training? 3. Is there a cost associated with training for customers during or after implementation? 4. What ongoing customer training is available? 5. What training materials or resources do you provide to the County? 44. CUSTOMER SERVICE/SUPPORT 1. Provide an overview of the customer support and maintenance services, including levels of support and any associated costs. 2. Do you use the firm s website as a mechanism to provide support to clients? 3. What technologies do you take advantage of to run the firm s support organization? 4. During what hours does the firm provide service and support? 5. How many support centers do you have and where are they located? 6. Is there weekend or after-hour support, when needed?

19 7. How often do you release new versions of the system? 8. Do you have any user groups (regional, industry or national)? 9. Does the County get change information prior to release? 10.Can we decline to upgrade to new releases? 11.What is the test process for new versions? 12. How do you determine and prioritize changes and new features in the system? 13.What is the migration process, if any, in upgrading to new versions? 45.CLIENT REFERENCES 1. Provide client name, contact name, address, and phone information of at least five current client references, preferably other governmental clients of similar size. At least two references should be government agencies. At least one reference should have converted to the firm s system within the last 12 months. Include one local reference, if possible. 2. Provide reference information on three former clients, at least one of whom has left within the last 12 months. Include reasons why each of the three ceased to be a client.