UUA Office of Church Staff Finances
Guided by the values of our faith,
we equip congregations for excellence as employers
and their staff for financial competence and well-being. |
Compensation and Staffing News |
April 2023
Benefits Tune-up Month! |
Editor's Note
Dear Readers,
We delayed Benefits Tune-up Month this year (usually in February) to get on the other side of the UU Retirement Plan transition from TIAA to Empower. Not unexpectedly, we're still smoothing out some administrative wrinkles and providing an extra level of support to Plan Admins. (See Jackie's article below.) Nevertheless, the 6th edition of the Benefits Tune-up Workbook is now ready for your use!
As a reminder, please keep us apprised of changes to staff and lay leader information:
Faithfully, |
Jan Gartner, Compensation and Staffing Practices Manager |
This April, Shower Your Staff With Care
It's Benefits Tune-up Month!
Thank you for making our high-quality, values-based benefits available to your employees. Offering benefits helps you to attract and retain excellent staff and is a way of practicing justice, equity, and compassion within your walls. In offering UUA retirement and/or insurance benefits, you're making a commitment to honoring the terms of our Plans, which comply with federal laws and represent our Association’s obligations to our Plan providers.
Every year, we update our Benefits Tune-up Workbook, one of the most popular resources offered through the Office of Church Staff Finances. It is designed to help you:
- Understand the basics of our insurance and retirement plans,
- Ensure that you have good protocol in place for benefits administration,
- Check that your internal documents and policies are consistent with Plan rules, and
- Confirm that all is in order or be alerted to necessary adjustments.
We urge all participating congregations to complete the Workbook annually – or whenever a new staff member or lay leader becomes responsible for helping administer these benefits for your employees. Thank you for showering your staff with care. In doing so, you are helping to ensure that your relationships with your employees will flower in the months to come.
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Congregational Funding for Clean Energy Projects
From Rachel Myslivy, UUA Climate Justice Organizer
Have you and your staff been talking about how to reduce your congregation's carbon footprint? The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes a 30% direct pay option for churches and nonprofits to implement clean energy projects and battery storage. You can also leverage IRA funds by taking advantage of UUA funding options.
There are many ways to approach IRA funding. Energy efficiency upgrades in our buildings improve air quality, community health, wellness, and resilience, all while saving money and reducing emissions. Congregations can install solar with battery storage to offer our buildings as hubs of community resilience, providing shelter during severe weather or power outages. The federal funding provides UUs opportunities to reduce emissions, build resilience, and strengthen our communities.
We encourage congregational leaders and staff to advance climate justice and build our capacity to faithfully respond to these opportunities!
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Retirement Plan Transition: Tips and Reminders
From Jackie Toone, Retirement Plan Employer Liaison
Thank you for your patience as we all adjust to new procedures. We're working hard to make sure that Plan Admins can get up to speed as quickly and confidently as possible.
Plan Admins received a comprehensive email this past Friday that included a wealth of information - critical reminders, common errors, and how to connect with Empower in order to process Cash files. Here are a few highlights:
- Empower has sent versions of the Cash and Empdata files via email. Please use the files found in our Plan Admin and Remitter Resources in Knowledge Base as they are better optimized for our plan. You can use the "How do I enroll an employee" and "How do I remit contributions" answers for the files and additional information.
- After uploading your employee data information and/or your cash file, you may receive errors in the "Pending Contributions" tab on the PSC. To review common errors and means of correcting them, see the Common Errors page in our Knowledge Base.
- Make sure to call Empower’s Assist Line (800) 695-4952 prior to attempting to upload and process your first cash file; they need to remove the hold on each location’s account before you can successfully remit contributions via file.
- We are still waiting for the recorded videos from the Empower Training Webinars. We'll send them out as soon as they are available.
The transition to Empower involves big changes that we know will ultimately serve you and your staff well. Leaders, please extend an extra dose of gratitude to your congregation's Plan Admin(s) today! I hope to see some of you at my Office Hours.
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