Automating Benefit Enrollments

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to create and trigger events through the Intelligent Service Center for Global Benefits.

Intelligent Service Center

The Intelligent Service Center (ISC) enables users to trigger Intelligent Service Events when employee’s employment data changes from a new hire, rehire, termination, or job transfer. It automatically creates benefit enrollments, deduction records, or exceptions based on the employee’s eligibility and certain criteria. The automation of these events reduces the effort spent on creating benefit exceptions and simplifies the user experience.

When the Intelligent Services Center is triggered by a new hire, rehire, termination, or job transfer in Employee Central, an Intelligent Service Event is triggered. The Benefit Event Determination executes the attached rule with the list of Benefit Work/Life events to be processed for the event. All templates defined by the Benefit Life Event Configuration that contains the Benefit Work/Life Events determined by the rule will now be executed and processed by the system. The Benefits Event Log records the entire transaction to know whether the processing was successful or not.

For more information about the Intelligent Service Center, an Intelligent Services Overview guide is available in the SAP Help Portal.

Automating Benefits Enrollment for a New Hire

When an employee is hired, you can configure Global Benefits to trigger an Intelligent Service event that will automatically create benefit enrollment, deduction records, or benefit exceptions for the employee based on certain criteria. Typically, with Global Benefits, an employee who is eligible to enroll in benefits can only do so during the Open Enrollment period. Any changes that must be made outside of this defined period are not allowed unless there is a qualified work/life event, which creates a benefit exception to allow the employee to enroll into eligible benefits. In the scenario when an employee is hired, the benefit exception creation can be automated using Intelligent Services.

Employees can change their benefit enrollment outside of open enrollment periods if they experience a life event, such as childbirth, legal adoption, change in marital status, and so on.

Employees can report their life events using the Report a Life Event form. The life events that can be reported are based on the company or local regulations. On submission and approval of a life event, the system triggers the process to automatically create, update, end enrollments or create benefit exceptions.

The types of Benefits-related tasks that can be automated include:

  • New Hire
  • Rehire
  • Termination
  • Job Transfer
  • Dependents Loss of Coverage

Configure Benefit Enrollment Automation for the New Hire event

In this exercise, you will perform the steps to enable the automation of benefit enrollment when a new employee is hired. This includes setting up the New Hire event in the Intelligent Services Center, configuring a rule to trigger the new hire event, and adding the Benefit Work/Life event for new hires. Next, you’ll create a Benefit Event Determination and a Benefit Event Determination Rule. You will also create two rules that we will use in the New Hire Work/Life event. Finally, you will create the New Hire Work/Life Event, incorporating all the elements you just created.

Task 1: Grant the necessary permissions to the Intelligent Services Center

Steps

  1. Grant permissions to the Intelligent Services center for members of the System Admin role.

    1. Use the Action Search to open Manage Permission Roles.

    2. Select the System Admin role.

    3. Select Edit.

    4. Select Next.

    5. Scroll to Administrator Permissions→Intelligent Service Tools.

    6. Enable Intelligent Services Center (ISC).

  2. Grant permission to the MDF OData API.

    1. Scroll to Administrator Permissions→Metadata Framework

    2. Enable Admin Access to MDF OData API

    3. Select Next.

    4. Select Save.

Task 2: Create a New Employee Hire Flow

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Set up the New Hire Event in the Intelligent Services Center.

    1. Use the Action Search and search for Intelligent Services Center (ISC).

    2. Select Employee Hire.

      A screenshot of the Intelligent Services Center page showing a list of employee-related events, such as time off and change to location, among others, as well as their publishers (Employee Central and Job Builder) and the number of times the event has been raised in the past 7 days.

    3. Select New Flow.

    4. Enter New Employee Hire Flow.

    5. Under Employee Central, select New Hire Event Subscriber for Benefit.

    6. An activity appears with Subscriber, Activity, Recipient, and Timing.

    7. Set TIMING to When event is published.

    8. Select Save Flow.

      A screenshot of the Employee Central: Employee Hire page. Under the Employee Central panel on the side of the screen, New Hire Event Subscriber for Benefits is selected. The main screen displays two sections: When Event is Published and On Effective Date. Under On Effective Date, the user has configured the settings for Subscriber, Activity, Recipient, and Timing.

Task 3: Change the business configuration to trigger the New Hire event.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Change the business configuration for the jobinfo model to trigger the New Hire event.

    1. Navigate to Manage Business Configuration.

    2. Select the HRIS element jobInfo.

    3. Select Take Action→Make Correction.

    4. Scroll to the bottom to Trigger Rules.

    5. Add a new trigger rule by selecting the dropdown menu on the last Base Object in the list.

    6. Set the Base Object to Job Information Model.

    7. Set the Event Type to onPostSave.

    8. Set the Rules field to:EVENT_NEWHIRE (SAP_EVENT_NEWHIRE).

      The Trigger Rules section. As explained in the text, the user has made a selection in the following dropdowns: Base Object, Event Type, Rules, and Enabled.

    9. Make sure that the Enabled field is set to Yes.

    10. Select Save.

Task 4: Create a New Hire Work/Life event

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Create a Benefit Work/Life event.

    1. Use the Action Search and search for Benefits Admin Overview.

    2. Select Create New→Benefit Work/Life Event.

    3. Enter the following information:

      • Event Code: NEWHIRE
      • Effective Start Date: 01/01/1900
      • Benefit Event Name: New Hire
      The screenshot shows the section entitled Benefit Work/ Life Event: New Hire ( NEWHIRE). The Event Code, Start Date, and Benefit Event Name fields have been completed. The text gives the details.

    4. Select Save.

Task 5: Create a Benefit Event Determination and a Benefit Event Determination rule.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Create a Benefit Event Determination for the New Hire Work/Life Event.

    1. Select Create New→Benefit Event Determination.

    2. Enter the following information:

      • System Event: New Hire
      • Benefit Events Determination Rule: NewHire
      • Apply Rule to All Legal Entities: Yes
      A screenshot of the Benefit Event Determination shows data added to the fields. The text gives more detail.

  2. Create a benefit event determination rule that takes effect if the benefit event is NEW HIRE.

    1. Select the Select Rule icon next to the Benefit Events Determination rule.

    2. Expand Benefits Management.

    3. Select Determine Benefit Work Event and enter the following:

      • Rule Name: New Hire

      • Rule ID: NEWHIRE

    4. Select Continue.

    5. Scroll to the If section of the rule and hover over the header.

    6. Select the Always True checkbox.

    7. Under Then, select Edit Expression.

    8. Select the dropdown list and choose Add To.

    9. Use the Object Type dropdown list to select Event Determination Rule Result → List of Benefit Events.

    10. Under Entries, leave the Value field selection unchanged.

    11. From the second dropdown list, select NEW HIRE (NEWHIRE).

    12. Select Save.

Task 6: Create exception rules for the new hire work/life event

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Create an Exception Window Rule that allows new hires to enroll within 30 days of hire, using the rule scenario Configure Benefits Enrollment Window Rule via Exception.

    1. Select Create New Rule (+).

    2. Expand Benefits Management.

    3. Select Configure Benefits Enrollment Window Rule via Exception.

    4. Enter the following details:

      FieldValue
      Rule NameNew Hire Exception Window
      Rule IDNew_Hire_Exception_Window

    5. Select Continue.

    6. Set the rule to Always True.

    7. Under Then, select Edit Expression.

    8. Use the Output Type dropdown and select Set.

    9. Set the Left Expression to Exception Window Calculation Rule Result.No of Days.

    10. Set the value to 30.

    11. Select Save.

  2. Create an Enrollment Effective From rule that sets the enrollment effective date as the next pay period, using the scenario New Hire Effective From.

    1. Select Create New Rule (+).

    2. Expand Benefits Management.

    3. Select New Hire Effective From.

    4. Enter the following details:

      FieldValue
      Rule NameNew Hire Exception
      Rule IDNew_Hire_Exception

    5. Select Continue.

    6. Set the rule to Always True.

    7. Under Then, select Edit Expression.

    8. Use the dropdown and select Set.

Task 7: Set up the New Hire Work/Life Event Configuration

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Create the New Hire Work/Life Event Configuration called New Hire Life Event.

    1. Use the action search to to open the Benefits Admin Overview.

    2. Select Create New→Benefit Work/Life Event Configuration.

    3. Enter the data in the following fields:

      FieldValue
      Effective Start Date01/01/2025
      Configuration IDNew Hire Life Event
      Configuration NameNew Hire Life Event
      Benefit Work/Life EventNew Hire (NEWHIRE)
      Legal EntityAce USA
      Exception Window RuleNew Hire Exception Window
      Relevant for Benefit PeriodOngoing Enrollment Period
      BenefitAce Medical
      Effective From RuleNew Hire Effective From
      Exception ForEdit Enrollment
      A screenshot of the section titled Benefit Work /Life Event Configuration. The user has entered the date in the fields and selected options from the dropdowns. The text gives more detail.

    4. Choose Save.

Summary

  • The Intelligent Service Center (ISC) triggers service events when changes in employment happen for automated benefits enrollment.
  • The steps to automate benefits enrollment include enabling ISC, granting administrator access, changing business configurations, and creating various rules and configurations.
  • ISC simplifies the user experience and reduces effort spent on handling benefits exceptions.

Learning

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