About Me

My photo
Nazareth, Pa., United States

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

"Employee Online" at Northampton County Next Year

So let's say you're a Northampton County employee who'd like to retire. Once a year, you get a "Statement of Benefits" that give you a very rough idea of what is coming your way, but it's next to impossible to get anything more specific. One long-time County worker, who is thinking about quitting now, was told she would have to wait until September or October to learn her benefits.

As explained by County Benefits Administrator, Lorena Morley, requests like that go to the County's actuary. This third party doesn't seem to care that employees must wait for months for these answers.

But another Northampton County HR employee, Chris Moakley, tells me there's a solution - Employee Online. It's part of a software package that Fiscal Affairs Director Vic Mazziotti urged on County Council before he retired. It's a web-based system that will enable employees to access their records and make changes. Everything is included, including up-to-the-minute access to benefits via "what if" calculations.

According to Moakley, this portion of the software will be made operational sometime next year.

2 comments:

Guy Williams said...

Okay, I smell an extra county expense.Explain to me Bernie how wrong i am in this time of cost cutting measures to assume this. Especially when put forth by Vic who is very concerned about county expenses.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Believe it or not, "employee online" is part of a software package that replaces the former payroll and will actually save the County $250,000 per year. Now, the County spent money to buy the package. I think it was around $0.6 million, but don't remember the exact figure. So the savings are not seen immediately.