Employer News: October 2022

The 2022 member data collection (MDC) process is quickly approaching and is an important part of your obligations as a participating employer. This year’s MDC will start on December 12 and run until February 28, 2023 and we’re here to help with support and tips to keep you one step ahead. Completing your MDC in a timely manner ensures that your HOOPP members will receive their annual statement on time, have access to up-to-date and accurate information on HOOPP Connect which can help them to make the best decisions related to their HOOPP benefits.

Here are some ways you can prepare to help the MDC run smoothly: 

1. Review and complete the MDC checklist. It will help you track your progress against key preparation activities.
    
   
2. Complete member events regularly throughout the year. You can do this in batches or as they come up, depending on the size of your organization. Keeping your member records up to date ensures that your employees will receive the most accurate information from HOOPP so they can make the best decisions related to their pension. Completing member events ahead of MDC will also help improve your experience as it will eliminate errors related to unsubmitted member information and allow the process to go more quickly. 
   
   Types of member events that you should keep up to date include:
   • Enrolments – Run a Member Participation report to see if you have any employees who have not yet been enrolled in the Plan. It’s important to make sure new members are enrolled so they receive their enrolment package on time, which includes information on transfer and buyback opportunities that help them build their pension.
   • Terminations – Complete member terminations as they happen to ensure that members will receive a termination package with their options in a timely manner and can make the best decision related to their HOOPP pension.
   • Retirements – Process member retirements to ensure that your employees will receive a retirement package with their options as soon as possible. The sooner a member receives their package, the sooner they can choose a retirement option and start collecting their hard-earned pension.
   • Leaves – Confirm that you have reported all your employee leaves by running the Member Leaves report. Be sure to document employee leaves of absence as they happen, such as health and parental leaves, so your employees will receive free accrual, if applicable, or are able to contribute during their leave if they choose. To ensure that members who are eligible for free accrual do not make contributions toward their pension, make sure to run a Member Disability report to confirm these members.
      
3. Check other outstanding member changes related to status, name, SIN, and more. Make sure to also review and address any secure messages related to reporting member data.

Want to learn more?

We're offering one-hour MDC webinars throughout December and January to walk you through the process and answer your questions. Sign up for a webinar today.

For more guidance on how to prepare for the upcoming MDC, visit the Employer Learning Centre on HOOPP Insight for helpful articles, videos and the MDC checklist.

We’re here to help

To help you meet this important requirement and ensure a smooth MDC experience, we encourage you to use these resources as a guide. If you have questions or need support, please contact your Regional Manager.

At HOOPP, our sole mission is to deliver on our pension promise to our members by providing a secure and reliable retirement income for life. In support of that, earlier this year, we announced a benefit improvement that provides eligible active members with a larger pension and some extra peace of mind. 

As communicated in June, this increase provides members who are active in the Plan on or after January 1, 2023, with a larger lifetime pension for each year of contributory service before 2023. That means eligible members will get even more from their pension! 

Now, members can find out how much their pension is increasing 

Your employees can now visit HOOPP Connect to see a personalized estimate that shows them how much bigger their pension will be.

How much more will a member receive from their lifetime pension once they retire?

Depending on their average earnings and contributory service, eligible members who benefit from this latest improvement could, on average, receive a 15% increase to their lifetime pension. Plus, members who also received the previous improvements announced in 2017 and 2021 could, on average, see a combined increase of 24%. Here are some examples*:

Help spread the word about HOOPP’s benefit improvement

HOOPP’s benefit improvement is good news for your members. To spread the word and help members understand the value of this increase, we have prepared sample content that your organization can share internally and through social media.

HOOPP pension experts are here to help

If members have questions or are looking for more information about the benefit improvement, please advise them to contact HOOPP directly. Our pension experts are here to provide them with the information and resources they need to make the most out of their HOOPP pension. Our Member Services team can be reached at 416-646-6445 or 1-877-43-HOOPP(46677), Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern time. Members can also contact our team via secure messages in HOOPP Connect.

Reminder: If your employees are leaving their employment before January 1, 2023, they might still be eligible for the benefit improvement. For more information about the eligibility criteria, read the benefit improvement announcement.

There’s more good news

In addition, HOOPP’s Board of Trustees approved a 2021 COLA of 4.8% for our retired and deferred members. This valuable benefit will help pensions grow and stay protected against rising costs.

Through your participation in HOOPP, your employees benefit from these enhancements which increases the value of their pension. This helps you attract and retain top talent, reduce costs associated with turnover and build your reputation as a top employer of choice, especially during these difficult times.

If you have any questions about the information contained in this article, please contact your Regional Manager.

*These examples use approximate amounts and assume retirement at age 65 on January 1, 2023.

The current economic conditions have made it more difficult for Canadians to save for retirement, between the impacts of the pandemic, rising interest rates and inflation. With HOOPP, our members can have peace of mind knowing that their pension is secure and stable in the Plan. This is because members’ pensions are managed by our experienced team of investment professionals, meaning they don’t have to make any investment decisions for their retirement income or worry about market fluctuations.

Reaching out to your part-time and non-full-time employees for whom HOOPP is optional is an important part of your responsibilities as a participating employer. And as part of this requirement, we also rely on you to provide all eligible employees with a copy of the HOOPP Handbook within 30 days of hire. By offering HOOPP to part-time and non-full-time employees, you are helping ensure they receive a secure pension that will be there for them when they retire. You also differentiate yourself as an employer of choice by offering a good workplace retirement plan, which positively impacts talent attraction and retention, according to HOOPP-commissioned research. 

We are proud to offer this to all your employees and can provide you with a range of customizable, educational materials and administrative support, including:

• an educational brochure for employees that explains the benefits of joining the HOOPP Plan
• template letters that our team can mail directly to eligible employees as well as emails to inform your employees of their eligibility to join the Plan
• content and images for your intranet site, as well as banners and posters to create awareness and promote HOOPP  
• webinars for employees to learn more about the benefits of joining HOOPP and the opportunity to ask questions

Our team is here for you every step of the way. For support educating, enrolling and communicating with part-time and non-full-time employees or to order educational materials, please contact your Regional Manager. You may also order your materials by completing this online order form. 

To learn more about how your employees can benefit from HOOPP, regardless of their role, or hours worked, check out Joining HOOPP.

At HOOPP, helping your employees make informed decisions about their pension is an important part of the service we offer and the value we provide to your organization. This means proactively providing members with the educational resources, online tools and guidance they need to make the right choices for their personal circumstances. Here are a few key examples.

New online features for retiring members

As a key example, earlier this year, we launched more in-depth information on our Planning for retirement page on hoopp.com, which includes guidance and helpful examples on important things to consider when preparing for retirement. We also launched our new online retirement feature to provide more convenience for our members and to meet their evolving expectations. In addition to the existing option to receive paper forms, eligible retiring members can now conveniently select their retirement options entirely online on HOOPP Connect.

Since the launch of the feature on HOOPP Connect, we’ve seen that: 

• Nearly 96% of eligible retiring members have chosen to use the online feature to complete their retirement elections, rather than submitting through paper forms. 
• The online experience provides members with even more flexibility, enhanced security and convenience as the feature is simple, intuitive and takes significantly less time than traditional mail.

Coming soon: a new, intuitive online experience for eligible members leaving their HOOPP employer 

As a HOOPP employer, you are among 624 healthcare organizations that offer employees a reliable and stable pension in retirement that offers many features, including pension portability. While there are many benefits to staying in HOOPP, members do have options if they decide to leave their HOOPP employer before it’s time to start their pension.

We understand that your employees are your most valuable asset and that healthcare workers often move from one job to another over the length of their career. Offering HOOPP is one of the most valuable benefits you can provide and plays a key role in an employee's decision to join, stay or leave one organization over another. We encourage you and your members to visit hoopp.com where new guidance content is available to help members understand their pension benefits and make the most informed decisions for their personal circumstances.

Through our new online termination feature coming soon to HOOPP Connect, eligible members who are making a career change will be able to review their pension options and submit their election securely and conveniently.

The Bulletin Board is back featuring Employer News that includes reminders, the latest updates and a sneak peek at what’s to come.

HOOPP’s funded status remains strong: We remain committed to keeping our members’ pensions secure. Through the pandemic and resulting market volatility, we have been able to maintain HOOPP’s strong fully funded status, which reflects our ability to pay pensions both now and in the future.

HOOPP’s Board of Trustees is keeping contribution rates unchanged until at least the end of 2024. This allows us to ensure the Plan remains affordable for our members and employers, and provides more Ontario healthcare workers with a secure pension in retirement. HOOPP’s operating costs are also among the lowest of all major pension plans in Ontario.

We are pleased to share that HOOPP has been fully funded since 2009 and has kept contribution rates unchanged since 2004.

Multi-factor authentication coming early next year: The trust of our members and safeguarding their information is very important to us. Having your confidence in the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your employees’ data is too. A key part of securing member’s data is managed through the access of this information from HOOPP Insight, your employer website. As part of our continued effort to safeguard employer and member data, early next year we will be introducing multi-factor authentication (MFA) to HOOPP Insight.

MFA is a simple and effective way to prevent unauthorized account access. Upon launch, you will be required to enter two factors to verify your identity. The first factor is username and password, and the second factor will be in the form of a verification code sent to your email address. As always, we are here to support you every step of the way. For any questions on MFA, please contact your Regional Manager.

Providing member emails upon enrolment: HOOPP is committed to serving our members, keeping them informed and providing them with a pension for life. As we continue to evolve our online services and serve our members digitally, it is important that we have a current email address on file. Upon enrolment, we encourage you to provide a current email address for all your members. Your assistance will help us meet the evolving needs of our membership and help us communicate faster with members through a secure communication channel as we continue to transition to mainly digital member communications.

Employer satisfaction surveys: To help us gain more insight into what our employers’ value most, we work with Pollara Strategic Insights, an independent market research company, who conduct surveys on HOOPP’s behalf. The short client satisfaction survey collects feedback from randomly selected employers to help shape the service we offer. The next survey will be live from November 8 to 29 and will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. If you are selected, the email you will be contacted by is hoopp@logit-group.com. If you are not contacted but would like to share your comments, please reach out and share them with your Regional Manager.

We also regularly conduct member surveys to gain insights on ways to improve our service and communications. If your employees have any questions, please assure them the surveys are authentic and direct them to a HOOPP Member Services Specialist for more information.