At RECONNECT 20, Tammy Boyles, PeopleSoft Product Management Director, provided a PeopleSoft Benefits roadmap and update.

Oracle has redesigned its Fluid Benefits platform to reflect its commitment to both simplify navigation while enhancing familiarity and increasing adoption by human resources professionals everywhere.

“Familiarity is important for users, especially employees that don’t go into the system a lot.”

-Tammy Boyles, Product Management Director

During her product demonstration, Boyles highlighted new features. Under the Fluid Benefits Summary for employees, Oracle retained cards and grid view capability, so the dashboard looks similar to when uses go into open enrollment.

How Customers Use PeopleSoft Benefits

Several clients welcomed Fluid’s enhancements. Tracy Sewell serves as president of Oracle’s Public Sector User Group as well as employee benefits manager and PeopleSoft administrator for the county of Ventura in California. The county employs 9,000 people and serves 850,000 residents.

“Implementing Fluid Benefits Enrollment and Summary was easier than we could have ever imagined, and we’ve had nothing but positive responses,” Sewell said.

Ashley Morris, ERP Lead Systems Analyst for Westfield Group in Ohio, said the company implemented the new Fluid Benefits Summary for a better user experience. So far, the updated look and feel makes for a more cohesive environment and mirrors benefits enrollment for a familiar and consistent experience. Plans displayed in cards streamline the view employees have into their benefit and coverage details. Links to contacts and resources in the right-hand panel give employees easy access to important information.

Fluid replaced its left-hand menu with self-service interactive tiles for easier navigation. Benefits Work Center uses the same framework as Payroll and Financials, a change applauded by Tracey Pettit, HRIS program manager at Chelan County Public Utility District in Seattle: “You will love the look and feel of the Benefits WorkCenter.”

What’s New With PeopleSoft Benefits

Employers can configure what information employees see and how they see it, while employees will see many net positives on the platform. For example, employees will notice interactivity in the form of “Action Required” notifications that appear under the Benefits Detail tile, which indicates the user needs to complete a task such as open enrollment.

By clicking the Benefits Summary Tile, employees can toggle card view or grid view, see historical benefits by date, and view benefits after open enrollment has closed down.

Employees can add and update beneficiaries in Supplemental Life Tile, update contributions and beneficiaries for investment accounts, such as 401(k). They will see date and time stamps for open enrollment included, as well as confirmation statements showing they’ve submitted their enrollment paperwork accurately.

As well, employees will now know in the Benefits Enrollment dashboard when they last submitted their information for open enrollment, and statements will be updated automatically — the employee does not have to click the “view” button to confirm.

Boyles noted that the Benefits Administrator Tile will go away in two years and replaced with Benefits Work Center. The work center will offer employers the ability to create search filters according to several criteria. Under the Personalize menu, they can personalize Links, My Work, and relevant reports.

Employers can configure benefit summaries in Fluid’s Benefit Program Table, specifically by browsing under Benefit Plan, selecting Plan Type, and then Options. Under Self-Service Configuration, employers activate certain buttons that display options that allow employees to update dependent information or view the latest insurance deductions.

Queries are now easier to run using the queries field in the left-hand navigation menu. Employers can also add properties to a query without browsing to a different menu. Reports and processes are also accessible via the left-hand navigation.

What’s Coming for PeopleSoft Benefits

Fluid should be adding its Benefits Assistant Chatbot soon, Boyles said. The initial version offers employees the ability to look at plan and dependent and beneficiary information, deduction data from North American payroll, as well as benefits administrator contacts.

Future versions of the chatbot could include adding plan details associated with plan comparison data, Boyles said. For example, if an employee wants to know his or her copay for the enhanced medical plan under Blue Cross Blue Shield, the chatbot could respond with the copay percentage corresponding with that employee’s insurance plan.

AI-based recommendations are also under consideration. Should an employee add a new life event, such as the birth of a child, the chatbot may follow up with recommendations like FSA Dependent Care.

Soon though, employees can begin using the chatbot feature by simply typing a greeting (“Hello”) or a simple question or command (“Tell me about my medical insurance”). During the demonstration, the chatbot successfully answered the latter question by displaying buttons with the employee’s provider name, deduction, and plan. From there, employees can select each button to browse for more specific information or opt to continue chatting with the bot.

For a series of questions about changing beneficiaries and employer contributions to 401(k) accounts, the chatbot responded with buttons that can redirect the employee to the relevant parts of the Benefits dashboard, while being friendly to occasional typographical errors. Boyles said the Chatbot does require a separate license with ODA.

Boyles said Oracle is exploring setting up multiple document upload and approval functionality according to life event type (such as child adoption). Focus groups are discussing other possible enhancements to the document upload capability if an employee wants to add a dependent, update a dependent, upload additional documents for previously approved dependents, showing proof of plan, or waiving coverage.

Fluid does not offer analytics or any data visualization functionality. That could change in Cabana, where employers could soon be able to see valuable insights, such as medical plan breakout by coverage and medical plan migration (i.e. how many people had one insurance carrier in a specific year versus the following year).

Lastly, a table of data comparing various offerings from benefit plans could be added and displayed, so that during open enrollment, employees can price-shop for the best plan much the same way they shop for electronics or groceries.