Pension e-news

July 22, 2015

Creating a Great Client Experience

Thank you, employers! When the new employer portal goes live later this year, it will incorporate your feedback.

Recently, a group of employers from Alberta Blue Cross, EPCOR, the City of Red Deer, and Workers' Compensation Board had an opportunity to preview the portal and get a hands-on demonstration of its features. These employers were able to flag areas for improvement and give us feedback on how to help make the upcoming transition period from EOS to the new employer portal as smooth as possible.

Employers have had many positive comments about the product and about being a part of these collaborative feedback sessions. We will build on the information we've learned, and we'll continue holding more of these sessions in the future.

The success of the employer feedback process is highlighted in this edition of Pension e-news.

Thanks again for your valuable input!

Troy Diakow
Executive Director, APS Client Services

Employer Portal conversion Focus Group

The launch of the new Employer Portal in the fall will give employers greater control of information, increased flexibility and a choice of data submission formats.

APS is working to simplify the changeover from the current Employer Online Services (EOS) system to the new system.

APS is creating a new Employer Portal tab in Pension e-guide to house support materials they can use for training staff and for ongoing reference purposes. The information addresses all four components of the Employer Portal: Administration; Remittances; Data Collection; and Reports and Documentation.

Employer representatives were invited to a May 27 hands-on demonstration of the first two components of e-guide for the Employer Portal—Administration and Remittances. Obtaining feedback was the primary objective of the session co-presented by Susan L. Smith, Employer Portal Subject Matter Expert, and Raj Boora, Employer Education Representative.

Feedback about the tools and their organization was solicited by such questions as, "Do they meet your needs?", and "How can we improve them?" Additionally, the preview of a "live" version of the Employer Portal and its features also enabled the employers to give feedback about how to make the transition as smoothly as possible, and to identify any features that could be improved.

At the end of the session, consensus among the participants—representatives of such organizations as EPCOR, Workers' Compensation Board, Alberta Blue Cross and the City of Red Deer—was unanimous support for holding a second session to review the final two components of the e-guide—Data Collection and Reports and Documentation.

Standardizing EFT Remittances

Whenever you submit EFT payments via a financial institution, please include your employer number at the beginning of the description before the employer name.

Example: ER###Employer Name
Example: ER100APS
Example: ER001GOA
Example: ER001GovernmentofAlberta

Please also be sure to submit an EFT payment breakdown to the following email address: contributions@apsc.ca

New Employer Portal Browser Requirements

Employers will need to use one of the following browsers to access the new Employer Portal this fall:
Google Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11)
Note: For Mac users, Safari will no longer be compatible in the new environment. Employers can upgrade, or switch to any of the compatible browsers in advance of the launch -- the current EOS will work with all the browsers as well.