New Employee Benefits Enrollment

Getting Started

You are invited to review the Longhorn Employee Orientation (LEO) to learn about your benefits. Your eligibility for benefits will not be determined until you have completed the following onboarding tasks in Workday (please note some of these tasks cannot be completed until your first day of work):

  • Edit Government IDs, if the SSN was not updated by the HR Partner during the Hire process
  • Enter Personal Information
  • Contact Change
  • Benefits Questionnaire
  • Acknowledgement of Waiver of UT SELECT Medical Plan Enrollment (academic graduate student employees only)

If all these tasks are completed by 5 p.m. on any day, you will receive a My UT Benefits enrollment invitation from hrsc@austin.utexas.edu that night. If these tasks are completed after 5 p.m., you will not receive the enrollment invitation until the following night. To ensure you receive the enrollment invitation, please ensure your email address has been added to Workday and hrsc@austin.utexas.edu is added to your email safe list.

Insurance Enrollment

  • You must make your insurance elections within your Initial Enrollment period, which is 31 calendar days from your employment start date.
  • If adding dependents, you must upload Evidence of Eligibility (EOE), which is proof of relationship documentation, for review and approval by Human Resources. EOE must be provided by your Initial Enrollment period deadline.  
  • If you are electing certain higher levels of life insurance for yourself or your spouse, you must complete an Evidence of Insurability (EOI). An EOI is a health questionnaire used by BlueCross BlueShield to make an approval determination about your request for coverage. The online EOI form is available in My UT Benefits and must be completed by your Initial Enrollment deadline.
  • After you make your insurance elections, review your Confirmation Statement in My UT Benefits for accuracy.
  • Insurance premium deductions are displayed on your Workday payslips. Please review your payslips for accuracy and notify the Human Resource Service Center of any discrepancies as soon as possible and no later than 31 days from your pay date.

Retirement Program Enrollment

  • Staff and faculty employed in benefits-eligible positions for at least 20 hours per week for 4 1/2 months are automatically enrolled in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS).
    • Students employed in positions that require student status as a condition of employment are not eligible to contribute. This includes academic graduate student employees. Please see the TRS website for additional resources and information.
  • Employees appointed to certain positions may be eligible to enroll in the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) in lieu of TRS.
    • Employees are notified of their eligibility by the Benefits and Leave Management division of Human Resources via DocuSign. The DocuSign packet provides instructions to successfully enroll in the ORP.
    • Eligibility notices will be sent after Benefits and Leave Management has reviewed each employee’s current position and possible contribution history to make the determination of eligibility. Benefits and Leave Management makes every effort to review and send notices within the first two weeks of employment.
    • Eligible employees must complete ORP enrollment within 90 calendar days of their start date.
      • Employees are encouraged to complete ORP enrollment as early as possible. Until enrollment is completed, employees will continue contributing to TRS. Employees may receive a refund of their TRS contributions but will not receive a refund of the university’s matching contribution.
    • Please see the ORP webpage for additional resources and information.
  • Any UT Austin employee who receives pay may elect to contribute to the UTSaver Voluntary Retirement Programs, including the Tax Sheltered Annuity (TSA) 403(b) and Deferred Compensation Program (DCP) 457(b).
    • UT Saver enrollment is completed in UTRetirement Manager (UTRM). Elections or changes made in UTRM by the 14th of the month are effective for the paycheck received on the first of the following month.

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