Global Transfer in Benefits

A global transfer indicates the movement of a person's benefits data across legal employers.

For example, you can transfer an employee from the US subsidiary of your company to the UK subsidiary, or to another legal employer in the US. During a global transfer, the application creates a work relationship and assignment under the new legal employer. The application terminates the existing work relationship and all assignments under it as of a day prior to the global transfer date. But it doesn't necessarily terminate the benefits relationship and the related benefits enrollments.

Here are the global transfer scenarios and their impact on Benefits:

Global Transfer Scenarios

Scenario	Impact
Transfer from one legal employer to another within the same country	When a global transfer occurs within the same country, Benefits automatically updates the existing benefits relationship. This means that the current enrollments remain attached to the benefits relationship and there is no need to move or recreate enrollments. In this scenario, you need to verify that the benefits relationship gets updated with the new legal employer and the job, as of the effective date. Checking this is especially important if there are multiple assignments because you might need to modify the assignments attached to the benefit relationships. If the global transfer is within the country where only the legal employer is changing, the benefits are not likely to change. The updates to benefits relationship should happen automatically. If the transfer went through fine on the HR side, but benefits relationship updates fail due to some data issue or other errors, then you can use the Refresh button on the Manage Benefits Relationship page in the Enrollment work area to sync up benefits relationships with the person’s employment information. You can also sync up benefits relationships with the employment information using the Assign and Update Benefit Relationships process on the Processes tab in the Evaluation and Reporting work area.
Transfer from one legal employer to another within the same country with additional attribute changes	Global transfers to another legal employer in the same country can occur with changes to various additional attributes that impact benefits. For example, there can be changes to the manager, job, location, and organization. Some of these attributes might not affect the benefits. But if the worker also has a location change, the benefits could change because the service areas and zip codes could be different. In this case, a life event would be required to enable the worker to reselect his benefits. When the global transfer involves additional attributes, you must reassess the benefits to determine the impact of the underlying changes. For example, the transfer involves legal employer, organization, manager, and job. In this scenario, you might take different actions depending on the impact to the benefits: If you know that none of these attribute changes impacts the benefits, you can consider not allowing the worker access to make changes to the benefits or to reassess the benefits. If you know that there will be an impact to the benefits, such as a change in service area, the best practice is to process a life event, such as Transfer event. This event ensures that the changes are reflected in the Benefits application, and it enables the worker to make new benefit selections.
Transfer from one country to another	Global transfer across countries can result in changes to contracts, compensation, benefits, taxation, and possibly performance and goals. Because the countries are changing, all the current Benefits Relationships are terminated along with the HR assignments. If the global transfer is from one country to another: Benefits end dates the current benefits relationship. A new benefits relationship is created in the new legal employer. You need to run a Transfer event to ensure that the changes are reflected in the Benefits application and all benefits are end dated. You must run a new event to process the employee in the new country’s benefits, if applicable.

Scenario

Impact

Transfer from one legal employer to another within the same country

When a global transfer occurs within the same country, Benefits automatically updates the existing benefits relationship. This means that the current enrollments remain attached to the benefits relationship and there is no need to move or recreate enrollments.

In this scenario, you need to verify that the benefits relationship gets updated with the new legal employer and the job, as of the effective date. Checking this is especially important if there are multiple assignments because you might need to modify the assignments attached to the benefit relationships.

If the global transfer is within the country where only the legal employer is changing, the benefits are not likely to change. The updates to benefits relationship should happen automatically. If the transfer went through fine on the HR side, but benefits relationship updates fail due to some data issue or other errors, then you can use the Refresh button on the Manage Benefits Relationship page in the Enrollment work area to sync up benefits relationships with the person’s employment information.

You can also sync up benefits relationships with the employment information using the Assign and Update Benefit Relationships process on the Processes tab in the Evaluation and Reporting work area.

Transfer from one legal employer to another within the same country with additional attribute changes

Global transfers to another legal employer in the same country can occur with changes to various additional attributes that impact benefits. For example, there can be changes to the manager, job, location, and organization. Some of these attributes might not affect the benefits. But if the worker also has a location change, the benefits could change because the service areas and zip codes could be different. In this case, a life event would be required to enable the worker to reselect his benefits.

When the global transfer involves additional attributes, you must reassess the benefits to determine the impact of the underlying changes.

For example, the transfer involves legal employer, organization, manager, and job. In this scenario, you might take different actions depending on the impact to the benefits:

If you know that none of these attribute changes impacts the benefits, you can consider not allowing the worker access to make changes to the benefits or to reassess the benefits.
If you know that there will be an impact to the benefits, such as a change in service area, the best practice is to process a life event, such as Transfer event. This event ensures that the changes are reflected in the Benefits application, and it enables the worker to make new benefit selections.

Transfer from one country to another

Global transfer across countries can result in changes to contracts, compensation, benefits, taxation, and possibly performance and goals. Because the countries are changing, all the current Benefits Relationships are terminated along with the HR assignments.

If the global transfer is from one country to another:

Benefits end dates the current benefits relationship.
A new benefits relationship is created in the new legal employer.
You need to run a Transfer event to ensure that the changes are reflected in the Benefits application and all benefits are end dated.
You must run a new event to process the employee in the new country’s benefits, if applicable.