December 15, 2023

Dear NHRS participating employers,

Over the past several weeks, many of our participating employers have reached out to NHRS seeking assistance and/or sharing concerns related to our recent transition to a new employer reporting portal and associated changes to the file layout.

I am writing today to assure you that NHRS does not take your concerns lightly and we are committed to working with our participating employers to address all issues in a timely manner.

The retirement system began the process of upgrading our pension administration software in 2019, replacing the 20-year-old platform we had been using. Because the employer Data Reporting System (DRS) is a component of the upgrade, we have provided employers with regular project updates over the past few years.

We anticipated some issues with a transition of this complexity and dedicated additional staff to work with employers from the start of parallel processing, which entailed reporting in both versions of the DRS in October and November. We also continued to work with multiple payroll software vendors to address file output issues and engaged with our software vendor to review potential programming issues, develop short-term fixes – such as disabling non-critical exceptions – and identify long-term enhancements to relieve some of the pressure on our employers.

While these measures remain ongoing, we recognize that additional steps are required to support our employers.

This week, we implemented a new customer service model and began assigning NHRS staff to work with specific employers dealing with multiple and/or complex issues. The goal is to ensure these employers are getting individualized service and consistency in working through their issues.  In conjunction with this change, we began routing employer calls and emails through our contact center, where issues can be centrally logged, tracked, and assigned to the appropriate employer representative.

We are also setting up exceptions teams within the organization to analyze issues and provide concrete assistance and responses, such as expanded guidance on how to better address multiple payments in the same pay period.

As we continue to work through this transition, employer reporting penalties remain turned off in December – although employers should still submit their data and work through exceptions in a timely manner.

In closing, I want to thank the many employers who worked diligently in the months leading up to the transition and acknowledge the additional time and effort employers are putting in now. Ultimately, we share a common goal: To do right by our members, who are your employees, teachers, and public safety personnel.

Regards,

Jan Goodwin
NHRS Executive Director

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