BerniePortal February Product Updates

At BerniePortal, we are constantly improving our software to fit your HR needs. To keep you in the know, we dish up the latest Bernie Scoop each month — no matter how big or small the update. Here are the 3 BerniePortal product updates released this month that will help streamline your organization’s HR functions.

Customizable Applicant Tracking Emails

BerniePortal’s Applicant Tracking Feature helps streamline your organization’s hiring and recruiting process from beginning to end. Employers can now customize the welcome email applicants receive when applying for an open position. These customizable emails will add a personal touch to your hiring process. 

Applicant Tracking Question Library

Does your organization have standardized hiring questions that you ask every candidate? Under Applicant Tracking settings, employers can preload questions to their library to use when future job postings are created. Less time making job postings means more time to find the perfect candidate.

Employees Can Enroll in Prior Offer Plans

Benefits are one of the most important things that your organization can offer to employees, but they can often be the most complicated to manage. BerniePortal makes it simple to adapt to life changes that affect an employee's benefit elections by allowing employees to enroll in a Prior Offer Plan. This update ensures employees will see the appropriate benefit enrollment options, even if your organization has already begun open enrollment. For more clarity, here are a couple of scenarios when your organization may utilize this update:        

Example 1:

ABC company is going through open enrollment for a March 1st, 2022 effective date. On February 15th, 2022, the employer began open enrollment in BerniePortal, moving the Upcoming Offer to the Current Offer for employees.

Mary is a current employee of ABC company and has exciting news; she had a baby! Mary needs to add her baby to her insurance effective February 22nd, 2022. With this new update, BerniePortal will allow Mary to enroll her baby as a dependent in the "Prior Offer" plan for those last seven days, and as a dependent for the "Current Offer" plan effective March 1st, 2022. 

Example 2:

Again, ABC company is going through open enrollment for a March 1st, 2022 effective date. On February 15th, 2022, the employer began open enrollment in BerniePortal, meaning the plans in Upcoming Offer moved to Current Offer.

ABC Company just went through a hiring period and hired Mary as their new Marketing Coordinator! ABC Company has a 0 day "Date of Hire" waiting period for their benefits, making Mary eligible starting February 22nd, 2022. With this new update, Mary will be able to enroll in the "Prior Offer" plans for a February 22nd effective date and the "Current Offer" plans that are effective with the March 1st, 2022 open enrollment date.

Benefits can get complicated, but BerniePortal's Benefits Administration Feature makes it simple to adapt to these changes. We know not every scenario will be the same so make sure to check out our knowledge base for step-by-step help.