Confirming Beneficiaries on Workday
By Luke Lara, FA Ombudsperson
If you are anything like me, you double and triple check everything. Well, I was recently dealing with a financial planner and in preparation for our discussion they asked me if I had designated my beneficiaries. I thought, of course, I did that when I got hired! Nonetheless, they asked me to check.
As you probably know, we have an employee only $100,000 group term life Insurance policy which is 100% District paid. Listing beneficiaries is necessary for the disbursement of the $100K life insurance in the regrettable event that one dies while employed by the college.
Good thing I checked Workday, because I had no beneficiaries listed. I quickly reached out to Briana Schaeffer, Interim Benefits Coordinator/Human Resources Specialist, to find out what had happened. She promptly replied with the Beneficiary Job Aid (accessible through SharePoint) with step-by-step instructions on how to add and/or change beneficiaries. She also informed me that “a beneficiary can be designated at any time.”
So, why did I not have beneficiaries listed? According to the job aid, the district “did not bring over beneficiary information with the launch of Workday. Employees will need to assign their beneficiaries as they see fit.” While the pandemic may have wiped my short-term memory and destroyed my sense of time and space, I don’t think I missed that memo, but maybe I did?
In any case, take a moment to check your beneficiaries on Workday. It only took me five minutes to update and now I can sleep soundly again.
