New to NAU FAQs

Visit the New Employee Welcome training page for more information.

No, you will not be able to enroll in benefits until your first day of employment.  You will enroll in your voluntary benefits such are health care through LOUIE Self-Service. You will not have access to the enrollment page until your new hire paperwork is completed and you have been added to LOUIE system.

Your employment category was included in your offer letter.

Regular employees can enroll in voluntary benefits such as health care, flexible spending accounts, and life and short-term disability insurance.

Visit the Benefit Eligibility Chart for details on each benefit.

Yes. You and your eligible dependents can enroll in NAU’s medical, dental a vision plans.

Dependents are defined as: Your legal spouse (opposite sex or same sex) or your and/or spouse’s children.

A “child” is defined as: Biological children, legally adopted children or children placed for adoption, Children under legal guardianship substantiated by a court order, Foster children, Children who are entitled to coverage under a medical support order and Disabled child who continues to be disabled as defined by §42 USC 1382c before age. 

No, NAU does not offer domestic partnership coverage. Please visit the Dependent Eligibility page for more information about the definition of a dependent.

All regular benefit eligible employees are required by State of AZ mandate to enroll in a primary retirement plan.

There are a few exceptions. Postdoctoral scholars, some international employees are not eligible to enroll in a Primary Retirement plan.

Visit the benefit eligibility chart.

Only faculty and appointed staff have the choice of Primary Retirement Plan.

• Faculty and appointed staff can choose between the ASRS or ORP.
• Classified employees are automatically enrolled in ASRS.

Newly hired employees who are age 65 or older may be able to opt out of ASRS membership. To be eligible to opt out, a person must:

• Become employed after the person is at least 65 years old,
• Not be an active, inactive, or retired ASRS member,
• Not be receiving long term disability (LTD) benefits and,
• Not have any credited or prior ASRS service.

To opt-out, an eligible person must make the election in writing within 30-days of employment, not 30-days from becoming ASRS eligible (if different than the first day of employment). The election is irrevocable and constitutes a waiver of all benefits under ASRS.

Complete the 65+membership waiver form and return to nauhrbenefits@nau.edu in the first 30-days of employment to opted out of ASRS. 

Part Time Faculty and Temporary Employees can become eligible for retirement if they work at least 20 hours a week for at least 20 weeks in a fiscal year. You will only be enrolled through the remainder of the fiscal year. More information about the ASRS 20/20 Rule can be found on our website.

Per Arizona Revised Statute [A.R.S.§ 38-711(23)(b)] the ‘20/20 rule’ states that part-time faculty or part-time temporary employees who work 20 or more hours per week for 20 or more weeks (either consecutively or sporadically) in the current fiscal year are required to participate in a mandatory retirement plan for the remainder of the fiscal year.

NAU utilizes a report called the ‘20/20 Report’ to track the hours worked for part-time faculty or part-time temporary employees each pay period in accordance with the 20/20 rule.

Who is eligible for the supplemental retirement plans?

Supplemental retirement plans are available to all employees. Deductions will be taken from your primary job.

457 and 403b contributions are taken on your primary position, if you would like to contribute to a different or additional position, please contact the Benefits Team. 

Yes! The Benefits Team uses the information on the ‘Benefit Disclosure Form’ to determine if your service from another employer or previous NAU employment will affect your NAU benefits.

Transferring your benefits from one state agency/university is a manual process that involves both NAU and your former agency/university and can take time.

• The process begins when you submit the ‘Benefit Disclosure Form’ to nauhrbenefits@nau.edu.
• Once your ‘Benefits Disclosure Form’ is received, a member of the Benefits Team will reach out to both you and your former agency/university.
• NAU Benefits will submit a form to the former agency/university to verify your previous enrollments.
• Once NAU Benefits receives verification of your previous benefit enrollment, you will be enrolled in the same plans unless you want to enroll in plans not offered to you previously, such as the NAU PPO or NAU HDHP.
• Your benefits are normally effective on your date of hire.
• If your benefits at your previous employer are still effective on your hire of hire your NAU benefits will begin the first date after your previous coverage end.

You have 31 days to enroll in your voluntary benefits. If you do not enroll by the deadline, all benefits except basic life insurance will be waived.

Your coverage is effective the first day of the pay period after a completed enrollment.

2024 Example:

• Enrollment submitted 08/30/2024
• Coverage is effective 09/02/2024
• First deduction is with the pay received on 09/20/2024, which is for the pay period of 09/02/2024 through 09/15/2024.

View the Benefit Effective Dates to determine YOUR coverage effective date.

To enroll in benefits, you must have your new hire packet (which includes your I-9) and an ePAR (the form that tells the payroll system your title, salary, start date etc.) loaded to the payroll system.

• Once both of those items are loaded, a process behind the scenes needs to run to open your new hire benefits event in LOUIE.
• Also, once you are activated in our payroll system, you will receive an email from the Benefits Team with information on how to enroll in your benefits, your benefit options, and links to benefit videos, etc.

If you do not enroll by the deadline, all benefits except basic life insurance will be waived.

Your next opportunity to enroll will be during Open Enrollment or if you have a Qualified Life Event such as marriage or birth of a child.

Visit the Qualified Life Events page for information on what is considered a QLE, the effective date for each event and how to submit your QLE request form.

Your enrollment information will be sent to the vendor on the date your benefits are effective.

• It takes several days before your enrollment is shown on the provider’s eligibility portal.
• Once on the portal, you can register for an account with the vendor and print a temporary ID Card.
• The vendor will then mail your ID to your home address in LOUIE within 2 weeks.
• If you need to seek service prior to receiving your ID card, contact Human Resources for assistance.

Visit the Vendor Contact webpage which includes the provider’s website address and customer service phone number.

Reach out to the Benefits Team at NAUHRBenefits@nau.edu and please allow 48-72 hours to manually update your eligibility in the vendors system.

You can update your address through LOUIE. Please keep in mind that all mail is sent to your address listed as Home. If you need to update your address for Fidelity retirement, please contact the Benefits Team to make that update.

Faculty and Appointed Staff have within 30 days of eligibility to make your retirement election. Classified staff are automatically enrolled in ASRS and do not need to make a retirement election.

You will make your retirement election through the online retirement election form.

If you do not make an election within the 30 days of your hire date you will be automatically enrolled in ASRS.

No, you will automatically be enrolled in the Arizona State Retirement System. You will need to setup an account by following the steps below:

• Visit myASRS online registration
• Provide the information requested
• Enrollment Code: 4UQ00059
• Select ‘Northern Arizona University’ from the drop-down list
• Follow the instructions provided.

For help, call ASRS at (800) 621-3778

If you do not make a Primary Retirement election, you will be defaulted into the Arizona State Retirement System.

You cannot change your primary retirement plan election unless your eligibility changes.

• If you change from Classified Staff to Faculty or Appointed Staff you will have the choice between ORP and ASRS.
• If you change from Faculty or Appointed Staff to Classified Staff and were enrolled in the ORP your Primary Retirement plan enrollment will automatically be changed to ASRS.

If you enroll in ASRS your contributions will begin effective:

• New Members: the first day of the pay period following 183 days of continuous service.
• Current Members: at your date of hire if you have an active retirement account.
• Forfeited Members: at your date of hire if you forfeited your account less than two years ago.

If you enroll in the ORP your contributions will be effective the first day of the pay period following your election. 

No, your ASRS benefit will remain in your ASRS account until you leave the university or retire. Your service while an ASRS member does count toward your vesting service with the ORP.

Both the ASRS and ORP are 401(a) primary retirement plans. ASRS is a defined benefit (DB) plan and the ORP is a defined contribution (DC) plan.

• Visit the Retirement Plan Comparison.
• Visit the ORP Guide.
• Visit the ASRS retirement plan comparison and video.

Your retirement election will include choosing either Fidelity or TIAA as your investment manager. Both Fidelity and TIAA offer a broad array of investment options from which you can choose. You can also contact NAU’s representatives with Fidelity and TIAA with questions. Visit the Vendor Contact webpage for their contact information.

Review Optional Retirement Plan Guide for information on the investment options.

You are able to enroll or change your 403b or 457 accounts at any point during the year.

You may start, stop or change your contribution amount anytime. Fidelity is the administrator for the 403(b) plan, and you enroll or make changes to your contribution amount at netbenefits.

Review the 403(b) Enrollment Instructions.

You may start, stop or change your contribution amount anytime. Nationwide Retirement Solutions is the administer for the 457(b). Contact Randall Neis, Retirement Specialist (480) 213-4157 to enroll or make changes to your contribution amount.

Yes, you can contribute up to the IRS annual maximum each calendar year to each plan. For 2023 $22,500 is the contribution maximum. If you are age 50 or older, you can make up to an additional $7,5000 in catch-up contributions.

No, the IRS maximum is a personal maximum not a plan maximum. You should subtract the $5,000 from the current IRS maximum to determine how much you can contribute to the NAU 403(b) plan.