Welcome to Employee Empowerment

The office of Employee Empowerment provides employee relations, benefit consultation, conflict resolution, payroll services, training, hiring guidelines and tools, and much more. To find out more about our services, review the menu bar to the left on this screen.

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Benefit and Tax Announcements

Medical and Dental Changes
Your team has been preparing for open enrollment for health insurance. Our primary focus has been reviewing our options for a cost-effective solution with the best coverage for our employees for medical and dental.

George Fox will continue to offer both Kaiser and the Regence health plans. There will be some changes, including both deductibles and premiums. We are continuing to fine tune the details with our vendors as we prepare for open enrollment in February for the plan year beginning April 1, 2018. We appreciate those of you who participated in the benefit survey, as this information has been very helpful as we look at our options.

We will be making final decisions in late January and including a Benefit Fair during this year’s open enrollment. Mark your calendar to join us Wednesday, Feb. 21, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Canyon Commons.

Elective Employee Deferral Limits for 2018
Effective April 1, 2018, the Allegiance Flexible Spending Accounts limits will be:

• Health Flexible Spending Account: $2,650
• Dependent Care FSA: $5,000 (no change)

Effective Jan. 1, 2018, you can increase your TIAA Supplemental Annuity Account contribution at any time by completing the TIAA election form, up to the maximum annual limit:

• Annual contribution limit: $18,500
• Annual catch-up contribution: $6,000 (no change)
• Annual additional amount for 15-plus years at George Fox: $3,000 (no change)

Tax Withholding Table Updates
The IRS has issued new 2018 federal income tax withholding tables and they will be effective for February payroll. Notice 1036 provides information about the changes and can be found at this link. If you’d like to change your tax withholding, visit the George Fox payroll website for the W-4 form.

Please contact Darby Thiessen at dthiessen@georgefox.edu or 503-554-2188 for assistance with these or any of your George Fox University benefits.

Campus Security
George Fox University is concerned about the security of its campus community. In compliance with the Clery Act, we provide our crime statistics and security policies on our Security Services Web page to current students and employees as well as prospective students and employees of the university.