While plan options such as automatic enrollment and target-dated funds have helped to increase plan participation due to their low-maintenance, “autopilot” nature, participants still need to have their retirement plan and its features explained to them by an actual person so that they understand how to invest and save wisely for their retirement years.
According to a recent article in “Employee Benefit News”, there are 10 effective techniques for communicating plan-related information to participants. They include:
• Make it personal: Tools that show participants how their take-home pay is affected, such as online calculators, allow them to more easily grasp the benefits of participating and saving
• Use props: If you are discussing mutual funds at a workshop or meeting with participants, hand out item produced by the companies that the fund invests in
• Get retirees to speak: Having retirees speak to participants can help them to see effective strategies in saving for retirement
• Shift the focus to income: Rather than looking at retirement as accumulating a large, lump sum, have participants focus of how their saving patterns now will dictate a weekly retirement income “paycheck” later
• Get management buy-in: Participation by employees may be boosted if they hear their management explaining why it is important
• Measure it: Survey participants after plan-related meetings to see if the topic discussed was helpful and what other topics should be covered in the future
• Provide food: This simple step could increase attendance at plan-related meetings
• Offer giveaways: Small or raffle items can also draw employees to plan-related meetings
• Make plan-related meetings mandatory
• Use multimedia formats: Presentations that are viewable online can help when you are working with participants based at a variety of locations
NADART can help with these communications needs through our Marketing representatives and Enrollers staff, who can meet onsite at your offices with you and your employees. Through our Plan Information Center, NADART’s Client Relations Advisors can help with questions that cover issues more relevant to plan sponsors and plan coordinators. Our Training staff can provide online presentations on a number of topics of interest to participants, plan sponsors or plan coordinators. Additionally, our Web site features several types of online calculators that your employees can use.
If you would like to learn more about obtaining these services and more via a NADART retirement plan, please contact one of our Marketing representatives at (800) 462-3278, ext. 7161 or e-mail us at nadart401k@nada.org.