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Step 4: Communication and Education

Development of an Employee Communication Plan

Possessing an effective and executable plan to educate your employees on the features and benefits of your plan is one of our many objectives. Having a communication plan helps plan sponsors document ongoing participant communication efforts. In addition, implementing a well-constructed communication plan may often help to meet the approximately 20 steps for 404(c) compliance. We can work with the appropriate representatives of your organization along with the senior marketing and communication staff from your plan provider to develop a customized institutional client communication plan.  This process would generally begin with an examination of the plan participants activity, plan trends, and demographic trends for the preceding 24 months which we would extract from your providers plan reports.  To accomplish your communication and education goals, our team engages in the following processes:

    • Developing customized strategy
    • Identifying needs-based communications
    • Establishing success metrics
    • Incorporating your Provider’s creative talent
    • Preparing enrollment delivery plan
    • Implementing communications strategy
    • Measuring results

We also highly recommend the use of targeted focus groups so that 401k Advisors Intermountain participants get to participate in the creation of the communication plan. The result will be a tailored participant education plan that addresses your employees’ need for understanding investing and their retirement plan. Your customized communication plan will outline an  approach for your organization to address various goals, whether they include:

    • Helping employees understand the benefits of their retirement plan
    • Educating employees on the benefits of participating in the plan
    • Suggesting options to maximize participation
    • Providing information to help increase deferrals
    • Helping to explore appropriate asset allocation
    • Familiarizing employees with the new investments and services
    • Offering ongoing education about retirement planning

Coordinating / Conducting Enrollment Meetings
Because employee education is key to a successful retirement plan, your organization needs an effective education program that is powerful enough to help participants achieve their retirement plan goals. We are dedicated to raising employee awareness about your organization’s retirement plan benefits and will work with you to discover your participant education needs and to help develop the best approach to meet those needs. We will coordinate, conduct, and participate in your interactive enrollment meetings along with your service provider.  The format, method, material used, and timing of the meetings will be guided by the plan sponsor, the custom communication campaign and the provider’s timeline.

Conducting On-Site Investment Seminars
A participant’s understanding of a retirement benefit increases your employees’ loyalty.  As the competition for hiring qualified employees and the demands of maintaining employees' work-life balance often becomes increasingly difficult, being able to provide new non-traditional employee benefits becomes more and more valuable.  As employees’ compensation increases, so do their financial planning needs; as a result, an employee’s financial education needs may extend beyond questions regarding enrollment, participation, and asset allocation. For instance, employees struggle through challenges such as paying for their children’s education. What will you do if an employee asks you for suggestions to help cope with the rising costs of college education? At your discretion, we can provide a valuable benefit to your employees through investment seminars designed to address your employees’ unique needs and challenges and delivered in conjunction with your retirement plan service provider as part of the customized communication campaign.

Monitoring of Communication Plan
The plan sponsor’s communication plan needs to evolve to reflect the changes in your employees’ needs and demographics.  As your organization and employees change, we can provide objective fact based information to assist the committee in ensuring that the plan's communication plan continues to meet the needs of your plan and employees.  We will periodically review the plan’s participant activity and patterns.  Then, with the input from the communication and marketing specialist from your retirement plan service provider, identify deficiencies and an appropriate communication piece to address the concern.  These communication plan reviews generally coincide with the investment committee reviews and are part of our standard agenda.

Actions we have taken with other clients to increase the utilization of provider participant services.
By creating customized education programs for our clients our team has helped companies increase employee deferral rates and plan participation rates.  We cannot stress how important it is that the company, the service provider, and the consultant, all work together to forge the most optimal program for your participants.  Typical communication material which promotes utilization of the plan along with ongoing event-based communications are designed to assist participants in meeting their investment and retirement planning objectives, and includes:

      • Creation of a Dedicated 401(k) work station at each facility complete with computer terminal for participant web access and a telephone with direct connect to the Provider's call center
      • Creation of a Dedicated 401(k) Bulletin Board. (Similar to Minimum wage, OSHA etc. postings)
      • Posters, payroll stuffers, post cards, videos. These tools can be used to help raise plan awareness, increase contributions, increase participation, and more
      • On-Site Enrollment and Education Meetings. We work with each client to create a schedule of meetings that meets its unique needs. These meetings are typically conducted by your providers Retirement Education Consultants, who are located throughout the country. Our team typically coordinate and supervise the meetings
      • Online Retirement Center Website. Besides enabling access to all relevant plan and account information, your providers website also offers articles and summaries on a variety of retirement planning and investing topics, including: asset allocation and diversification, risk and reward, asset categories, measuring investment performance, dealing with market corrections, and distribution choices
      • Retirement Planning Guide. This enrollment kit—which can be customized to each employee’s unique circumstances based on his or her salary, age, and other factors—is a complete educational tool that explains retirement planning, investing, and how to enroll in the plan. Customized Plan Highlights and Morningstar Fund Profiles for each of the investments available through the program are also included. The guide is provided to employees during the conversion process and to newly eligible employees on an ongoing basis.