Retirement Plan Sponsor Site Employee Engagement Resources Can Target Participants, Foster Education

Can plan sponsor site employee engagement resources help close the retirement savings gap? Significant industry studies show that Americans are not saving nearly enough for retirement, and most agree that part of the solution to this pressing financial issue is to ensure employees are engaged with their retirement plans. Plan sponsors shoulder a large part of the burden when it comes to driving participant engagement. Recordkeepers should therefore prepare their sponsor clients with the knowledge and resources needed to drive participant engagement with their plans, including educational materials and data that allow them to measure engagement and assess the efficacy of their efforts. A recent report from Corporate Insight analyzes the employee engagement resources available on major recordkeepers’ plan sponsor websites.

Effective engagement resources are targeted, comprehensive and smartly packaged

The report identifies four best practices for participant-directed educational materials. Recordkeepers should:

1. Provide targeted outreach
2. Make materials engaging
3. Package materials in a way that makes it easy for sponsors to run complete educational campaigns
4. Cover the topics employees care about most

While 75% of firms offer participant-directed resources, they adhere to these best practices to varying degrees in terms of topic diversity and efficacy. Our report also looked at sponsor-directed resources and the specific employee-related topics they cover, such as driving engagement and understanding employee needs. Of the 13 topics identified, five firms (42%) cover at least half of them. Metrics help sponsors understand how their employees are engaging with the resources and services available to them. Half of the firms in this report offer engagement metrics, but only a few firms offer comprehensive selections of engagement data.

Key findings point to industry-wide trends for plan sponsor site employee engagement resources

Our research pinpointed the following key findings related to plan sponsor site employee engagement resources:

• Most firms’ participant-directed resources cover key topics and include targeted, campaign-oriented materials
• Most firms offer sponsor-directed resources but cover different topics
• Half of firms provide engagement data but to varying degrees

Subscribers can read the full report on retirement plan sponsor site employee engagement resources on our client portal. For access, or for more competitive intelligence on the user experience that recordkeepers provide plan sponsors, check out Corporate Insight’s Retirement Plan Monitor – Institutional research service offerings.