When defined benefits pensions were the standard, employees only needed to know the eligibility criteria, the vesting schedule, and the benefits they would get in retirement, and they were good to go. But those times are long gone. The labor market is becoming more competitive every day, so employers must offer equally competitive retirement savings and plans. However, your employees must be able to see their value and know how to use them.
Unfortunately, many employees, especially young workers, don’t understand the value of a workplace retirement plan. To solve that, some organizations have adopted a more holistic approach whereby they focus on overall financial planning and long-term financial health. Additionally, some plan providers created ways of connecting with employees via more robust education materials and gamification features.
This post gives you some practical tips on how you can help your employees better understand retirement savings.
Check the Tools Your Plan Provider Has
Plan providers now realize the importance of educating employees about the benefits of their plans and are now pairing retirement plans with educational programs. Education helps employees understand the plan and its essential value to them.
Therefore, your first step should be to check with your plan provider on educational tools available that can help your employees understand their plans better. For example, online calculators can go a long way in helping your employees estimate their retirement needs.
What Do I Do If My Plan Provider Does Not Help?
If there are no tools from your plan provider to help your workforce understand retirement savings, you can consider creating your own content.
Start by selecting the ideal communication channels such as webinars, in-person events, or printed materials. You might need several delivery methods if your workforce has a varying demographics.
However, in-person education is a preferred method since it allows for immediate feedback. Participants can share their views and ask questions and have them answered immediately.
It’s important to target your message according to the age or career stage of your employees. For example, young employees starting their careers can be educated on the importance of starting saving now. On the other hand, for those nearing retirement, the message can be more focused on adjusting investment strategy and planning retirement income.
When designing your content, use an easy-to-read language, make it interactive and even entertaining. For example, when explaining the plan, simplify abstract concepts using relatable stories and examples.
Create a Benefits Hub
The next thing is to create a benefits hub that brings together all the resources and information about the benefits. That way, your employees can easily access the research options and evaluate the existing education material.
A digital benefits platform such as Benefits Zone allows companies or plan providers to connect participants to any resources. Thus, employees access any information they need conveniently. They can also easily access their accounts and even adjust contributions if the need arises.
Benefits Zone can also be integrated with your enrollment and educational tools, including digital benefits literature, video content, enrollment & HRS systems, and scheduling tools so that employees can conveniently access benefits using their mobile devices.
A benefits toolkit also engages your employees, inviting them to access and educate themselves about the full benefits offering where and when it is appropriate.
Check the Workforce’s Understanding of the Benefit
After educating your employees to understand retirement savings, you need to find out if your efforts are bearing fruits. That is, finding out how much they understand and appreciate this benefit package.
This step is important as it helps you determine the educational resources that might require improvement to help employees understand better. Fortunately, by leveraging the engagement metrics Benefits Zone provides, a company can easily determine areas they need to work on. Contact us to request a demo today.
