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Public Sector Retirement

News & Views | Q4 2020

NAGDCA ANNOUNCES 2020 LEADERSHIP AWARD WINNER

The National Association for Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) awards plans with notable successful
initiatives and strategies each year. This year, NAGDCA’s top award went to the City of Los Angeles, for their Retirement Security
Week campaign, “The Best Plans are With Your Friends.” The campaign’s concept was derived from the observation that peers and
colleagues can be the most effective influencers of retirement plan participation. Employees and plan participants had access
to interactive exercises and challenges designed to engage or re-engage with the plan. The City measured results include a 57%
increase in enrollments compared with the prior year. The NAGDCA press release for the award can be found here. More information
about all award winners will be available later this year.

TECHNIQUES FOR INCREASING ENROLLMENT

Leadership awards in 2019 showed a number of themes for enrollment increases – including new enrollments and contribution
increases. Plan sponsors can learn from one another and apply techniques that make sense for your plan, with the objective of
experiencing some of the same successes others have seen.

So, what are some of the most successful strategies? You can start by simplifying the enrollment process. Providers can offer
online enrollment, and employees can direct contributions to the plan’s default investment (often, the age-appropriate Target Date
Fund) to make investment selection easier. A focus on the benefits of participation can help participants understand the long-
term value of getting started and envision their own financially secure retirement. Be sure to include information about the value
of increasing deferrals, too. Get to know your audience, and target messages to appeal to different factions of your employee
population. Use a multi-channel approach to deliver a variety of formats and content. Targeted messages to different audiences
and multi-lingual material may be great ways to reach new participants. Entertaining, theme-oriented messages may be especially
attractive! Partner with your plan provider(s) so that employees know who to ask for information and other needs. Develop
campaigns together and attend benefit fairs, education and other events so that employees know their employer supports helping
them achieve their savings goals. Offer employees the opportunity to meet on-on-one with the plan representatives, so they
can review their goals with an investment professional. Ask your provider to be visit various worksites to make it easy for employees

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