401k Communication

[Guest jfgc]

I need to initiate employee education on our company's 401(k) Plan. Past methods have been bringing in the banking institute that administers the plan to do overview in group meetings. I viewed a video of the meetings and they were boring. Does anyone have any innovative ideas on educating employees that are interesting?

[Guest [Pat M]]

I don't know how interesting, but I know that food, in particular gourmet chocolate chip cookies, always help draw the crowd.

Our recordkeeper had a tape that featured a prominent comic actor having fun with the idea of 401(k) plans. Goofy, but the employees watched the entire video, interestingly enough.

If no internet terminals are available, see if you can get the potential participants modeling software that shows how much they'd have in each of your offered funds had they contributed x starting 5 years ago, with the actual returns of those funds used.

Keep the number of audience members as small as possible. Pre-educate employees about your plan by mailing out packages a few days before the meetings. If your organizational environment permits, try panel discussions with volunteer participants, moderated by an independent 401(k)professional. Let participants openly discuss the good, as well as the challenges. You'll be amazed at some of the ideas, information and mis-information. Follow up in writing to individual concerns.

[Guest GregSelf]

Agree with all of Pat M's ideas. Some others:

1. Know your audience. Design the "script" or agenda around the group. Consider things like gender, age, sophistication level, industry. All these will make a big difference in how an educational meeting or enrollment meeting should be presented.

2. Plan the time of day appropriately. Is a 5:15 PM meeting going to piss people off? Should meetings be broken up and staggered throughout the day? Should it be a catered lunch meeting? And NEVER have it right after lunch.

3. Appearance. If you're meeting with a group of factory workers, don't show up in an Armani suit.

4. Get the group involved in the meeting (ala Pat M's last paragraph). I really like this idea. And you will be amazed at some of the things that come up. Plus your audience walks away with the feeling they've contributed to and learned from the meeting, rather than just been lectured to. More likely they'll want to participate, and ensures your meeting will not be boring.

------------------

[Guest 401kguy]

Dittos to Greg Self. The 'Suit" arriving for a 401K "overview" meeting is horrible!

I would add emphasis on small groups and entertainment. One particularly successful endeavor has been small group workshops, after work, WITH FOOD - the operative word here is workshop; hands' on education with topics ranging from Basic Investing to Advanced Principles of Asset Allocation. Hard to keep stuff like this entertaining, but it can be done.. particularly if the back and forth gets started early.

Obviously , the demographics of your workforce will determine the level of workshop sophistication... but, employees seem to really appreciate the interactive nature of the workshop.. tips: limit attendance to 25-50, include spouses, limit to 2 hours including a couple of breaks, and NO LECTURES! Give and take is the key. Then, don't let them out of the room without filling out the feedback form. We tried the big group, cover-every-topic-in-one-hour approach. Boorrring! Just a few ideas..

Oh, one more thing... if you can stand it, no management types at the meeting - unless they are 401k cheerleaders and do not in any way intimidate their subordinates. The difference in the atmosphere is palpable.