7 Questions to Ensure Successful Benefit Technology Purchases
Do you need help figuring out your technology needs for an employee benefits program? Check out this interesting article by Veer Gidwaney from Employee Benefit Adviser about which technology you will need for your employee benefits program.
From quality to data integration, there are many factors to consider when purchasing benefit administration technology. With employers increasing turning to their adviser for guidance, here are some key questions advisers should make sure their client’s tech acquisition teams can answer:
1) How will you ensure data quality is maintained during the migration to the new system? Be it a mistyped entry, or incomplete form, errors are bound to happen in open enrollment, and if they’re not caught during implementation process, errors can go unnoticed for months or longer. This means inaccuracies in carrier files, delays in enrollment processing, and additional back-and-forth between you and your client or the carrier.
Don’t rely on human eyes to scan spreadsheets for potential errors, it’s 2017. Before you take the plunge with a technology partner, understand their data validation and backup data quality check processes to catch and correct errors before they’re entered into your system of record.
2) Will this technology require a printer or a fax machine for my team or my clients?
No benefits or HR platform should require any manual paperwork. It’s time-consuming, and more prone to human error, yet many benefits systems still rely on paper-based processes to run an enrollment or onboard an employee. Take a stand, for your team, your clients, and their employees.
Make sure you see a demo of the onboarding and enrollment process from start to finish before partnering with a technology platform, and expect employees and HR to demand the same expectations based on interacting with any other technology experience in their lives, at home or work. Does it look and feel like a modern experience? Is buying insurance as intuitive as any e-commerce experience an employee would be used to? If not, keep looking.
3) Is EDI with insurance carriers “full-service” or “self-service”?
Managing electronic data integrations (EDI) with carriers is complex and time-consuming, but something that many employers expect to have up and running smoothly to manage eligibility and enrollment ongoing. Any benefits administration technology that requires your team to set up their own EDI files, or interface directly with the carrier is sucking up unnecessary time and resources, and you must factor that time into the cost of partnership.
4) How does the platform partner with insurance carriers and other third-party vendors to make offering and managing benefits easier?
Insurance carriers aren’t going anywhere, so choosing a system that has advantageous relationships and deep integrations with your favorite carriers will save time and money in the long run, for both you and your clients.
Depending on the type of relationship a technology vendor has with the carriers you work with, that could mean internal efficiencies and cost savings like free EDI, automated eligibility management, and low minimum participation requirements on voluntary benefit products. Montoya & Associates has actually been able to streamline standard benefit offerings based on the Maxwell Health Marketplace, which makes implementations faster and easier for their team. Don’t take my word for it: check out a case study, in their own words.
5) How does the platform make it more efficient to manage ongoing employee changes throughout the year?
Routine qualifying life events such as marriage or birth of a child shouldn’t require hours of administrative work for you or your clients. While it’s tempting to ‘check the box’ with low-cost point solutions that handle only eligibility, or quoting, or enrollment, it’s important to consider the cost of wasted hours and the impact that disjointed processes will have on your clients’ experience.
Solving interconnected problems with disparate point solutions will result in disjointed processes, multiple data entry points, and client frustration. Look for solutions that manage all of that data in one place, both during enrollment and year-round.
6) How many team members are typically dedicated full-time to making the platform work at scale? If you have to hire additional full-time team members to complete tasks that could (and should) be automated or streamlined with technology (like EDI, enrollment paperwork, etc.), you should factor that into your decision from a financial perspective.
Implementing technology should streamline processes for your team in addition to your clients. Ask for references on how current clients have made the tool successful, and dig into the processes that any potential technology partner might help you solve to uncover the manual work that might hide below the surface.
7) What sort of technical and implementation support is available? Training on any new process is a time-consuming process that may require some hand-holding. Your technology partner is an extension of your brand and your company, so you need to make sure that they set up both you and your clients for success, initially and throughout the year. Ask about their support structure, and what resources are available to both you and your clients.
Both HR teams and employees should have tools to solve problems on their own, with the ability to get in touch with a live person for technical questions if needed. Certain technology platforms prioritize broker support at the expense of support for HR and employees, or might provide support during initial setup, and charge for support throughout the year. This often results in more time-consuming implementations than necessary and frustration at being unsure of what to do next or how to resolve any issues.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Gidwaney V. (Date). 7 questions to ensure successful benefit technology purchases [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/opinion/6-questions-to-ask-to-avoid-hidden-benefit-technology-costs
Is industry coming around to robo-advisor concept?
Have you ever thought about the future of employee benefits advisors? Take a look at this interesting article from Benefits Pro about the growth of robotic employee benefits advisors by Caroline Marwitz
LAS VEGAS -- Some advisors see robo-advisors as a competing force.
At the NAPA 401(k) Summit, you might expect some hostility to the concept. After all, the market for algorithm-based, non-human decision-making robo-advisors is expected to grow.
Business Insider’s research service, BI Intelligence, forecasts that by 2020, robo-advisors will manage $8 trillion in assets.
But the questions for two executives at two robo-advisor firms during a technology panel demonstrated more curiosity than hostility. Betterment for Business's Cynthia Loh and blooom’s (yes, three Os) Chris Costello fielded them and got in some marketing in the process.
The questions ranged from whether advisors can get data and metrics about results (yes), how good is the security and encryption of participant information (as good as a bank’s), whether rebalancing is participant-driven (no), whether there was a process to update employee risk tolerance and other information over time, as it changes (yes), to whether these robo-advisors partner with advisors to offer compensation (Betterment: yes, we have a separate arm of the business for that; blooom: ten dollars per participant doesn’t make a partnership conducive, though advisors can offer this service to differentiate themselves to plan sponsors).
The common wisdom is that robo-advisors, at least in the retirement industry, are aimed at people with fewer assets.
However, in the wider investment industry, the BI Intelligence research report noted: “Consumers across all asset classes are receptive to robo-advisors — including the wealthy. 49% of this group would consider investing some of their assets using a robo-advisor.”
For blooom, its market is not intended to be the wealthy, CEO and cofounder, Chris Costello, said, but rather “the people who don’t understand stuff.”
“All the way up the food chain, people are messing up their 401k plans,” Costello said. “We are targeting a segment of market most advisors aren’t targeting, most are well below 250,000 dollars.”
The stereotypical user of a robo-advisor is, of course, a millennial. But now, said Betterment’ for Business GM Cynthia Loh, “Everyone expects technology.” Even the clients have changed, she said. Where in the past it might be a tech company, within the last year companies of other kinds have come on board -- medical, legal, and financial services firms.
Taking aim at the traditional, minimalist way many employers offer information on retirement plans, Costello noted that there are always going to be employees who like to study their options and do their homework. “But that is not most Americans. Most Americans need this to be done for them. When I had wealthy clients, I didn’t tell them to go home and study up. We did the work for them. This brings the services that wealthy people have been getting for decades.”
Still, Loh added, Betterment embraces both the technology and the human side. “We recognize there’s always going to be a place for human advice.”
Because ultimately it comes back to the human side, not the technology side. Of course, the technology behind the algorithms is important. But something as warm and fuzzy as the participant questionnaire is also crucial.
In fact, recent guidance on robo-advisors from the Securities and Exchange Commission concerns itself with a robo-advisor’s questionnaire. Which makes sense, as it’s the information the algorithms use to make their decisions and the basis of their advice. Garbage in, garbage out. And the ability, which both firms offer, to consult with a human advisor, whether it might be by phone or by chat, is also important, at least to what we know about what plan participants want.
And the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule has made many in the retirement industry feel that knowing as much as possible about a participant or client is key to successfully helping them as well as being in compliance.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Marwitz Caroline (2017 March 19). Is industry coming around to robo-advisor concept [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.benefitspro.com/2017/03/19/is-industry-coming-around-to-robo-advisor-concept?ref=hp-top-stories
4 Basic Elements of Successful People Analytics
- We need to be clear about what question we are trying to answer.
- We need to gather the best available evidence—which, even if it not good, will be better than no evidence.
- We need to assess the quality of the evidence so we can make an informed judgment.
- Often, basic math is all we need to inform our judgment.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Creelman D. (2017 February 09). 4 basic elements of successful people analytics [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://blog.shrm.org/blog/4-basic-elements-of-successful-people-analytics
Target employee financial needs by finding the right technology
Are you looking for new ways to help improve your employees' financial needs? Take a look at this interesting article from Employee Benefits Advisors about how the use of technology can improve your employees' financial needs by Mark Singer
We have seen how a large percentage of the American workforce has an inadequate degree of financial literacy, and how the lack of basic financial knowledge causes personal problems and workplace stress. We have also seen the importance of financial education and how raising employee literacy directly benefits the bottom lines of companies.
The financial health of employees can vary greatly between companies, as can employee numbers. Work schedules and available facilities are other issues of variance. There is also the interest factor to address. Employees must find programs interesting and beneficial, or they will not attend or glean maximum results. Financial wellness programs that may be beneficial and successful for one company may be burdensome and unsuccessful for another. To meet pressing personal financial problems effectively, cutting-edge technologies need to be applied that both address immediate employee issues and limit company expense.
There are numerous new technologies that can be utilized in a mix-and-match fashion that successfully target employee financial needs. This age of the World Wide Web brings a host of financial education tools directly to the audience. Informational videos, virtual learning programs, webinars, training portals and other virtual solutions are easily accessible over the Internet and most are quite user-friendly. This mode of education is significant. For example, 84% of respondents to a survey conducted by Hewlett-Packard and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship said that e-tools were valuable. The study went on to show that modalities containing some degree of online training were preferred by 56% of respondents.
Gaming and data
One form of online educational technology that is gaining momentum as well as results is known as game-based learning. This method of learning is particularly popular with the millennial generation that has grown up with an ever-increasing variety of online gaming. In 2008, roughly 170 million Americans engaged in video and computer games that compel players to acquire skills necessary to achieve specific tasks. It has been found that well-designed learning programs that utilize a gaming sequence improve target learning goals. Such games teach basic financial lessons in a fun and innovative way that requires sharpened financial skills to progress through the programs.
Technological tools not only benefit those that are utilizing them directly, but they also assist the entire community through the collection of key data. Many of the mentioned tools embed surveys within programs or collect other data such as age, income and location, which can be used to create even better educational materials or better target groups in need of specialized services.
Employers need to realize that they benefit when they utilize these new technologies in their financial wellness programs, since these tools assist workers in taking control of their financial lives. Thereby reducing their stress levels, which in turn leads to happier and more productive employees. Sometimes it is best to meet the employees where they are, with tools that are easy and fun to use.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Singer M. (2017 February 02). Target employee financial needs by finding the right technology [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/opinion/target-employee-financial-needs-by-finding-the-right-technology
Why technology is not just a ‘thought but a necessity’
Are you utilizing your technology to its advantages? Check out this article from Employee Benefits Advisors about the importance of technology in today's marketplace by Brian M. Kalish
More than half of all brokers nationwide are still using paper and have no online database of their clients — but the industry is about to reach a tipping point, where those still using old processes will be left behind.
According to a recent survey of 10,000 brokers by hCentive, 54% still use paper and 53% have no online database.
Having no online database is the most challenging part, Lisa Collins, director of business development at hCentive said a recent event for brokers sponsored by the company in Reston, Va. Those brokers, she said, lack a central place for their resources.
But for brokers still using these old processes, the industry is reaching a tipping point, she said, where “technology is not just a thought [but] a necessity.”
It will become necessary, she explained, because the industry is demanding technology solutions as employers look to their brokers to provide more services with less commissions. On top of that, HR broker tech startups, such as Zenefits, Namely and Gusto are taking business away. These firms offer technology solutions for free and become the broker of record — and they are moving upmarket, Collins added. The tech startups, Collins added, are taking business from more traditional brokers.
These tech startups are directly approaching adviser’s clients, she said. Clients are responding to these HR tech startups because of challenging and changing requirements of HR, including Affordable Care Act compliance.
“Clients are asking for more than ever,” she said. “It used to [broker’s] sold insurance. Now they are a true consultant and risk mitigator.”
“Clients want more and more and it is challenging with less commission dollars to work with,” she added. “You have more competition than you have ever had.”
Advisers need to provide value, as benefits are likely to be a top three expense for an employer, added Brian Slutz, regional sales manager at hCentive.
The future
Looking toward the future, many questions still remain about President Donald Trump’s plans for healthcare and employee benefits, but a few things are likely to be consistent, which can be streamlined with technology, including:
- Consumer-driver healthcare is staying, Collins said, and with that comes the growth of health savings accounts. As a result, more voluntary products can be sold. Technology enables that through decision support tools that suggest these products to employees.
- Cost transparency tools: “A really critical tool,” Collins said. Viable systems are hitting the marketplace now and technology provides answers employees are seeking on healthcare costs
- Personalized communications: With more choice and more complication comes the need for education, Collins said. Technology solutions are becoming more customized to speak to an individual employee with targeted communication to a particular generation.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Kalish B. (2017 January 31). Why technology is not just a 'thought but a necessity' [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/why-technology-is-not-just-a-thought-but-a-necessity?brief=00000152-1443-d1cc-a5fa-7cfba3c60000
Don’t expect tech to solve benefits communications problems
Great article from Benefits Pro about using technology to communicate with your employees by Marlene Satter
Although technology has spawned multiple methods of communication with employees on benefits, that doesn’t mean they’re solving all the problems in conveying information back and forth between employer and employee.
In fact, generational and demographic differences, varying levels of comfort with a range of communication methods and the complexity of information all mean that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution in workplace benefits communication.
A study from West’s Health Advocate Solutions finds employees’ expectations cover a wide range in benefits, health and wellness program communication. As a result, human resources and benefits managers have to dig more deeply in finding ways to convey information to employees.
One finding which may surprise them is employees prefer live-person conversations, although some do prefer the option to use digital communication channels in certain benefits scenarios. And 41 percent of employees say their top complaint about employers’ benefits programs is that communication is too infrequent.
The top choice of employees for communicating about health care cost and administrative information is directly by phone (73 percent) with a live person; second choice was a website or online portal (69 percent), while an in-person conversation was the choice of 56 percent.
For information about physical wellness benefits, 71 percent opt for the website/online portal, while 62 percent want to talk to someone on the phone and 56 percent wanted an in-person conversation. Interestingly, 62 percent of men and 44 percent of women prefer in-person conversations.
For personal/emotional wellness issues, 71 percent want that chat with a person on the phone, 65 percent want an in-person conversation and just 60 percent want to interact with a website/online portal.
When it comes to managing a chronic condition, 66 percent prefer to talk to someone on the phone, 63 percent would prefer the website/online portal option and 61 percent want an in-person conversation. Sixty-seven percent of men, compared with 53 percent of women, prefer in-person conversations, while 35 percent of women, compared with 18 percent of men, prefer mobile apps.
And there are generational differences, too, with millennials wanting in-person interactions more than either Gen X or boomer colleagues. But they all want multiple options, and the ability to choose the one they prefer, rather than simply being restricted to a single method.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Satter M. (2016 December 14). Don't expect tech to solve benefits communications problems [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.benefitspro.com/2016/12/14/dont-expect-tech-to-solve-benefits-communications
5 tips for insurers to successfully implement new technology
Great article from Benefits Pro. By Laura Drabik
Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked with insurers dedicated to transforming how they do business through the implementation of technology.
I’ve collaborated with large insurers, regional insurers and startups. Although the size of the insurer has varied, principles they have employed to ensure transformation success have not.
And these principles apply to all segments of the insurance industry, including carriers, agents, brokers and claims professionals.
Here are five key observations from the implementations that I’ve worked on and the maneuvers these insurers employed to drive success:
1. Articulate your mandate — again and again and again
I once worked with a large insurer on one of the most complex initiatives. As a former change-management consultant, I found it impressive that before the vendor-evaluation process started, the chief information officer and his team communicated their vision to all levels of the organization in one succinct statement.
As the team transitioned to implementation, this vision was a beacon reminding all project members of what they should be driving toward. Whether gathering requirements, planning releases or gathering user feedback, all activities kept the executive mandate in mind, from evaluation through implementation.
Working toward one goal ensured consistency of direction across teams, improving the probability of success in achieving the business goal they were all striving for.
Later, in a conversation with that same CIO, he revealed that the key to their success was repeating the mandate to ensure it became innate knowledge within the organization.
To keep the message top-of-mind in an organization, use company town halls, CEO updates, webcasts, annual reports and newsletters as opportunities to refresh employees and stakeholders on the executive mandate, and why the company is on this transformation journey.
2. Create one team
Early in my career, I worked as a change-management consultant across various industries.
Regardless of the industry I was working in, I found organizations tended to divide project teams into separate technical and business units. Rather than create units, successful transformation projects combine the business and technical people into one team.
Keep in mind, everyone is working toward achieving one business mandate. To reinforce the “one team” approach, successful transformation projects situate the team in one location. Technical people take the same training as the business people, they celebrate their group identity by creating a team name, and they rally around a set of core team values.
When assembling one team, successful transformation projects staff with the best and brightest their organization has to offer. Rather than have these resources flip-flop between their regular jobs and the transformation initiative, they ensure the resources are 100 percent dedicated to the most critical points of the transformation journey. They understand that the transformation initiative is their organization’s future and require the right people to focus solely on the project at the most important time.
3. Build the new factory
At a recent user conference, one CIO presented a transformation project detailing how the insurer refused to rebuild the old factory or current system and instead focused on the new system as the factory of the future.
If transformation is your goal, don’t carry over old business processes and rules that were limiting in the past.
Successful transformation projects use the new system as the new best practice for doing business in the future. When team members begin slipping back into old processes, successful transformation projects challenge these team members with questions like “Is that how you want to do business in the future?” or “How does this support our executive mandate or business vision?”
Successful transformation projects separate the business-process education from the system training, with the understanding that a new system will come with a new set of best-practice business processes that could cause confusion among hardcore users.
A regional Canadian insurer I worked with made the brilliant decision to first educate its user community on the new business process before launching training on the new system. This allowed an easier transition to the new system because the new business processes were inherently supported by the new system.
4. Stick to 'out-of-the-box'
After purchasing vendor software, you become part of the community that helped to drive the best practices of that software.
Many insurers say that the majority of industry processes are the same across the industry and across insurers. Instead of trying to reconfigure a core process that really is the same across the industry, leverage the commonality and out-of-the-box content to accelerate your transformation project and drive it into the future.
Successful transformation projects spend their project dollars and time by nuancing content that differentiates them from their community and, more importantly, their competition.
5. Generate excitement for the initiative
Change can be scary, but in today’s work environment it’s the norm.
Successful transformation projects convert fear into excitement by advertising the project. Whether through CEO updates, town halls or other events, sell the importance of the transformation project and the team supporting it.
One insurer I worked with creatively orchestrated “showcase” demonstrations of the system on a quarterly basis to employees. The brief demonstrations targeted crucial pain points and showcased the way the new software would resolve the issue. They also knew it was important to gather feedback, not just from the showcase events but also from focus groups and the field. When an organization has an influential field presence, successful transformation projects advertise the project to the field by conducting regular roadshows and ensuring that the community’s feedback is incorporated into the solution.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Drabik, L. (2016 November 14). 5 Tips for insurers to successfully implement new technology[Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.benefitspro.com/2016/11/14/5-tips-for-insurers-to-successfully-implement-new?ref=hp-blogs&page_all=1
Robo-advisers play increasingly important role
Are you reaching all of your employee's for financial advising? Robo-advisers allow employee's to review materials in their own time but it's important to find the right balance. See the article below from Employee Benefit Adviser by Nick Otto on the potential perks of Robo-advisers.
Original article posted on EmployeeBenefitAdviser.co
Posted on September 29, 2016
Technology is increasingly evolving: from miniature scanners that monitor a cancer patient’s chemotherapy treatments right down to financial advice being offered to more than just the 1%.
The retirement landscape should no longer be a one-size-fits-all approach, said Andrew Wank, director of business development at Bloom. From the DIY to the HENRYs (high earners not rich yet), there is a middle group of employees that can be a challenge to reach in providing retirement advice, he added.
Robo-advisers lend themselves to helping employees in all aspects of life, Wank said Wednesday at EBA's Workplace Benefits Summit in Nashville, Tenn. “Plan sponsors recognize the limitations of what they’re already doing,” he said. “How can we provide a service or solution?”
Robo-advisers can be that solution, panelists agreed, because they reach all kinds of employees who don’t have easy access to financial advice. It combines technology with a human touch to most benefit employees, Wank said.
“Selecting a robo-adviser is going to be the same sort of process as picking your adviser,” added The Wagner Law Group’s Tom Clark, in agreement. “Make the decision in the best interest of your plan participants.”
And with the DOL’s effects coming into play in April, Betterment for Business’ General Manager, Cynthia Loh, added that while the final rule is widely talked about, it still isn’t very well understood.
“Explore all your options out there,” she advised. “Employees are more likely to engage with digital tools they can look at on their time. But given where we are today, it’s prudent with the DOL rule coming, on what’s out there. Make sure you understand what your fees are and what your employees are getting and what your employees’ needs are.”
See the Original Article Here.
Source:
Otto, N. (2016, September 29). Robo-advisers play increasingly important role [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/robo-advisers-play-increasingly-important-role
Automation making huge retirement plan impact
Paula Aven Gladych gives great insight on how automated retirement contributions are helping increase participation. See the full article from BenefitNews.com below.
Retirement plan participation has increased 19% in the past five years because of design features that make it simple and quick for employees to participate in their workplace retirement plans.
Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust examined the savings behaviors of 4 million defined contribution plan participants from 5,000 companies and found that features such as automatic defaults into diversified investments, target-date funds and automatic escalation have had a huge effect on employee savings rates.
The company’s Plan Health Index is a retirement plan health measure that includes a plan’s participation and savings rates and its diversification as a measure of employee retirement readiness.
Employees “have to join the plan, be saving at an adequate rate and be adequately diversified for their time horizon. If they are doing all three of those things well, they have a good chance for a good outcome, assuming they started saving early enough,” says Joe Ready, executive vice president and director of institutional retirement and trust at Wells Fargo.
To score well on the Wells Fargo Plan Health Index, employees need to participate in their workplace plan, save at 10% or higher, including the employer matching contribution, and have their retirement savings in diverse investments.
“Plan health across our book of business increased 37% from five years ago,” Ready says.
Participation increased 19%, contributions were up 7.3% from five years ago and diversification improved 26%, according to Wells Fargo research.
Generationally, millennials are reaping the biggest benefit from this industry shift toward automatic features. They have essentially grown up with these options, Ready says, and they have the highest increase in participation in the last five years. They also are the most diversified generation, taking advantage of target-date funds and other managed account options.
Millennials are also taking advantage of Roth 401(k) features at a higher rate than other generations. Wells Fargo found that 16% of millennials are taking advantage of a Roth option, compared to 12% of other participants.
“They are engaged,” Ready says. “They are thinking about their future taxes and tax diversification. That’s pretty good.”
The key drivers of plan participation are income, automatic features, tenure and age, Ready says. Wells Fargo analyzed tenure and found that once a company’s employees are hired and with the company for two years, their attrition rates tend to drop off dramatically.Ready encourages employers to design their retirement plans so that loyal employees, those who have stayed longer than two years, are eligible for the employer matching contribution. It’s a balance between helping employees achieve their retirement goals and wanting to invest in those who are invested in their company, he said.
Ready encourages employers to design their retirement plans so that loyal employees, those who have stayed longer than two years, are eligible for the employer matching contribution. It’s a balance between helping employees achieve their retirement goals and wanting to invest in those who are invested in their company, he said.
The way the matching contribution is designed can also have a major impact on how much employees save for retirement. If a company switches from contributing 50 cents on the first 3% to 25% on the first 6%, it automatically gets employees saving an additional 3% they wouldn’t save otherwise. Automatic increase is another feature that is underutilized, according to Ready.
Many companies set their automatic increase at 1% per year with an opt-out option. Ready says that whether the auto increase is 1% or 2%, the opt-out percentage is the same, so why not make the auto escalation 2% per year, bringing employees closer to that 10% savings rate sooner?
“It makes a material difference, especially at a younger age, to get to a higher savings rate quicker. It makes a big difference in outcome,” Ready says.
Two-thirds of Wells Fargo’s clients use an auto increase program, but “less than 30% of those plans implemented it on an opt-out basis,” the research found.
Having an opt-out option — meaning employees have to make the effort to opt out of the increase – takes advantage of participant inertia, Wells Fargo reported. Even with an opt-out option, 79% of plan participants stayed with the automatic increase on their retirement savings accounts.
Millennials tend to be more diversified in their retirement investments than older generations, due in large part to by the increase of automatic features in plans. Because of that, Wells Fargo found that 78% of millennials are on track to replace 80% of their pay in retirement, compared to 62% for Generation X and 50% for baby boomers.
“Some of that has to do with the fact that millennials are getting into the plan at an early age, saving early and diversifying appropriately with managed products,” Ready says.
That said, only 28.6% of millennials are contributing to their retirement account at the 10% level, compared to 35.2% for Generation X and 44.5% for the boomers.
“I’m very bullish on millennials, the way they are participating and the way they are engaging in the Roth
and leveraging diversification products in their plans,” Ready says. “If they keep increasing their savings rate, they have the power of time.”
Ready says he expects the trend toward automatic features in retirement plans to continue. He also sees a future rise in technology with a purpose. Wells Fargo has a mobile app that gives employees a one-click option to sign up for their company retirement plan. The company will send a text to all new employees with a link to the retirement plan sign-up page. It might say, “You are eligible to join our 401(k) plan.” When the participant clicks on the link, it takes her to a pre-filled screen that tells her what the default saving rate is and the default investments. If the employee is happy with the defaults, all she has to do is click the enroll button.
“We have seen a material increase in the number of people enrolling because of that,” Ready says.
See Original Post from BenefitNews.com Here.
Source:
Gladych, P.A. (2016, July 21). Automation making huge retirement plan impact [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/automation-making-huge-retirement-plan-impact
Rethinking the Modern Accumulation of Technology
In an article from SHRM.org, Natalie Kroc addresses how technology is impacting security measures.
Original post from SHRM.org on June 16, 2016.
It wasn’t the latest gadget or platform or program that the speakers discussed at a recent conference session on how to keep teleworkers and remote workers connected. Instead, it was the most basic of modern technologies that kept being stressed:
E-mail. An Internet connection. Maybe a webcam (though this proved controversial).
“I am a Millennial, and I … primarily communicate through e-mail,” said Greg Caplan, founder and CEO of Remote Year, a year-old startup that has brought together a group of 75 people to travel the world while holding down various remote jobs. Caplan believes that, for work purposes, e-mail is still king.
The other panelists at the Telecommuting, Remote and Distributed (TRaD) Works Forum, held June 9-10 in Washington, D.C., agreed that the simplest of technologies can successfully keep offsite employees connected. TRaD refers to the different kinds of offsite employees: Telecommuters are those who work from home sometimes, remote workers do their entire jobs from home and a distributed workforce is when an organization doesn’t have a physical location so its employees all work remotely.
Employees who work offsite only need “an Internet connection. Anything else we can work around,” said Carol Cochran, director of people and culture for Boulder, Colo.-based FlexJobs, a job search site that focuses on telecommuting, part-time and other flexible work opportunities. FlexJobs was a co-host of the forum.
Organizations may want to consider providing their remote workers a cellphone with Internet capabilities as a backup. This all but guarantees that employees will be able to work—even if they are having difficulties with their home Internet connection.
A chat function can be useful as well, if the work that employees are doing would benefit from the ability to reach out and have real-time conversations.
Many organizations that employ remote workers have the routine of a “daily huddle” or something similar, wherein employees are expected to check in at the start of the day, whether in a brief meeting or by writing their day’s plans in a shared document.
When an organization’s workforce is made up of remote or teleworking employees, or a mix of offsite and onsite workers, it’s especially important to use the time when everyone gets together effectively. Meetings should be “30 minutes, if not 15 minutes, instead of an hour,” Cochran said. If certain employees are inclined to speak for long periods of time, establish a time limit—and then stick to it.
Video: Love It or Hate It
“I hate video,” Cochran said. “I’m really reluctant to put it on, it’s so awkward.” FlexJobs uses it only rarely, and even then it’s often for social occasions. Cochran said she has found that workers become preoccupied knowing they are being viewed on screen, and worry about their hair and clothes and background surroundings.
This was a point of fierce contention among the panelists and forum attendees alike, though. Some organizations believe that video is essential, and that any initial awkwardness that employees may feel will disappear with habitual use.
Alex Konanykhin, CEO of Transparent Business, a platform that aims to help companies that employ teleworkers and freelancers, offered a solution: Get the organization’s leaders to work from home—and to exercise right before the meeting. When they dial in, they should be in full post-workout gear, including messy hair or a baseball cap. “All it takes is one time” of seeing that, he said, to have a workforce that can be comfortable with being on screen.
Video is a way of giving voice to remote workers and “making them feel part of the organization,” he added.
For those organizations that decide to incorporate webcams into the remote-worker experience, the panelists had some advice:
- Don’t keep the webcams on all day—turn them on at specific times, such as for meetings or training sessions.
- Suggest to employees who express reluctance that they may want to purchase a simple screen or backdrop to place behind them so that their home surroundings will not be visible on screen. This also may help to convey a more-businesslike feel.
- Consider making video an option, not a requirement, for meetings.
- Finally, if the organization’s video capabilities prove to be less than ideal—and repeatedly involve technical snafus such as the video shutting off or freezing, then stop trying to make video happen.
Adopt New Tools Cautiously
The speakers had their individual favorites among newer technologies, such as messaging app Slack, electronic signature platform DocuSign, Google Drawings for collaborating on charts and diagrams, and Zoom for streamlining remote communications. However, the panelists also derided many new offerings as being unnecessarily confusing and others for seeming to be more about entertainment than practical application.
Tools that are adopted by an organization need to be fully embraced by both remote and onsite workers, the speakers agreed. “When you take on a tool, you have to have a very clear expectation of how it is to be used,” Caplan said. “And that’s just culture.”
That said, it’s important for organizations to pick their tools wisely. Each new tool should represent an improvement from whatever employees were using before to accomplish a particular task. And while entertainment shouldn’t be a priority, each new tool should make employees’ jobs easier, the panelists said.
“Why do people love Facebook?” asked Konanykhin. “It’s instant gratification.” Employees expect the same ease of use and sense of satisfaction with the tools they use for work.
Natalie Kroc is a staff writer for SHRM.
See the original article here.
Source:
Kroc, N. (2016, June 16). Rethinking the modern accumulation of techonology [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/technology/Pages/Rethinking-the-Modern-Accumulation-of-Technology.aspx