For all of the complexities in the group savings and group benefits world, the work of plan administrators and sponsors really comes down to a few simple items: engaging employees in their plans; ensuring that they understand the benefits they’re entitled to; and giving them the tools and information they need to take appropriate actions.
However you slice it, so much of the plan sponsor’s work is about connecting. And the explosion in mobile technology in the last five years represents a huge opportunity to make valuable connections with plan members in a whole new way.
There’s some urgency to going mobile, because the world is moving forward on the technology front—with or without us. That’s why a strategy for mobile functionality and communications that fits your plan and connects with plan members is something that every organization needs to consider.
New times, new tools
From the printed page to the smart phone, our need to connect has remained much the same. But what has changed are the tools that we use to make those connections—and the communication expectations that go with them.
The move toward mobile devices is happening at lightning speed. According to Mobile Industry Review, there will be about 5.4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide in the next five years. That’s 77% of the world population, representing what is, by far, the greatest penetration of any technological device ever, according to Mobile. Tablets have quickly become the hottest sellers in the personal computer market, with experts predicting a 60% growth rate for 2012 to more than 95 million units, according to DIGITIMES Research. And, according to the most recent data from comScore Canada, more than 20 million Canadians over age 13 use mobile devices.
The question for plan sponsors is, How can we best leverage that widespread adoption to better connect with plan members?
Need for change
The current lack of creativity around the use of mobile technology for group savings and benefits plans can be attributed, in part, to the fact that a large segment of the workforce is still of boomer age. According to the 2011 generations study by Sun Life Financial with Ipsos Camelford Graham, which sought to identify the ways that each generation wants to connect, baby boomers (age 47 and up) have the highest comfort level with and preference for paper-based communications—although they still want the choice to use online, digital or mobile-based communications.
Generation X—those plan members in their 30s to mid-40s—appreciate the benefits of online communication but don’t have the same comfort level with all things digital. And the twentysomething gen Yers prefer the concept of online communications to all others.
It’s this last group—generation Y—that is moving mobile communications from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” quite quickly. According to forecasts, by 2020, gen Y employees will be the dominant group in the workplace, representing 40% of all employees. So the shift to digital communications, including mobile, will need to happen at a much faster rate than you might have thought. It’s time for plan sponsors and providers to take up the challenge.
Simple, fun and engaging
While the explosion of mobile devices in Canada offers an incredible opportunity for the pension and benefits industry, the revolution goes beyond actual devices. The industry is witnessing a major change in communication preferences, expectations and thresholds.
People have the power to make informed choices through increased real-time access to a broad range of information, communication and decision-making tools. Plan providers and sponsors need to offer relevant mobile services to their members and do so in a way that stands out in a sea of choice.
While mobile apps and mobile websites have great applicability across a broad spectrum of possible tasks, the common denominator for success is a simple one: they engage us. And how they engage us can be surprising. Who would have thought that a game such as Angry Birds, with its cute premise and simple features, would capture the attention of millions around the world in just a few short years?
The pension and benefits world can learn from that. While plan members aren’t necessarily looking for birds, slingshots and pigs as part of their plan’s mobile functionality, there is real value in using mobile technology’s “fun factor” to capture and keep plan members’ interest.
Gamification is a concept that’s been around for a long time. It involves taking the basic elements that make games fun and applying them to things that typically aren’t considered games. Gamification works because it takes advantage of people’s natural desire to play and encourages them to perform tasks that they would ordinarily consider boring, such as making financial decisions regarding their savings.