It is possible to have too much of a good thing, including communication. In fact, one of the best ways NOT to communicate is to over-communicate. Too much information can leave your employees feeling overwhelmed and confused. They may even start resisting your communication efforts—and, ultimately, tune you out altogether.
In previous columns, I’ve talked about the importance of personalized communication—giving members the information they need, when they need it. In our information-heavy and attention-span-light world, there is a small window of opportunity to connect with your employees.
As I pointed out in this space a few months ago, target benefit, shared-risk and multi-employer plans all belong to the same genus of pension plan. While each has its own unique characteristics, they share the same basic principles.
The decisions we ask employees to make at retirement are both complex and consequential. In many cases, there’s no going back. Whether you’re a DC member choosing an annuity or a DB member choosing a pension payment option, the decision is significant and irreversible. So, what role should plan sponsors play in equipping members to make these critical decisions?
A picture really is worth a thousand words. That doesn’t mean you should turn your next pension statement or benefits plan newsletter into a four-page infographic—a one-way ticket to information overload. But when it comes to communicating with your plan members, chances are you should be doing a lot more showing and a lot less telling.
If you’re not educating your employees about the cost of their group benefits plan, you’re missing an important opportunity. That’s because most plan members simply don’t appreciate the true cost of their benefits coverage—to the detriment of themselves and the organization.
When it comes to protecting the environment and our planet—sustainability is a word people can usually get behind. But ask plan members how they feel when sponsors start talking about sustainability in the context of pensions, and chances are you’ll get an earful.
Taxonomy, the classification of things or concepts, isn’t just for dusty old biology textbooks. Only by grouping things together or separating them out can we make sense of our world. When it comes to the naming of pension plans, pension thought leaders—and legislators—could learn a thing or two from the old-fashioned principles of classification.
Surveys are powerful tools for gauging your members’ opinions and needs. When well designed and successfully implemented, they can provide decision-makers with valuable, direction-setting data.
In his 2012 article, “Too complex to depict?”, Professor Henry Hu of the University of Texas Law School asks whether “too-big-to-fail” banks are too complex to describe and, if so, whether they might also be too complex to exist. The same questions could easily apply to some of today’s pension and benefit plans.