PLANADVISER - January/February 2022 - 20

improving outcomes / cover story
Several key findings from participant surveys such as J.D.
Power's stand out:
* Participants want proactive guidance. Besides only 24%
of participants strongly agreeing that their plan's provider
offers them proactive guidance and help, just 39% strongly
agreed that their provider helps them track their progress
toward their retirement goals, according to the J.D. Power
survey. Foy says, the perception many participants have that
they get too little guidance and help speaks to how many
recordkeepers' tools are passive instead of proactive-the
information and tools probably are there, but participants
have to search for them.
" A big part of the issue is discoverability: If people go onto
their plan's website or mobile app and hunt around, in many
cases they are likely to find educational content, tools and
calculators that will help them with an issue or question they
have, " Foy says. But many people neglect to do that, which
is why providers proactively offering targeted guidance and
tools is so important, he says. " It's not a case of, 'If you build
it, they will come. Providers have to be able to more effectively
weave proactive guidance [such as that concerning a
participant's deferral rate] into the customer experience. "
Some providers have
overcomplicated their website,
and that makes it difficult for
folks to find the information
they're looking for.
* Good mobile apps are critical. The mobile-user base of
participants is growing faster than the base of participants
who utilize their plan's website to access their retirement
account, J.D. Power also found. While the majority of Baby
Boomer through Generation Z respondents still opt to use
the plan website to access their account, 35% of Gen Yers
and 36% of Gen Zers said they prefer using the app or visiting
the mobile website by way of a smartphone.
Similarly, survey respondents in Corporate Insight's
" Participant Mobile Experience: Preferences and Engagement "
study, released in October 2020, said they log into
mobile platforms more often than the desktop site. While
33% of respondents said they check their mobile platform
at least weekly, 25% said they check at least weekly via a
desktop. That trend is likely to increase.
" We're seeing, year over year, when we do surveys in the
DC [defined contribution] plan participant space, mobile
usage is increasing, " says Andrew Way, director of insurance
and workplace finance services at Corporate Insight, a userexperience
researcher and consultant, in New York City. The
convenience for participants of accessing their account via
mobile vs. a desktop is a significant factor, he says.
* Participants need help with broader financial stressors.
Participants who feel financially unhealthy are not generally
as satisfied with their provider's digital experience, the J.D.
Power survey found. That is likely because they get too little
information and too few tools targeted to their broader financial
challenges, Foy says. " It goes back to, retirement plan
participants aren't thinking about retirement in a silo, but in
the context of their overall financial lives, " he says. " I think,
for providers, it's a matter of using data to understand more
about specific participants and then tailoring the digital
experience to the particular challenges a participant might
have. That way, an individual can address his or her retirement
savings in the context of other financial issues. "
Key Differentiators
Advisers can help their plan sponsor clients offer a better
participant digital experience by looking for these key
differentiators when doing a general recordkeeper request
for proposals (RFP) or request for information (RFI):
* Easy navigation on the website. " Comparing provider with
provider, it comes down to the interface, " says Chris Kulick,
a principal in CAPTRUST, in its Doylestown, Pennsylvania
offices. " They are all trying to get to the point where it's
intuitive for participants. However, some of them have done
a better job than others. Some providers have overcomplicated
their website, and that makes it difficult for folks to
find the information they're looking for. But when a site is
intuitive, it gives participants the information they really
want to see, right upfront. They don't have to put a lot of
thought into how to find the information. "
* An engaging homepage. For a recordkeeper's website to
engage a participant, this needs to start on the homepage.
" The homepage is critically important, because anywhere
from 60% to 80% of users log in, view the homepage and
then log out, " Way says.
Schwab incorporates on its homepage its My Retirement
Progress tool, which makes it easy for people to see an estimate
of what different deferral rates could mean for their
retirement-savings outcome, says Nathan Voris, director,
investments, insights and consultant services at Schwab
Retirement Plan Services in Richfield, Ohio. " The science of
it is: Where is that tool on the homepage? " he says. " A high
percentage of participants come to the website just to check
their balance. But if the person looks at the My Retirement
Progress tool while getting his balance, he's much more
likely to interact with the tool. "
Schwab also uses demographic and behavioral data it
has acquired for the participants as individuals to tailor
additional information on their homepage, Voris says. " Let's
say someone came to the portal, and we know that person
recently attended a webinar on college savings. So there
may be a link to an article on next steps to take with that, "
he says. " It's about using the data the recordkeeper has in
an intelligent way to make it easy for a participant to get to
where he wants to go. "
20 | planadviser.com January-February 2022
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - January/February 2022

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