401k Guy blog re: iJoin

401k Enrollment – How Was Your Experience?

There is a great deal of talk these days about how employees are going to be Auto-Enrolled into their 401k plans. One day they are out of the plan, then the next day, bam, they in the plan with their 401k deferrals being defaulted into predetermined funds, their retirement accounts growing nicely, and everybody happy. Although this might be the vision for some, most employees are still required to enroll to get into their 401k plan.

Did you go to the meeting?

For the past 20+ years, most employees have been invited into the company’s 401k plan through an enrollment meeting. These meetings, usually on company time, take place on location at the company, are usually 45 minutes to an hour, explain the plan’s provision, why you should join, a little bit about the funds offered, and then conclude with someone asking you to complete the enrollment form and turn it back in. Sound familiar?

People like to make fun of enrollment meetings and most roll their eyes when they think about them. However, I have always thought the enrollment process was important, served as an excellent forum for the employer to communicate positively to the employees and ideally get everyone excited about the organization. Things haven’t always gone according to plan, of course, and some meetings have been painful experiences for everyone involved.

Is there a better way?

Companies have played around the edges of enrollment meetings for years trying to make them more effective, engaging, and enjoyable. With new technologies constantly evolving, I have seen these meetings move from black-and-white handouts, to PowerPoint presentations, to interactive computer based experiences.

Recently, I came across a firm, iJoin, that is trying to not only make the enrollment process efficient, but personalized, interactive, and more meaningful to the employees as well. This firm, is a web based portal, customizes the employee experience and allows an employee to run live scenarios of how much money he will need in retirement, how much he needs to start saving right now, and suggests where the employee needs to put the money to reach his goals.

The presentation I saw was powerful and convincing. Moreover, it started me thinking that as an industry, 401k providers need to step the enrollment process up a notch to help employees not nnly enjoy the enrollment process more, but to also get more out of it. Low cost technology solutions are almost limitless and more need to be employed to engage employees. Many providers have feared for too long that employees do not have access to the technology necessary to utilize such solutions. It’s time to stop such thinking.