2021 Signature Awards – Plan Changes

Change – even change for the better – can be difficult for workers to absorb and embrace. Plan Changes involve announcing and facilitating changes in a way that is easy to understand, educational, and engaging to employees. These communications effectively explain how the change benefits the employee or effectively handle changes that may not be improvements to the participant.

1^st Place – Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System with Lincoln Financial Group
The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOLHS) is a leading health care innovator in Louisiana and Mississippi with more than 17,700 employees. Until January 2021 they offered pension, 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), 401(a), and executive 457 plans. A decision was made to freeze the pension plans and consolidate the other retirement plans into one plan. One of their goals was to engage all management levels from executive and senior leadership to lower levels of management in order to reach all staff. They also wanted to build awareness around the new plan design, including the addition of automatic features, and their provider’s online enrollment process. Finally, FMOLHS wanted to increase plan participation. A new brand was created with a tagline of “Building big dreams together.” Due to multiple populations from various mergers over previous years, different versions of the communications had to be created. The following were provided either electronically or in print and mailed to participants: custom microsite, three videos, four FAQs, open enrollment guide, three 204(h) notices, and four welcome letters. These efforts resulted in a 96 percent participation rate among the newly added employees with an average deferral rate of 7.47 percent. More than 7,000 employees who were contributing less than 4 percent increased their deferral to an average rate of 4.15 percent. More than 2,900 virtual one-on-one consultations occurred. Overall, FMOLHS’ participation rate went from 53.87 percent to 71.11 percent. This campaign won because it was well thought out and management was engaged to help drive positive results.

2^nd Place – AutoNation with Voya Financial
AutoNation, America’s largest and most recognizable automotive retailer, employs more than 22,000 associates across more than 360 locations in 18 states. AutoNation’s 2020 campaign announced the transition of the 401(k) plan, nonqualified deferred compensation plan, and HSA program to a new recordkeeper. The focus was on the ease and simplicity of placing retirement savings benefits plus the HSA in one place. In addition, there was an emphasis on the importance of saving for retirement, diversifying investments, and how online tools can help them reach their savings goals. Due to the pandemic, all communications had to be digital. To catch the attention of their large GenX and GenY populations and in keeping with the company’s culture, they used a theme of cars that turn into Transformers. This creative theme enhanced the concept of a transformation to a new recordkeeper. Besides emails and texts, the campaign used print materials, a transition microsite, a video, an on-demand education meeting, and an e-book with enrollment instructions, plan features, and resources. The emails had good open rates and participants had positive behaviors: 433 employees increased their savings rate an average of 1.1 percent (from 5.1 percent to 6.2 percent), 108 made changes to their investment allocations, 25 percent started using Roth contributions, which was added during the conversion, and 1,422 participants updated their beneficiary designations. With the use of a fun theme that resonated with the participant population, AutoNation once again was a winner.

3^rd Place – The Coca-Cola Company with Transamerica
Founded in 1886 with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, the Coca-Cola Company is one of the world’s most iconic and respected brands and has 9,700 employees. This campaign targeted 800 highlycompensated employees to communicate the transition of three nonqualified deferred compensation plans to a new recordkeeper and to provide employees eligible to make elections in 2021 with information and education regarding their plan. An announcement and newsletter were mailed to homes. Emails with plan highlights were sent to those eligible to make 2021 deferrals. The emails had very good open rates (35-55 percent) and generated 318 new users. Coca-Cola was deemed a winner because the communications had consistent messaging, engaging and bright graphics with a theme that carried throughout, and a clear call to action that produced a good take-up rate.