2022 Signature Awards - Overcoming Obstacles

Workplace communication programs must address, and potentially overcome, a wide range of perception biases, environmental constraints, and informational barriers in conveying complex, and yet important issues. Overcoming these obstacles – whether it be in communicating retirement plan issues, or in trying to change contribution/investment behaviors – can be considered a success even if only a small percent of the population acts.

1st Place – Kwik Trip with Principal Financial Group
Kwik Trip is a privately held company headquartered in La Crosse, WI that manages convenience stores. They operate their own bakery, dairy, and kitchens and have 18,000 employees. The goal of their 2021 communications was simple – increase the number of beneficiary designations on file. They faced some obstacles that many companies face, such as a young participant base and high turnover. Additionally, due to automatic enrollment participants were not actively engaged with the retirement plan. Kwik Trip chose to create a campaign that would resonate with their employees. It had a theme of "Your Retirement Your Way" with an image of Kwip Trip coffee drinks. Using a company branded image helped participants connect with the message. People were incented to take action with a drawing to win a prize. Materials used were emails, flyers, messaging in the employee newsletter, and a postcard with a QR code. Email open rates were 32-41 percent and 77 percent of those that took action to name a beneficiary had not previously designated one. The campaign led to a 19 percent overall increase in beneficiaries on file. This campaign won because Kwik Trip executed a well-developed campaign with a fun factor. Plus, integrating QR Codes as an education/enrollment tool in reaching out to the target audience of Gen X, Y, and Z-ers made this campaign stand out.

2nd Place – RWJBarnabas Health with Capital Group
RWJBarnabas Health is New Jersey’s largest integrated health care delivery system and largest employer with 34,000 employees. After a successful merger in 2016 and subsequent combination of retirement plans, the company wanted to design an employee engagement program that would improve retirement outcomes, in particular for underserved groups, by making retirement planning accessible to everyone at the organization. They faced the obstacles of an employee population comprised of nurses and hospital staff whose jobs were not tied to a mobile-phone or computer screen. Communications not directly related to their job or patient care were mostly deleted or ignored. In addition, many employees did not use their employer-provided email account. To meet employees where they were, three personas were identified: avoider, late bloomer, and motivated Millennial/Gen X. The “MyRetirement” program was created and included animal images for employees to determine their financial personality. Messages were provided via an intranet site promotion, in-person interviews and survey distribution, emails, QR code, giveaways, and Money Minute Videos, a company produced a video series addressing a variety of topics aimed to boost retirement knowledge. The campaign elicited an average contribution rate increase from 9.2 percent to 13.5 percent; Black participants who made a change increased their contribution rates by 44.3 percent and this was 1.8 times the rate of their peers who did not engage with the program. Hispanic participants increased their contribution rate by 50 percent – two times the rate of their peers who did not engage. RWJBarnabas won because great efforts were made in overall marketing and materials from inception to the end that were well written, clear, concise and audience centered. Additionally, they used a variety of taglines to attract different audiences.

3rd Place – Danone with Transamerica
Danone North America is an industry leader in the food and beverage category with recognizable brands such as Dannon, Evian, Silk, and more. They have 6,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada. For this initiative they wanted to provide good news about the match true-up and communicate that Danone didn't reduce or remove the match during the pandemic. Additionally, they chose to remind employees about the importance of a beneficiary designation. The “Always True to You” campaign theme had a multi-generational family image and included Danone’s font and color branding. The messaging had a positive tone. The materials used were an email, an FAQ flyer, and a self-mailer each with a QR code for account access. The email had a 48 percent open rate and a 15 percent click-through rate. $4.5 million in undesignated assets were assigned to beneficiaries. This campaign was a winner because it made a good effort to clarify match true-up complexities, plus the extra request to designate beneficiaries was a clever way to maximize outreach efforts.