2020 Signature Award Winners - Plan Changes, Large Company

Change – even change for the good – can be difficult for workers to absorb and embrace. Plan Changes – Large Company involve announcing and facilitating changes in plans with more than 5,000 employees in a way that is easy to understand, educational, and engaging to employees. These communications will effectively explain how the change benefits the employee or effectively handle changes that may not be improvements to the participant.

1st Place – Howard University with TIAA
Howard University is a private research university with three schools and colleges and nearly 6,000 employees. 
The goal of Howard University's campaign was to successfully convert from multiple vendors to one recordkeeper, simplify the retirement planning experience for participants and engage and motivate participants to take advantage of the benefit’s features. They were challenged by disparate and inconsistent data sources and knew that the participants were confused by all the providers, the different processes, and the 150 investment options available to them. The campaign included a brochure, emails, website messages, seminars, a 10-minute on-demand presentation, information desks at various locations staffed with TIAA consultants, and one-on-one meetings. The results included a decrease in call volume post-conversion, 845 employees attended on-site events, 460 attended seminars, 120 spoke with reps at the information desks, 1,045 people updated beneficiary information, 314 met with a financial consultant, and 129 used online advice. The university won because they used simple, easy-to-understand and engaging materials, with great results.

2nd Place – Nestlé USA
Nestlé in the United States has 51,000 employees in more than 120 locations and across 47 states manufacturing a variety of food and beverage products across eight brands.
The company had to merge the Nestlé Waters Savings Plan into the Nestlé Savings Plan seamlessly and manage the change while also changing health and wellness providers. The retirement plan conversion communications had to be coordinated with annual open enrollment communications so as not to overwhelm employees. The company chose to re-enroll Nestlé Waters employees, but investments were mapped for them. The employees received a letter, notices, enrollment kits, emails, webinars, on-site workshops, post cards and HR reps received a checklist of materials for their use to communicate to their employees. The campaign resulted in nearly universal participation (98.8 percent) with 96 percent deferring at or above the match level. All assets transferred as scheduled. This campaign won because the conversion was successful and they achieved an almost 99 percent participation rate using an active enrollment.

3rd Place – NewYork-Presbyterian with Prudential Retirement
NewYork-Presbyterian is a world-class academic medical center with more than 40,000 employees.
The campaign’s goal was to communicate the consolidation of thirteen plans into four, transitioning to Prudential, along with making investment changes. Materials used in the campaign included print pieces mailed to homes, a welcome video on the old website, creation of a new website, emails, a brochure, letters, postcards, expos and fairs, special branding, screen savers for employee workstations, tech tattoos, and microfiber cloth giveaways. The results showed the conversion was successful with 51,000 accounts transferred and $1.7B in assets moved. Twenty thousand employees registered on the website, 2,416 designated a beneficiary, and 10,637 changed contributions. NewYork-Presbyterian is a winner due to the remarkable employee engagement they achieved.