2020 Signature Award Winners - 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 takes action. This category is designed to acknowledge communications designed to, and successful in, overcoming, those challenges.

1st Place – JBS and Pilgrim’s Pride with Empower Retirement
JBS® USA is a leading beef and pork processor in the U.S. and a leading processor of beef in Canada with a very diverse employee population of 100,000 who speak more than 30 different native languages.
The campaign’s goal was to educate non-corporate employees on the benefits of the 401(k) plan. Their obstacle was the number of languages spoken and how to get through to employees whose main language is not English. The company created a “What is a 401(k)?” video using JBS employees speaking in their own native languages about their experiences with the plan. The success of the video spurred the company to continue to use the video with new hires and material will be created from it for the HR staff to use on Facebook and to put in break rooms. In the first 5 months, participation increased three percent by employees age 44 and younger, and participation increased 7 percent among those with fewer than 3 years of service. Average savings rates increased by 4 percent. The judges loved the use of employees speaking their own languages in the video.

2nd Place – St. Luke's University Health Network with Transamerica
St. Luke’s University Health Network, headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is a fully integrated, regional, nonprofit hospital network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and over 300 outpatient sites, including a school of medicine and nursing school.
St. Luke’s wanted to increase plan awareness, visibility, participation, and personal interactions with Transamerica Retirement Planning Consultants (RPC). They were challenged by high growth rate and a generous employer non-elective contribution in lieu of a match. The campaign’s methods were using the internal rewards program to encourage employees to watch videos about the plan, flyers, intranet, onsite seminars, posters, electronic appointment scheduling tool, and materials for HR. The most inventive component was the creation of life-sized cutouts of the RPCs who were regularly onsite. These were placed in various St. Luke’s locations. The results show that the overall participation rate goal of 50 percent was exceeded– it went from 38.8 percent to 53.8 percent. The RPCs interacted with 2,272 employees and 892 increased deferral rates, and 353 enrolled in addition to those who were automatically enrolled. The innovative use of cardboard cutouts of the consultants helped this campaign win because it was a good way to welcome employees and make the individual meetings less intimidating.

3rd Place – Best Buy with Voya Financial
Best Buy is a provider of technology products and services with 1,500 stores and more than 100,000 U.S. employees.
The company’s goal was to increase employee engagement with the plan to help them achieve greater financial wellness and to increase the use of a new emergency savings program. The company experiences short tenures, which often leads to employees not participating in the retirement plan. Best Buy’s emergency savings program campaign was aimed at getting employees to “Expect the best, but prepare for the rest.” The campaign components were the website, emails, videos, golf-themed materials for benefits fairs and sweepstakes to encourage beneficiary designations with cash prizes. The results of the emergency savings program were an email open rate of 24.3 percent, click rate of 19.4 percent, and more than 2,300 employees opened an emergency account. The benefit fairs resulted in an email open rate of 28.6 percent, 25.7 percent logged into website, and 656 employees enrolled with many of them having longer tenure. The outcome of the beneficiary campaign was that the email had a 25.5 percent open rate and 20 percent took action. This company was a winner because they provided different ways for the employees to get involved and act and they used QR codes to help keep things moving in the moment.