The sudden rise and spread of COVID-19 wreaked havoc with plan administration—including communication with plan participants concerning the plan and changes to it.
In “Communicating Retirement Plan Changes During COVID-19,” an entry in Cammack Retirement’s Insights blog, Joey Payne discusses the situation and what can be done to meet the challenges of our current time.
Some organizations decided to hold off on making changes to their retirement plans as the pandemic worsened, Payne noted; however, some decided to proceed. Among the latter, he says, there was “great concern” about how to communicate effectively about those changes. “Many became worried that participants would not receive the appropriate information to make an informed decision, particularly when lacking face-to-face meetings, as selecting a vendor or creating a new investment allocation can be daunting for participants even in a conventional environment,” Payne writes.
Communication about changes to a plan, Payne observes, often includes town-hall style on-site meetings. Or did. In the current pandemic-beset world, that too has changed. “Like so many other aspects of life, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted the way in which this was done,” he says.
Virtual Meetings
Payne notes that many such meetings were part of the mass conversion to virtual platforms. Virtual large-scale meetings, he observes, allow attendance at a work site and a convenient location, as well as increased opportunity to ask questions.
An additional feature that enhanced the opportunity, as well as reduced reluctance, to ask questions is the potential for anonymity, which offers the option to ask a question without fear of judgment.
But mass gatherings are not the only meetings for which use of virtual platforms suddenly rose sharply: so did one-on-one meetings. Among the advantages of such meetings are ease of scheduling, reduced constraint on finding meeting space.
Challenges
Any conversion to a new procedure, particularly one that happens very fast, will have some bumps in implementation. For instance, says Payne, those who moderate such meetings suddenly had to acquire and sharpen their skills—including technical skills—in doing so. They also needed to develop techniques to enhance the flow of information and explanation, such as holding Q&As until the end of a presentation.
And while they are convenient, virtual mass-meetings also presented the potential for more distractions for participants than would have been present onsite; in addition, there can be an enhanced temptation to multi-task during a meeting.
These challenges, says Payne, “highlight the need for retirement plan sponsors to continue to find methods to cut through the noise of life, regardless of the environment.”
Success
Organizations, as well as individuals, were quite adroit in adapting to the use of virtual platforms, Payne indicated. “Despite the unprecedented environment in which retirement plan sponsors found themselves this year, most organizations were able to adapt and evolve in order to effectively communicate retirement plan changes,” he writes. And he adds the attendance of many online meetings was as great or even greater than it had been in person.
“As the world moves forward and employees continue to work remotely, the virtual meeting environment will undoubtedly evolve further,” Payne writes. “Ultimately, retirement plans that are compliant and work efficiently and effectively will be better positioned for favorable employee participation and participant outcomes.”
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