A retirement plan committee helps guide decisions that affect employees’ savings and financial futures. But when the same people serve year after year, discussions can lose momentum. Bringing in fresh perspectives can help a committee stay engaged, ask better questions and keep employees’ needs in view.
At a recent TPSU program at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Julie, a senior vice president of People Strategy at an organization of about 115 employees, shared how her organization gave its committee a fresh start. The CFO and head of HR remain on the committee, while other seats rotate every two years. Those seats go to employees who may not hold formal leadership roles but have influence across the organization. Julie said their involvement has brought new energy to discussions and helped employees see that their voices matter.
The change has also made the committee’s work more visible and meaningful. Members come prepared, take part in longer conversations and continue learning about 401(k) plans and their responsibilities. Julie left the TPSU program with ideas for measuring her organization’s plan against an ideal plan and a clearer sense of where it could improve.
Read the Full Transcript Here:
Fred Barstein: Greetings. My name is Fred Barstein. I’m the CEO and founder of 401(k)TV and TPSU. I just completed a program here on campus at Marquette in Milwaukee, and I’m here with Julie. Welcome, Julie.
Julie: Thank you.
Fred: Can we ask you a few questions?
Julie: Okay.
Fred: Before we do, tell our audience a little bit about yourself and your organization.
Julie: I’m a senior vice president of People Strategy. Our organization has about 115 people.
Fred: Very good. One of the things you talked about in your group discussion was having a very engaged committee. What does an engaged committee mean to you? What do they do that makes them engaged?
Julie: We had a disengaged committee for a while.
Fred: So you know the difference.
Julie: Yes. The same members had served on our committee for multiple years. As we looked at refreshing how we showed up for our plan, we put term limits in place. We know we always want the CFO and the head of HR on the committee, but we also made room to bring in different employees every two years.
The employees on our committee right now aren’t necessarily in leadership roles, but they’re employees of influence.
Fred: Influencers, yeah.
Julie: Those are essential employees to have when we’re talking about decisions for our organization. We feel that having employees of influence take part in the conversation and understand what’s happening behind the scenes helps the rest of our employees see how much we value them.
We feel it has really shown up culturally, because it’s not just the leadership group saying, “Hey, we care about you.” These employees of influence are part of the conversation. They understand that their voices carry weight, and they can reflect to the broader employee base that we’re talking behind closed doors about things that benefit our employees. I think there’s a lot more transparency and value coming through.
Our committee members show up for these longer conversations, and they come prepared. They participate in learning about 401(k) plans and what their responsibilities are. I think it has rejuvenated our process, and it’s been a great experience.
Fred: Congratulations on that. Sounds great. Final question: What are a couple of things you learned here, and would you recommend TPSU?
Julie: This is the first time I’ve come, and I’m thrilled that I did. It was much better than I thought it was going to be.
My favorite part of the program was actually you. I could sense your passion and your commitment to using very clear and easy language.
Fred: Thank you.
Julie: I came feeling like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t know what I don’t know.” I felt a little bit of imposter syndrome, even though I’ve been dealing with 401(k)s for four years. After listening to the speakers and talking with my peers, I thought, “Okay, I’m not that bad.” So that’s great.
I also wrote down a lot of great ideas about what an ideal plan, or a perfect plan, could look like. Having somebody say, “Here’s what this could look like,” and being able to take the temperature of where we are compared with what someone who has worked in this space for a long time would consider ideal or perfect gives me a benchmark. I feel good about being able to use that.
Fred: Good. Thank you for coming, for your kind words, and for watching 401(k)TV. Please stay tuned.
