Working with a retirement plan advisor to increase participation is one of the most effective ways to strengthen an organization’s benefits strategy and improve long-term employee outcomes. When advisors take an active role in education—through targeted communications, group learning opportunities, and one-on-one guidance—employees are more likely to understand the value of the plan, feel confident making decisions, and take meaningful action. The result is not only higher participation rates, but also a workforce that is more financially prepared, more engaged, and more appreciative of the employer’s investment in their future—ultimately supporting stronger retention, morale, and workplace stability.
At the conclusion of a recent TPSU program held on the campus of Villanova University, TPSU Founder and CEO Fred Barstein interviewed Lisa, a Chief Human Resources Officer at a 145-employee organization. Lisa shared how her organization partnered with its retirement plan advisor to increase plan participation through email campaigns, group education sessions, and free 15-minute one-on-one retirement planning meetings for employees. They also introduced incentives such as quarterly raffles and prizes to encourage attendance. As a result, plan participation increased from approximately 60% to 84% over the past year.
Read the Full Transcript Here:
Fred Barstein:
Greetings. This is Fred Barstein, CEO and Founder of TPSU. We just completed a program here on the campus of Villanova, and I’m here with Lisa. Welcome, Lisa.
Lisa:
Thank you.
Fred Barstein:
Mind if we ask you a few questions?
Lisa:
Absolutely. Thank you.
Fred Barstein:
Thank you. So before we do, tell us a little bit about yourself — the size of your organization and your role.
Lisa:
Absolutely. My name is Lisa. We have about 145 employees, and I’m the Chief Human Resources Officer.
Fred Barstein:
Very good. So, during the program you talked about what your advisor does — one-on-one meetings.” Tell us about what that is and why you did it.
Lisa:
Sure. So, we really wanted to encourage participation in our plan. About 60% of our employees were participating, and we wanted to increase that number and so we engaged our advisor to help take a more active role in education.
Through that, we started to do email campaigns, but also group sessions to help employees learn more about the plan. Our advisor also offered 15-minute planning sessions for individual employees.
So employees had a free personal planning session with an advisor where they could talk about their specific retirement needs and investment strategy — which has been really beneficial. Over the last year, we’ve increased our participation rate from the 60% range to about 84%.
Fred Barstein:
Wow! And you think it’s because of those meetings?
Lisa:
We do. And we also added a little extra bonus — if employees attend a meeting or they attend session, we do quarterly prizes. So we do some raffles, and employees can be entered to win something fun: swag, or PTO time or things like that.
Sometimes employees don’t realize they’re going to benefit from the session — they initially go to be entered into the raffle — but most of the time, we find it encourages them to participate and they end up getting something out of the training.
Fred Barstein:
Sounds great. Final question: Something you learned today — and would you recommend TPSU to other people like yourself?
Lisa:
Sure! This is my second time attending, and I find it very valuable — learning from other professionals is tremendous. But also learning from industry professionals and being able to benchmark best practices has really helped us think through how we can offer better benefits for our employees and make sure our plans stay compliant.
Fred Barstein:
Great! Well, thanks for your time.
Lisa:
Yeah — thank you!
Fred Barstein:
And thank you for watching 401kTV. Please stay tuned.
