How ‘Building Knowledge’ Differs From ‘Driving Action’

Retirement plan education and communication fall into two separate buckets, but are both critical for driving positive participant outcomes, according to Rob Austin, head of thought leadership at Alight Solutions.

The definitions differ to Austin, and he cautions not to weight one over the other.

“Education is about building knowledge, and communication is about driving action,” explains Austin. Education without communication is “knowledge but no action,” while communication without education runs the risk of participants making poor decisions.

Goals Differ

Whether a plan sponsor needs to communicate or educate “all comes down to goals,” says Megan Yost, senior vice president of thought leadership and insight at Segal.

Communication typically occurs when a plan sponsor is making a change, such as increasing an employer match or changing an investment option, she says. It is best deployed when a firm needs to inform participants about what is changing, how they will be impacted and what actions they might need to take as a result.

Meanwhile, educational campaigns are designed to help participants understand features of a retirement plan or other financial benefits, Yost says. Plan sponsors need not be the sole content creators, either—they can leverage certified financial professionals, financial wellness providers and their recordkeepers.

Alight’s Austin suggests employers use more in-depth content, such as a workshop or a webinar, to educate their employees. But behavioral nudges, such as concise messages or short, actionable videos, can be effective communication.

“Maybe a text that could be sent out, saying, ‘What are 90% of people [at your place of employment] doing that you’re not doing?’” Austin suggests. “That’s much different than saying, ‘Here’s the importance of saving.’ Look for the hooks.”

Kelli Send, co-founder of and senior vice president of financial wellness services at Francis LLC, suggests that successful education leads to a receipt sent to plan officials when a message has been read.

“It’s easy to send communication out, but is it really received [by participants]?” Send asks. “There’s a huge difference between education and communication, and education is what is desperately needed. Education implies [plan sponsors] are trying to get engagement. … In other words, people will consume the material, they will understand the material, and they will do something about [that].”

Driving engagement is human resources professionals’ No. 1 challenge, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution, Send says. She often asks firms how they would communicate with their employees if there was something they absolutely needed to convey. Employers will often pause, unsure.

“You have to know your employee population,” says Josh Jessup, general manager of global retirement and financial wellness at Delta Air Lines. “You have to know how to meet them where they are.”

Jessup says Delta’s population is diverse: Some employees are tied to their desks, while others never sit down at a desk for their job. Aside from communicating through multiple channels, Delta typically avoids including education in communication, preferring to focus on educating via in-person events.

Send acknowledges that “pulling employees away from their workstations [to educate them] comes with a cost.” But she also says companies’ leadership teams “need to understand that communication alone does not work,” and the solution has to be “a corporate commitment from the top down.”

Research has shown that education is most effective when it is “delivered just in time,” says Yost. As for communication, Yost recommends plan sponsors think about its goal and purpose before hitting ‘send.’

“Keep it simple,” says Yost. Send “multi-channel, consistent, bite-sized communications.”

Don’t Take the Easy Way Out

On mixing education and communication, Delta’s Jessup says one of the most successful initiatives Delta has deployed occurred when it ran an internal social media page focused on financial wellness. The company has used it to promote educational opportunities, to communicate with employees about specific wellness and benefits topics, and even to sneak in some education.

The internal page has fostered a community, Jessup says. Sometimes, employees will answer each other’s financial wellness questions on the platform before a member of the team that runs the page is even able to do so.

One of the most successful education programs the page promotes is “Ready Set Retire,” a 90-minute, in-person program that tailors retirement education to an individual’s career stage, Jessup says. The longest-running version is the program for pre-retirees, and it includes topics such as preparing to claim Medicare and Social Security. That program was popular enough for Delta to create mid-career and early-career versions of it.

Another program, “Ascent,” teaches employees basic financial wellness principles such as how to budget, pay off debt and improve one’s credit score. It also incorporates education about Delta-specific benefits, such as how to maximize a health savings account.

“People commonly said they wanted someone to tell them what to do,” says Jessup. While sending an email is the “easiest” way for a plan sponsor to say they have communicated, it is not always the most efficient or effective way to do so. “Sometimes you just have to be mindful that while you can check the box that you’ve done it, you might not be getting the mileage out of it that you’re hoping for,” Jessup explains.

More on this topic:

	How to Best Personalize Plan Communications
	Communicating in the Digital Age