Public Pension Communicators Share Best Practices

Three award-winning public pension communicators agree on at least one thing: Tailoring your message to your audience matters.

The winners, who were recognized by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems on March 3 for exceptional communications and member services work, came from across the country and represented an array of plan sizes. They each overcame challenges, had success and shared advice for other pension plan sponsors.

Career Stage Matters

Renee Garcia, the director of communications and outreach at the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board—and winner of the award for plans with between $10 billion and $50 billion in assets under management—was recognized for modernizing member education and helping bridge the gap between complex technical system implementation and organizational readiness during a major pension administration system modernization. Garcia says a message that resonates with somebody who is approaching retirement will not be well-received by someone in an early stage of their career.

“Younger members want the bullet points,” says Ryan Woodhouse, content and publications manager at the Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado. Woodhouse won the award for plans with less than $10 billion in AUM, thanks to his work leading with disability-conscious design and distilling complex pension information into clear, member-focused content. “They want to know what they need to know, as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, older members want the “long form,” Woodhouse explains. Pre-retirees want the basic understanding and bullet points at baseline, but they also want the “nuts, bolts and in-depth knowledge” about their pensions.

Reaching Members

Woodhouse says FPPA has a robust field education team that meets with plan members one-on-one and helps project the retirement income their pension will provide them, based on their salary, expected salary increases and other metrics. FPPA also hosts annual retirement readiness seminars—which Woodhouse says attract some members year after year, because they say the programs offer something new for them to learn. Usually, those who attend are the most engaged with their plans and closest to retirement.

Garcia says that since New Mexico is a large state to travel across, she offers monthly webinars, alternating between sessions geared toward pre-retirement readiness and one tailored for members who are early-to-mid career.

Garcia has also held webinars on New Mexico’s Return to Work program, which allows retired members of the NMERB to resume working for an NMERB employer, without losing their retirement benefits, after being approved to do so. When Garcia first joined NMERB in 2023, many members misunderstood the approval process for the program and unintentionally violated the rules, resulting in a suspension of their pension payments. A change in law that went into effect on January 1, 2024, provided a “grace period” for members found in violation, while previous rules required immediate benefit suspension.

“We pushed for this change and increased outreach because we recognized that many violations stemmed from a lack of clarity, rather than a lack of intent,” Garcia says.

Before and after the change, she made it her priority to focus on educating members on what return to work is and how they could avoid violations, through clear, digestible content, including simplified visual guides and a presentation series during which members could ask questions about the parameters of the program.

Collaboration is Key

Jalel Braden, senior communications specialist at the San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association, won NCPERS’ rising star award, in recognition of her work bringing an innovative, human-centered approach to education and outreach. Braden says she always brings along an SBCERA retirement expert to answer technical questions at the seminars she holds for SBCERA’s members. As someone who entered her role without experience in the retirement industry, she emphasizes the importance of the collaboration between an organization’s communications and member services divisions.

Four years into her job, Braden says she learns something new every day, and emphasizes how much she relies on her colleagues to ensure accuracy and completeness in her communications campaigns.

“We spend so much time at work [that] it makes no sense not to engage with the people we work with,” Braden says. “Build relationships with the departments with which you work. They’ll … go out of their way to make sure you really understand what it is you’re trying to understand.”

As an in-house communicator, Braden stresses the importance of ensuring that members understand that the people delivering the messages are there to support all participants for as long as they need, and to remind them that the communications team also belongs to SCBERA’s pension plan and shares many of the same benefits and questions as other participants.

Woodhouse adds that plan sponsors should present content to members that is consistent in branding, tone and structure, to help members view it as credible guidance from the employer.

“If you do that well, you’ll be rewarded with more attention,” Woodhouse says. “You’ll be able to spend more time with them … and help them to make confident decisions about their retirement.”

Woodhouse also recommends a data-driven approach, asking members which communication methods suit them best.

“‘What topics are you interested in? How can we better serve you?’ Pay attention to what they say,” Woodhouse says. “Figure out whether it’s within your means and do it.”

National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems honorees also included Beth Hallmark, the chief communications officer for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, who won NCPERS’ award for plans with more than $50 billion in AUM; and Kate Chandler, the member engagement manager for the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, who won an honorable mention in member services.

All the awards were presented at the NCPERS’ Communication and Member Services Summit, in San Diego.