Getting Personal
Retirement plan communications have never mattered more. With diverse workforces and heightened employee responsibility for retirement readiness, one-size-fits-all messaging simply isn’t effective. Research shows that tailored outreach helps sponsors connect with employees more effectively, improves engagement and can even strengthen retention.
Know Your Audience
The foundation of effective personalization is knowing your employee base. Demographics, job roles, financial literacy levels and communication preferences differ widely across workforces. Younger employees may prefer bite-sized digital content delivered via mobile devices, whereas pre-retirees often value in-depth webinars or one-on-one conversations about catch-up contributions and retirement income strategies. Segmenting your audience into meaningful groups — by age, savings behavior or plan engagement — allows you to tailor both the channel and message.
Leverage Multiple Channels
Not all employees consume information the same way. Use a mix of email, intranet posts, printed handouts, short videos and in-person or virtual group sessions to reach people where they are. Test and iterate: what resonates with field staff may not align with office-based workers. Consistent, repeated touches — ideally four to six per year — keep retirement planning top of mind without overwhelming your audience.
Drive Action Using Personalized Content
Generic plan updates may inform, but personalized content compels action. Targeted nudges — like messaging about maximizing an employer match, reminders about beneficiary designations or outreach around age-specific features such as catch-up contributions — help employees see relevance in their own lives. Using data from your recordkeeper (with appropriate privacy safeguards) can elevate cohort messaging into individualized tips and calls to action.
Lean on Your Plan Advisor
A plan advisor is instrumental in creating a successful personalization strategy. Advisors bring expertise on segmentation strategies, assist in developing messaging
calendars and help interpret survey or behavior data to shape effective communication campaigns. For smaller sponsors with limited human resource capacity, advisors often drive content selection, recommend delivery channels and coordinate with recordkeepers to implement multitouch engagement plans.
Personalized communications are not just good practice — they’re essential for meaningful participant engagement and better retirement outcomes. An advisor can be your partner in translating insights into targeted, effective communications.
