6 honored for excellence, innovation in DC plans

A prominent theme among the six winners of the 2016 Excellence & Innovation Awards was the use of technology to improve participants' financial education and contributions, and the use of targeting strategies to achieve the same goals.

Now in its fifth year, the awards program of Pensions & Investments and the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association has a new name and a wider reach.

“Over the years, we noticed that there were executives and companies achieving great outcomes by going the extra mile with their plans,” said Amy B. Resnick, editor of P&I. “The program now recognizes both innovation and excellence.”

The awards were presented Oct. 24 at the annual P&I West Coast Defined Contribution Conference in San Diego.

“The quality and range of initiatives in the nominations we received this year was truly amazing, and is a real testament to the growing focus in the plan sponsor community in helping to ensure employees' retirement security,” said Lew Minsky, president and CEO of DCIIA.

“There is so much potential in the current retirement savings system, but it takes plan sponsors who are willing to lead in order to realize this potential and drive positive retirement security outcomes,” Mr. Minsky added.

The winners are:

• Katie Nedl, formerly head of global benefits, and now chief operating officer of the U.S.-Canada defined contribution group, BlackRock Inc., New York;
• Neil Saxton, executive-engagement strategy, Health Employees Superannuation Trust Australia, Melbourne, Australia;
• Dana Hammonds, senior director of player affairs and development, the National Football League Players Association, Washington;
• Sheila Rowaily, head of the investment management, Saudi Arabian Oil. Co., Dhahran, Saudi Arabia;
• Erika Kirchner, vice president of human resources, Bertelsmann Inc., New York, and;
• Shirley Zabiegala, director of savings and retirement for Nestle USA Inc., Solon, Ohio.

BlackRock and HESTA took different technology approaches.

For BlackRock, executives prepared an interactive video that responded to participants depending on their investing strategy and performance, always with a theme of encouraging greater participation and greater contributions.

The video enabled participants to make changes in their accounts right on the spot.

“I love that the video leads directly to action,” wrote one judge.

Although the video was prompted by a desire to increase plan engagement among younger employees, Ms. Nedl said it also was aimed at others, such as older workers who failed to make annual catch-up contributions.

HESTA unveiled a digital-based communication campaign, using data analytics, to reach specific audiences.

The campaign featured a digital membership card to replace a physical card, thus cutting costs and making it easier for participants to review and act on their accounts.

“This is a very impressive use of data analytics and technology,” wrote one judge.

Mr. Saxton said smartphones are popular with HESTA's membership, and the digital membership card makes it easier for participants to act quickly and conveniently.

The digital cards made it easier for HESTA executives to track use of the cards and apply the information to increase participation and improve participant retention.

Among the award winners who catered to special audiences, Ms. Rowaily of Saudi Arabia Oil Co., also known as Saudi Aramco, had the challenge of trying to expand the number of investment opportunities for Saudi and other Arab nation employees while still adhering to Shariah principles.

The religious rules require non-interest-bearing investments, limits on total leverage and an emphasis on socially responsible investment guidelines.

Ms. Rowaily had to develop a plan that offered better returns than that of a predecessor plan, which wasn't Shariah compliant and which invested in a single internally managed fund that earned money market rates of return.

“Groundbreaking — not to mention fascinating,” wrote one judge.

At Bertelsmann, plan executives decided to give participants who are 45 and older the opportunity to select a managed account as their qualified default investment alternative rather than a traditional target-date fund series.

The choice applied only to eligible participants who previously had been defaulted into the target-date fund series.

Although these participants were defaulted into the managed account, they could decline this option either before being placed in the managed account or during a grace period.

Ms. Kirchner had to do extensive work leading up to this approach — getting approval from the company's ERISA attorneys, dealing with the plan's record keeper to make the transition work and addressing some executives' concerns that there might be resistance from participants.

“It was also helpful to learn that these investment options were vetted with ERISA counsel,” wrote another judge. “The entry was very innovative.”

For several years, the National Football League Players Association had offered a sort of one-size-fits-all financial education program for both active and retired players. Ms. Hammonds revised the approach to provide information to specific groups of players — early career, midcareer and late career — as well as retired players.

Another feature — a microsite called Bank On It — augments the financial education for new players with videotaped comments from veteran players about the need for financial planning and financial literacy.

Although the NFLPA program represented an “innovative tackling of unique population,” it also provided “new ideas for other more traditional plan structures,” one judge wrote.

At Nestle USA, Ms. Zabiegala created a targeted education program, called Smart$aving Academy, tailored to the skills and interests of participants and to look like a college curriculum.

The financial education classes had the titles “Retirement 101: Intro to the Smart$aving 401(k)”; “Investing 201: SMART Investing beyond the Basics”; and “Finance 301: Advanced Financial Planning.”

“I liked that this financial wellness program was customized to the workforce and had strong measurable results in its influence on participant behavior,” one judge wrote.