The City of Seattle Deferred Compensation Plan and its industry partner Nationwide were named the winners of the 2023 Art Caple President's Award for Excellence by The National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators.
In addition, the County of Los Angeles 457(b) Horizons and 401(k) Savings Plans and its industry partner Empower were named the recipients of NAGDCA's 2023 Members' Choice Award, said an Oct. 26 news release.
City of Seattle and Nationwide were cited for their 2022 "In-Language Campaign" in the Participant Education and Communication category.
Given that about 20% of Seattle residents speak a language other than English at home, the city "defined what languages connect best with their diverse employee base and created campaigns to connect with employees in their preferred language," the release noted.
The plan, which has $1.5 billion in assets, used multiple tactics from February 2022 to December 2022, each designed to "enhance participants' retirement benefit knowledge." Such tactics included a virtual open house, updated and translated plan facts and brochure of highlights, and the creation of an "end-to-end Spanish web experience."
This campaign resulted not only in increased web traffic and new users, but also a 10% increase in enrollments year-over-year.
"We applaud the City of Seattle and its industry partner Nationwide for creating a multilanguage, multitactic campaign to enhance participants' retirement benefit knowledge, which garnered increased web traffic, new users, and a meaningful increase in enrollments," said NAGDCA Executive Director Matt Petersen in the release.
The County of Los Angeles 457(b) Horizons and 401(k) Savings Plans and its industry partner Empower were cited for "Road Trip to Retirement," the county's 2022 National Retirement Security Month campaign.
More than 137,000 people participate in the County of Los Angeles' 457(b) Horizons and 401(k) Savings Plans. For the 2022 edition of its NRSM campaign, the county's plan administrative committee developed a campaign "designed to map out the various landmarks of retirement readiness that each participant should visit during their career," the release added.
As of April 20, the combined asset size for County of Los Angeles Plans was $19.9 billion.
NAGDCA is the professional association for plan administrators and services providers of government-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans.
