Canadian employers are skeptical of their employees’ understanding of their company-sponsored capital accumulation plan (CAP) and/or supplementary retirement plans (SERP), a new study from Buck Consultants has found.
The survey, Taking Stock—An Overview of Employee Retirement Programs in Canada found the following to be the five most important issues affecting 2011 survey participants:
- employee communications and understanding (50%);
- legislative compliance (36%);
- adequacy of benefits (25%);
- cost containment (24%);
- value for the money (23%)
Four of the top five issues are the same as the previous survey, which was conducted four years ago. This is a clear indication that plan sponsors needs to re-invigorate their communication strategies because what they are doing isn’t working.
However, the findings indicate that the answer isn’t necessarily in employing different media (web, social media, apps, etc.) or increasing the volume of communication. Plan sponsors need to get to the root of the problem and clearly understand the needs, financial literacy levels, and engagement drivers of their employees.
Priorities
When asked to identify their top three future priorities, respondents said:
- provide investment education (64%);
- add investment modelling tools (33%);
- add/change employer match (32%);
These priorities are also the same as in the last survey, again indicating that much work needs to be done.