25 May 2007
Improve retirement communication or deter new talents
Survey says baby boomers aren't well enough informed about retirement plan options.
More than 2,000 organizations in the US were questioned in January for the 2007 Benefits and Talent Survey, by global business consultancy, Aon Consulting. The survey looked to identify trends in communication, retirement, talent management and health care.
80 million baby boomers begin to retire
About 80% of employers questioned currently offer personalized
online retirement planning tools, but the same amount believe their employees
still don't fully understand how to invest their defined contribution
plan assets.
One way to recruit high-performing employees is by effectively communicating the total compensation package.
"Personalized communication incorporates both employer-sponsored retirement benefits and outside savings and investments," said Susan Alford, executive vice president and Defined Contribution national practice leader with Aon Consulting.
Root out the high performers
A gap was identified between the importance employers place
on employee education regarding saving for
retirement (98% say it's important) and the amount of employers that
actually freely provide this information to employees (34%).
One way to recruit high-performing employees is by effectively communicating the total compensation package (dollar value of benefits plus salary) to job candidates, but the study found this isn't commonly practiced among employers (23%).
When asked what the main reason was that organizations were unsuccessful in hiring top recruits in the past two years, 42% of organizations said the candidate went elsewhere for compensation that was perceived to be higher.
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