Deferred Compensation Millennial Focus Groups

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

The County of San Diego Deferred Compensation Program in partnership with our third party administrator, Nationwide Retirement Solutions, conducted focus groups of millennials in the County workforce in order to gain insight into their decisions to participate in a voluntary supplemental retirement plan. The plan provides employees a vehicle to save money to offset gaps between incomes from the County pension and Social Security and the expenses incurred in retirement. The focus groups conducted in June 2015 allowed us to gain a more in depth understanding of millennial perceptions of the Deferred Compensation Program and the factors that may drive their decisions of whether or not to participate. This information has changed the method, message, and communication style used by the program to engage millennial employees. As a result of communications developed from the focus groups, the Program enrolled more than 700 millennial employees and increased the millennial participation rate from 44% to 51% in 2015.