Deferred Compensation Retention Campaign

About the Program

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

Year: 2015

The County of San Diego Deferred Compensation program offers two supplemental retirement plans which have helped current and retired employees save more than $1.2 billion for their retirement. We recognize that our employees’ retirement needs do not end on the day that their public service does. We continue to offer our retirees access to the same program and services that helped them accumulate their savings. However, we recently experienced an increase in assets being rolled out of the plan to other providers. In many cases that move may not be in our participants’ best interest. We wanted to do something to forestall the more than $20 million being rolled out annually. To raise awareness of the benefits of staying in the plan, the County partnered with our third party administrator, Nationwide, to develop a creative campaign. The campaign featured a peace-of-mind “Relax: We’re still the Plan for your retirement” theme and message that was packaged in a set of coasters. Each coaster featured a local landscape and one or two benefits of staying in the plan that would combat competitor messaging. The campaign resulted in a 4.26% reduction in the amount of assets rolling out in the same timeframe year-over-year.