Plan sponsors might feel increasingly responsible for helping participants achieve retirement security, but they need some help in meeting the goals they set for their defined contribution plans.

That's the word from a J.P. Morgan Asset Management survey. It resulted in a white paper "Aligning goals, improving outcomes: 2015 Defined Contribution Plan Sponsor Survey Findings."

The white paper offers suggestions on how sponsors can improve employee outcomes and more closely align their good intentions and plan outcome. To make sure employees can retire with sufficient income, it suggests three things plan sponsors should do:

1. Offer automatic enrollment to boost participation.

2. Adopt automatic contribution escalation, so participants save enough.

3. Use such options as target-date funds and reenrollment to encourage employees to invest appropriately.

The survey uncovered several disconnects between sponsor DC plan goals and how they view success.