1. Offer encouragement and support for automatic programs.

A complete overhaul of the participant experience related to automatic-enrollment, contribution escalation, QDIA investing, reenrollment, reinstatement, and other types of automatic features is in order.

Streamline the process, cutting steps and possible confusion.

Take another look at what information is being provided, and when it's offered, as well as any other decisions involved in conducting the “automatic” transaction.

2. Use personalized retirement income projections for each participant.

Create personal retirement income projections for participants that look at the whole picture, not just the plan.

Projections should also take into account participant-provided information and other purchased information.

3. Display interactive calculators and tools to allow the participant to personalize the projections with more information.

Tools should ask for true profiling information and be able to store the data so that later calculations will be based on a more complete picture of the participant's situation.

4. Offer a personalized “next best step” messaging approach to communications.

Communications shouldn't just rely on plan data, but should also always use all known information as well as predictive persona information to offer personalized “next best step” guidance at every interaction.

5. Create a multichannel participant experience design with a balance of person-to-person and digital interactions.

Create linked channels to easily access participants via phone, social media, chat or scheduled appointment. Enable digital interactions simultaneously with person-to-person.

6. Use personalized and targeted campaigns (digital and print) supplemented with life stage and life event content and messaging.

Employ predictive analytics and trigger points to offer personalized messages that are appropriate for the participant's situation at the time. Always include next best step guidance.

7. Create “People like me” benchmarks and comparisons.

Create the capability to present peer group comparisons and benchmarks within plans or across plans to help participants know where they stand relative to peers in similar situations.

8. Offer access to nancial wellness and investment advice programs.

Don't just rely on third-party partnerships.

Go beyond to offer truly integrated experiences across select partners by sharing data, offering integrated access, and presenting unied guidance and perspectives.

9. Utilize tracking of participant engagement across channels.

Use the data from your own platforms to get a more complete and accurate measurement of channel usage at a participant level, across channels and by type of interaction.

10. Use dashboards and digitally delivered analytics for the plan sponsor.

Make sure sponsors understand how the plan is performing against these new participant experience metrics, providing data and analytics in easy-to-use formats with drill-down capabilities about participant activities, engagement, enjoyment, and outcomes.