PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 20

PARTICIPANTS SPECIAL ISSUE | COVER STORY
Nationally, more than one in five U.S. residents speaks a
foreign language at home, a number that grows to 34% in New
Mexico, 36% in Texas and 45% in California. A quarter of those
who speak a foreign language at home say their English is not
strong, the Center for Immigration Studies reports.
When deciding what, if any, materials they want to make
available in multiple languages, plan sponsors should begin by
considering their company demographics.
" In a perfect world, all materials would be available, as you'd
want non-English employees to have access to the entire suite of
materials that English-speaking employees have, " Hauptmann
says. " At a minimum, though, I'd expect the website, required legal
notices, and enrollment and distribution materials to be available. "
The larger a population of non-English speakers at a
company, the more compelling the case for providing retirement
materials to them in their native language.
" It starts with taking a close look at the languages and cultures
in your employee pool and then considering the plan offerings
and communication of those offerings based on the needs of
that employee population, " says Jolene Workman, vice president
of customer care, retirement and income solutions at Principal
Financial Group in Des Moines, Iowa. " It's putting the employee
at the center and then thinking about, given the benefit, what is
the best way to communicate based on that population's needs? "
Successful execution of such materials, however, requires
more than simply putting existing copy through " Google translate "
or some similar program.
" In our case, when we translate a website, it's not just a
machine translation, " Vaillancourt says. " There's a human translation
that accompanies it. Sometimes the machine translation
is literal, but it doesn't have the nuances you might need in the
context of retirement, or financial, services. "
Hauptmann cites the term " Social Security " to illustrate
the challenges inherent in literal translation. " You can't just
translate the word 'Social' and the word 'Security' and get their
combined meaning, " Hauptmann says. " The key is making
sure that whoever is doing the translation is fully fluent in the
language he's translating to and has a background in finance so
he can explain these types of terms. "
Empower uses Spanish linguists to translate its sites, app
and other materials.
" To engage Spanish-speaking participants with their retirement
plan, we have translated all of our key content-from enrollment
to transition guides and ongoing communications, " says Tina
Wilson, senior vice president and chief product officer at Empower
in Denver. " We have also increased the number of bilingual service
A MATTER OF EQUITY
OFFERING multilingual retirement materials is one way plan sponsors can help
address the retirement gap faced by underrepresented groups.
" The inequality that organizations are confronting is the result of multiple,
overlapping factors operating across many decades, " says Tina Wilson of
Empower. " Against this backdrop, the financial services industry has an important
opportunity to help level the playing field. "
A March 2021 analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found
that less than half as many Hispanic families had retirement plan assets than
had families with white, non-Hispanic heads. The report found little change in
that disparity over the past decade.
Wilson says employees widely view this gap as an indication of systemic issues.
A study by Empower found that more than seven in 10 employees agreed with the
statement " Retirement savings planning is not created equal for everyone. "
" It's critical that retirement be attainable for all employees equally, so, no
matter their background, they can live a comfortable and fulfilling life, " Wilson
says. " To help people of all demographics save effectively for retirement, employers
and financial services providers should be evaluating and re-evaluating communications,
plan offerings and employee outcomes, then adjusting as needed. "
While multilingual materials are a step in the right direction, employers
still need to do more for under-represented groups, says Megan Yost of Segal
Benz. " We have to look closely at overall financial wellbeing and wealth and how
systemic racism creates barriers to success, " she says. -BB
representatives. " For clients' employees
who need help in languages other than
Spanish, the company uses a translation
service firm to provide support.
TRANSCREATING
In addition to language, plan sponsors
should look for ways to make the content
as culturally relevant as possible.
" You want to craft it in a way that
will be understood by this population, "
Workman says. " You're not translating,
you're transcreating. "
Non-native English speakers may
have different financial challenges than
their peers have, or different goals for their
money in the short and long term. They
may, for example, be supporting family
members in another country or have
multiple generations living in one home.
A recent study from the Employee
Benefit Research Institute found that
Hispanic Americans, regardless of
income, when compared with other groups
were more apt to agree that helping friends
and family is more important than saving
for their own retirement. They were also
more likely than white Americans to agree
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