PLANSPONSOR - July - August 2023 - 21

Nonprofit DC <$300mm
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Anchorage, Alaska
of Alaska Native and American Indian people
living in the 50th state.
The 403(b) plan has a 100% match of salary
deferrals up to 5%, plus a 3% profit-sharing
contribution. The plan's advisory committee has
design changes in process that it hopes to implement
this coming January, including to raise the
default deferral rate from 3% to 5% so new participants
will default to receiving the full match.
Partnering
with
Principal,
ANTHC
Rachel Christman, director total rewards
Plan Snapshot
PLAN TYPE AND SIZE: 403(b), 401(a), 457(b); $146mm
for 403(b)
PARTICIPANTS AND PARTICIPATION RATE: 3,927; 87%
DEFERRAL RATE: 3% default; 7% average
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION: 100% of 5%, profit sharing
AFTER MAKING a recordkeeper switch
between year-ends 2021 and 2022, the 403(b) plan
of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium,
in Anchorage, Alaska, saw a 22.1% increase in
participants meeting one-on-one with the plan's
recordkeeper: now Principal Financial Group.
During that same time, participants taking a
positive action after a one-on-one rose 7.8%. And
the percentage of participants maximizing the
match grew from 50.6% to 53.7%.
The desire to strengthen participant
engagement " was a large part of why we moved,
because we didn't have a lot of success with our
previous vendor on educating our employees, "
recalls ANTHC Benefits Manager Krisha
Loescher. Since the change, 403(b) participation
has risen to 87% from about 70% at the
nonprofit, which aims to meet the unique needs
produced a 2022 education strategy with five
focal points, Loescher says: increasing the
percentage of participants maximizing the
match; boosting participants' website and mobile
app logins, plus encouraging participants to set
up multifactor authentication to increase their
account's security; running a beneficiary-designation
campaign to motivate more participants to
name a beneficiary; generating focused monthly
education topics; and holding the quarterly oneon-one
education meetings with Principal.
Besides in the positive results previously
mentioned, increased 403(b) participant engagement
could be seen in other ways. A total of
36.8% more participants accessed the participant
website, and the number of sessions they had on
the site jumped by 182.6%. Further, the mobile
app, which offers the same functionality as the
desktop version, saw a 20.3% rise in users and
a 29.6% increase in sessions. The percentage of
participants who set up multifactor authentication
grew from 52% to 64%. And 34% of participants
had designated a beneficiary by year-end
2022, up from 23% a year earlier.
" We define the success of our employee
education efforts by increased participation to
receive match funds and by positive actions taken
after education sessions, " says ANTHC Director
of Total Rewards Rachel Christman. " We want
to empower our employees with knowledge
and help them understand the importance of
investing in themselves-even early in their
career-to plan for a strong retirement that will
best support them and their families to be ready
for the future. " -JW
Since the
change,
403(b) participation
has
risen to 87%
from about
70% at the
nonprofit,
which aims
to meet the
unique needs
of Alaska
Native and
American
Indian people
living in
Alaska.
Finalists
The Baltimore Community
Foundation
Baltimore, Maryland
Wright-Hennepin
Cooperative Electric
Association
Rockford, Minnesota
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