Training Benefits Teams to Work with the Retirement Plan Looks Different for Every Organization

Managing a retirement plan comes with a lot of complexities, as human resource and benefits teams must be aware of new legislation and compliance that is constantly changing.

As a result, training HR and benefits staff to understand the innerworkings of a retirement plan is a vital and ongoing task for employers, especially for those who manage smaller teams made up of mainly generalists who do not have prior retirement-plan experience.

John Jones, managing director of WTW’s employee experience business, says the ways in which plan sponsors train their HR and benefits teams will vary depending on what the retirement program consists of and who has oversight.

For example, Jones says if an employer has an either active or frozen defined benefit plan, there are several ways that education can occur. With large clients, Jones says it is important for them to have an ERISA attorney or engage with a third-party ERISA attorney who knows the plan and and compliance issues. ERISA attorneys can be a “great source of information” for benefits teams, Jones says.

If a company has an active DB plan, Jones says the organization likely employs a qualified actuary to assist in providing funding and expense reporting.

“Actuarial consultants are often asked to educate employees with little to no background in managing the plans,” Jones says.

In the defined contribution world, Jones says companies, such as Fidelity, Empower and T. Rowe Price, can provide a comprehensive overview of the plan for those who are working in the retirement area. He adds that organizations will often have an outside consultant providing advice on compliance and fund line-ups, and they can provide education as well.

Qualifications Needed

When looking to hire new staff members to her benefits team, Rachel Huber Christman, director of total rewards at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, based in Anchorage, Alaska, says she looks for different qualifications depending on the role that she is hiring for.

She says the typical career path on ANTHC’s benefits team is that someone starts out as a benefits associate or associate benefits administrator and could then work their way up to becoming a benefits administrator. Christman says there are times when an HR generalist could switch over to working in benefits, but they likely could not swap all the way over to becoming a benefits manager because they have to understand the complexities of the retirement plan.

ANTHC is currently looking to hire a new benefits manager, and Christman says for this specific role, she would prefer to hire someone who has experience working with a retirement plan, especially as ANTHC has a Section 125, or cafeteria plan.

“We have some complexities within our retirement plan since we’re a nonprofit, and the way we do our match and our discretionary [contribution] is a little funky,” Christman says.

While Christman is looking for someone with retirement experience for this role, she says she is willing to train a candidate if she thinks they have relevant experience and they are the “right fit.”

For employees who are brand new to the benefits team, Christman says she typically requires them to attend some conferences to understand the basics, as well as read the non-profit’s summary plan descriptions, which Christman refers to as the “holy grail” for the retirement plan. From there, the training becomes more individualized depending on what the staff members are asked to work on.

With a Section 125 plan, which allows employees to use pretax money to pay for health insurance premiums for medical, dental and vision, Christman says there are often “grey areas” that are important for staff members to understand. Christman emphasizes that information needs to be accurate so that there are no issues when the plan is audited.

Preferred Degrees, Certifications

In terms of college majors or degrees that she looks for when hiring, Christman says with entry-level positions, she prefers that people at least have an associate degree. For the manager position, a bachelor’s degree is preferred, and Christman says she typically looks for degrees either in business, accounting or human resources.

She says another major qualification she looks for is certifications. For the benefits manager job, ANTHC requires either the Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional certification or the SHRM Professional in Human Resources certification within at least a year of hire.

“If they don’t have the [certification] walking in the door and they meet the qualifications otherwise, we’ll give them a year to get it and will generally allow them to take time off to study,” Christman says.

For lower-level positions, Christman says she does not require the certifications, but she says there are now junior-level certifications that people could earn, which she said would stand out in an application.

Christman herself took more of an nontraditional path, as she had her bachelor’s degree in communications when she moved to Alaska and started out as an HR assistant.

“I joke that HR and benefits found me; I didn’t find it,” Christman says. “I went through a temp agency, and my second placement was with an engineering firm that needed an HR assistant to help out in their Anchorage office, and that’s where my career started.”

Christman later went out to get an MBA and is currently working on another master’s degree in legal studies for HR.

Varying Career Paths

Shelby John Enderwitz, executive vice president of human resources at Central Bank in Houston, Texas, says when she started out in HR and first started learning about retirement plans, there were not many classes or opportunities for education on the intricacies of dealing with retirement plans. She says it was essentially just “trial by fire.”

“I don’t want that for my team,” John Enderwitz says. “I don’t want them to go through the pain points that I did. So anytime there’s any sort of educational webinar, conference or seminar that they can attend to learn more, we have them do that.”

John Enderwitz says this allows staff members to not only get more information, but it also provides them with more confidence in what they are doing.

As the primary administrator of the plan, John Enderwitz says she often has staff members sit in on meetings with their recordkeeper or meetings with other employees who have questions about the plan to help staff members become more well-versed with the plan’s complexities.

For example, she says an employee recently notified the HR team that he ended up over-contributing to his 401(k) for the 2023 plan year and that he needed some of that money back and for it to be considered taxable income. She says she used this specific issue as a learning opportunity for her team.

While her benefits team has grown over the last few years, John Enderwitz says she still works with a relatively small team and typically looks for generalists, who may have some 401(k) experience, when she is hiring.

“Really what I’m looking for is their ability and desire to learn and grow because that is what we’re all about,” John Enderwitz says. “If I can just find someone who embodies the values we have and wants to grow, that’s who I’m going to [gravitate] toward, because I can train them, and we have other resources and advisers that can help them train them along the way.”

Andy Nelson, HR manager at Bonfe Plumbing, Heating & Air Service Inc., based in St. Paul, Minnesota, says his plan adviser, Matt Voecks at Pensionmark, provided him with a lot of training when they first started working together, as Nelson says he “had no idea what a 401(k) plan was” when he first started—other than just a retirement plan.

Nelson says the owner of the Bonfe business, Pete Bonfe, does not hire people who will necessarily know everything right off the bat.

“He hires people that he knows have the grit, the determination and willingness to learn and care about the [employees] and will grow with the team,” Nelson says. “I don’t have an HR background, [and] I didn’t go to school originally for HR. I was given this opportunity because I care about people, and I have a knack for giving feedback.”

Nelson adds that with managing Bonfe’s health benefits, his team relies a lot on their vendors who are “subject matter experts,” and he often uses them as a source of knowledge.
“I’d say we just utilize our tools really well,” Nelson says. “We’re not afraid to bring somebody in or lean heavily on somebody that might be an expert in the industry that they’re working within.”