Retirement plan participants say they want their retirement benefit
statements to include an estimate of lifetime income.
A study finds nine out of
10 participants want to see the estimate, which helps workers understand how
much lifetime income could be generated from their retirement plans. The study
by the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) also reveals more than 90% of
consumers want their employers to provide online retirement income calculators,
allowing workers to select their own assumptions to calculate estimates of
lifetime retirement income.
In light of its research, IRI believes the lifetime income
estimates would improve participants’ understanding of their retirement plan
options, leading to better decision making and improved savings. Cathy Weatherford,
IRI president and CEO explains, “More than 75% of the plan participants who
took part in this study said they would increase their contributions after
seeing their retirement income estimates. And by no small margin. These
respondents would increase their contribution level by four percentage points
or more.”
In May 2013, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Administration issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking about requiring benefit statements to provide estimated
lifetime income payments based on a plan participant’s accrued benefits and
projected future accrue benefits. IRI states its support for the concept of providing lifetime
income information, but also advises the DOL to provide plan sponsors with
flexibility in providing the estimates, as different plan participants want
different information about how much income their savings might generate.
The “Consumer Preferences for Lifetime Income Estimates on
401(k) Statements” survey was conducted with 1,500 401(k) plan participants
between the ages of 21 and 65. The report is available here.
Managers
report frustration over lack of manners, ethics and professionalism among
employees.
Kessler
International conducted a survey by polling upper and mid-level management at
40 professional services firms, and found that the respondents indicated by an
84% margin that their staff was inconsiderate and rude in the workplace. In
addition, the same respondents cited by 65% that they felt a majority of their
staff lacked a moral compass.
Bad
manners or unethical behavior cited by managers included:
untimely
and inappropriate use of cellphones;
wearing
inappropriate clothing to work;
complete
lack of courtesy;
use
of street talk and signs in professional meetings;
the
inability of younger staff to write a letter/email;
the
lack of personal responsibility;
failure
to say please and thank you;
lying
to phone caller;
hanging
up on phone calls when they are confronted and were uncomfortable;
cheating
on time billed to clients and stealing time by arriving late and leaving early;
cutting
corners on work product rather than staying after hours to correct the mistakes
they made;
visiting
sex and dating websites on company time;
sexting
on company phones;
the
inability to interact professionally with clients during a business function;
the
lack of manners; and
the
lack of integrity.
Some
respondents expressed disgust not only of certain individuals’ behavior, but
also their own inability to say something and correct the situation. They cited
their company’s “political correctness,” their own inability to have
confrontations and constraints instituted by their human resources department
as stumbling blocks.
It
wasn’t just bad manners or ethics, but a lack of business sense was revealed in
specific scenarios reported by survey respondents.
One
manager reported routinely seeing one staff member taking a Kindle device to
the restroom, while another indicated that an office mate was constantly
receiving noisy text alerts and did not have the courtesy to mute the sound on
their device.
Many
respondents noted that on Fridays employees seem to take it upon themselves to
dress like “slobs” despite no casual Friday policy being in place. Hoodies,
flip flops, torn and frayed jeans and tank tops were all listed in the
responses as clothing staff wore that managers deemed inappropriate. One
manager stated that his employee met him at a lawyer’s office from whom they
were trying to solicit business, in jeans and sandals with no socks on.
Managers
described a constant string of staff entering their offices and personal
workspaces without first asking or being invited. Staff were described as
“borrowing” other employees office supplies without asking or “borrowing” their
lunches or drinks from the refrigerator or taking goodies from a coffee club of
which they were not members. Please, thank you, and courtesy greetings at the
beginning and end of the day were reported by more than half of those polled to
be nearly nonexistent in the workplace. One respondent complained that an
employee would stand in front of their desk and stare at them while they were
on a phone call, waiting for them to finish. Another reported that an employee
would consistently barge in on meetings with questions that were not at all
germane to the subject of the meeting.
Many
polled indicated that they were embarrassed to invite younger employees to
business functions because they did not know how to interact with clients. On
respondent cited that a staff member, when told by the client that the client
was paying for the meal, told the group at the table to buy the most expensive
things on the menu since they didn’t have to expense it. Another respondent
noted that one employee regularly failed to tip wait staff because the tip came
out of his meal per-diem.
One
manager cited problems with prospective employees, claiming that job applicants
refused to complete employment applications instead simply attaching a resume
in which much of the information requested on the application was not included.
Kessler says guidelines
and recommendations should be distributed to staff regarding their use of
electronics, dress and conduct in the workplace. When manners are left
unchecked, companies may be exposing themselves to theft of information,
embarrassment and the loss of valued clients.