This audio conference was recorded on Wednesday - February 25, 2009

Credits:

This program has been approved for 1.5 recertification credit hours toward PHR and SPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HRCI homepage at www.hrci.org. The use of this seal is not an endorsement by HRCI of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met HRCI’s criteria to be pre-approved for recertification.

Description:

The U.S. economy has hit code red - and that’s why many employers have been focusing on the big-picture goals of keeping their organizations afloat and guiding them through this storm to calmer waters. But your employees are focused on their own big pictures: their paychecks - and their retirement plans.

You can’t blame your workers (particularly your departing Boomers) for worrying about whether they’ll be able to retire as planned. By the end of 2008, a $60 billion surplus in the pension funds at S&P 1500 companies had plummeted to a $280 billion deficit. And more employers offering retirement plans have reported huge jumps in the number of their eligible workers postponing retirement, reducing their plan contributions, and taking loans from their retirement accounts.

If your employees spend more time worrying about their retirement options than their current job performance, that spells big trouble for your productivity, your retention rates, and your bottom line.

You’ll learn practical strategies for reassuring your workforce and preserving your retirement plans during this detailed audio conference recording. Our expert speaker - a longtime HR consultant who’s helped hundreds of employers re-tool their retirement benefits - will discuss what’s happening right now with retirement options and participation levels.

She’ll outline the steps you can take to help your workers make retirement decisions (without increasing your legal risks), as well as the best practices for dealing with new challenges ranging from phased retirement requests to the very latest changes in federal retirement plan regulations.

Speaker(s):

Anne Marie Dexter, CPC, CRPS, is senior vice president of Retirement Plan Concepts, a Los Angeles-based HR consulting firm that specializes in helping employers design, introduce, and manage retirement benefits for their workers. She has helped hundreds of companies around the country select retirement plan vendors, comply with federal and state regulations, and improve participation in these plans. Before joining her current firm, she served as a senior consultant with a leading international financial services company. Dexter earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California.

You and your colleagues will learn:

• What’s working (and what’s not) in the current economy, based on a current snapshot of retirement planning trends
• Best practices for restoring employee confidence and boosting participation in your organization’s retirement benefits programs
• The legal risks in teaching employees about retirement finances, and how far you should go in providing financial education and advice
• How to avoid phased retirement programs as Baby Boomers drift in and out of retirement and your workplace
• The latest options in nonfinancial retirement benefits – what can you offer retirees besides money?
• What’s happening right now with federal retirement regulations, including the changes made to the Pension Protection Act that may affect the way you fund your retirement benefits
• How to handle retirement plan freezes and benefits reductions while minimizing employee unhappiness