HR Engaging Employees with Financial Workshops

Phyllis Martin has worked at Duke for 25 years and by her estimation, she has five years before she'll consider retiring.

But she's just now planning to set up a retirement account.

"We all think we're going to stay young forever, and I just kept putting it off," said Martin, a financial care counselor with Duke's Department of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. "If I started when I first came to Duke, I would have had a nice pot of money built up by now."

This week, Martin was among about 80 Duke employees who came together as part of a special retirement information session sponsored by Duke Human Resources. The event was the first in a series of financial planning seminars to be scheduled for faculty and staff to help employees better understand their retirement options and how to reach their goals.

"By raising awareness and providing employees with the information and resources they need, we hope to encourage them to save more for retirement and build a legacy of financial freedom for themselves and their families," said Sylvester Hackney, associate director of Benefits, who organized the workshops. "We have to be prepared to take care of us and our families, but we have to first get started with saving to participate in that future."

During the 90-minute workshop, TIAA-CREF staff led participants through conversations and activities that focused on the importance of cash flow, how to look at saving and spending, and identifying good and bad debt.

In one activity, groups of Duke employees were presented with cards representing different parts of a monthly budget like housing, food, entertainment and more. They discussed how to split a budget into each category to better understand where money should go.

Afterward, it was revealed that a suggested monthly amount to put into a retirement account is 10 to 20 percent of gross income, with an additional 5 to 10 percent going into savings. Those are important things to consider when crafting a budget, employees were told.

Lessons like that drew Mimi Coker to the workshop. She's worked as a clinical trials assistant in the Duke Department of Pediatrics for two years but has only contributed monthly allowances to an IRA savings account set up from her previous job.

"I wanted to know more about Duke’s 403(b) plans because I know it's different from a 401(k), but I want to learn how different vendors invest money," Cooker said. "This kind of event lets me know Duke cares about their employees and has an interest in our future."

Additional workshops are planned as part of Financial Fitness Week in May, and others may be offered in the fall. The sessions will be tailored for specific kinds of retirement planning, aiming to help faculty and staff no matter their savings history or current planning.

"This approach allows us to address unique needs of specific demographic groups in ways that are more difficult to do in broader communications," said Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president for Administration.