The most effective ways to increase enrollment in a group RRSP are employer matching, consistent internal reminders, seasonal contribution nudges, a personalized contribution calculator, financial education sessions, and adding the plan to benefits reviews and your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Matching is the strongest lever — it's what most reliably moves employees from aware to enrolled. The challenge moving forward is clear: to compete for top talent, you need to offer more than just a salary.
Many organizations are getting creative by offering valuable perks like a group registered retirement savings plan (GRRSP). A group RRSP offers employees a convenient and easy way to save for retirement, especially when you match their contributions. It is a compelling benefit for any employee who could use a boost saving for retirement.
It's important to have an ongoing strategy to ensure your employees are enrolled and getting as much value out of the group RRSP as possible. In this article, we'll go over why your enrollment rate matters and share some strategies for boosting that rate and increasing overall engagement.
Why does group RRSP enrollment matter?
If your organization is serious about creating a better experience for employees, it's important to ensure they receive, and understand, the complete value of your total rewards package. You don't want your top in-house talent to leave retirement savings on the table, especially if you offer matching contributions.
Why? Here are three good reasons:
Group retirement plans help support the financial wellness of employees, which improves morale, overall satisfaction, workplace productivity, and more. The higher the percentage of your workforce enrolled, the more likely you are to see those improvements.
Employees who enroll and see their wealth grow are likely to turn into ambassadors of the group retirement program for new or prospective hires. The more ambassadors you have, the more helpful they will be for increasing adoption.
Enrollment can also serve as a proxy for retention: if an employee isn't enrolled in the group RRSP, they are less likely to be in it for the long haul. When employees opt in, it shows commitment.
Should you set a group RRSP enrollment target?
Like most things in business, you're more likely to achieve meaningful success if you set an enrollment target. Based on available data, matching roughly doubles the share of employees who opt in:
Does the employer match contributions? | Expected enrollment |
|---|---|
| Yes | Up to ~80% |
| No | 40–50% |
Whether your organization is matching or not, it's helpful to name a group RRSP champion within your organization who will not only help administer the program, but will also work toward achieving a high enrollment rate. A human resources specialist is usually a good choice, since a group RRSP program is beneficial for employee engagement.
How employer matching boosts participation
Matching contributions are one of the most common reasons employees join and stay in a group RRSP. When an employer matches a percentage of what an employee sets aside, every contribution is immediately worth more, which is a clear incentive to enroll.
A typical match falls somewhere between 3% and 6% of salary. An employee who contributes enough to capture the full match effectively receives an immediate return on their savings, on top of the tax benefits and long-term growth.
The clearer you make the value of the match, the more likely employees are to participate. Showing the dollar impact in plain terms tends to move people more than simply announcing that a match exists.
6 ways to increase enrollment in your group RRSP
Whether you've recently launched a brand new program or you're looking to get more employees interested in an existing group RRSP, it's important to remember that communicating the value of the plan is not a "one and done" proposition.
It's helpful for an organization's group RRSP champion to create a communications strategy around ensuring employees are making the most of their group RRSP. This may be part of a broader employee engagement strategy or something that stands on its own. It doesn't have to be a complex undertaking; it could be as simple as setting calendar reminders to prompt employees to set up, check growth, and adjust their contributions.
Looking for ways to keep the group RRSP top of mind? Here are six things you can do.
1. Send out reminders through your internal messaging system
Your group RRSP communications strategy could revolve almost exclusively around messages or push notifications through a variety of channels that you know employees engage with. How often you send reminders may depend on your internal communications culture; we recommend sending out at least one reminder every quarter.
If a large cohort of new employees joins the company at any given time, it may be helpful to create a six-week communications strategy to remind them to enroll as soon as possible.
Like all employee communications, the reminders should be short, simple, and include a call to action with a link where they can sign up for or sign into their group RRSP account.
When it comes to content, consider sharing information like:
Matching contributions: if your plan has matching contributions in the range of 3% to 6%, remind employees how much they stand to gain every year by doing some math for them. For example, with a 5% match, someone who earns $100,000 a year will receive $5,000 in employer contributions to their RRSP, in addition to their own contributions of the same amount. That's $50,000 over 5 years, and that's not including compound earnings.
Contributions without matching: if your plan does not include employer-matched contributions, you could share the same math as above, but point out that an employee setting aside 3% to 6% of their pay cheque could yield meaningful results.
Automatic deductions: information on how to maximize their personal contributions by setting up automatic deductions from their pay cheque, so saving is automatic and hassle-free.
Plan performance: reminders to check in on the performance of their plan. When a group RRSP provider offers an intuitive online interface, this can be a genuinely helpful habit.
Advisor check-ins: if your group RRSP program includes access to portfolio managers, it may be helpful to remind employees to check in with a financial advisor to ensure their portfolio is aligned with their current financial goals.
Home Buyers' Plan and Lifelong Learning Plan: information on how they can borrow from their RRSP balance for the Home Buyers' Plan (a lifetime maximum set by the CRA — currently $60,000 — toward buying or building a home for themselves or a related person with a disability; the amount is repaid to the RRSP over 15 years) and the Lifelong Learning Plan (up to $20,000, with a maximum of $10,000 each year, to cover the cost of full-time education or training — part-time study qualifies only if the person is eligible for the Disability Tax Credit).
Your group RRSP provider may offer template reminder emails that make it easier to get started with your communications plan.
2. Take advantage of seasonal cues
There are several times a year when financial planning may be top of mind and worth a reminder of an employee's group RRSP.
Start of a new year (January 1): help employees make financially responsible New Year's resolutions by reminding them what awaits them in their group RRSP program. It's helpful to send out a few extra prompts in December and January.
RRSP contribution deadline (the CRA's annual deadline, usually around March 1): since a group RRSP is directly linked to their RRSP, they'll want to maximize their tax savings by contributing as much as possible before this deadline.
Financial Literacy Month (November): employees may be seeing other cues in the media, so a timely reminder of their group RRSP this month may prompt them to enroll or seek out financial advice through your provider.
Bonus time or annual salary increases: what better time to increase group RRSP contributions than when employees get a bump in their salary? This is an ideal moment to remind them of the math, such as what a 5% contribution looks like over 1 year, 5 years, and beyond.
With each communication, you may want to remind employees that they have access to a group RRSP with perks and remind them it’s a hassle-free way to save for retirement with automatic deductions from every pay cheque.
3. Create a personalized contribution calculator
If you want to get creative, set up a personalized contribution calculator for your employees. Seeing how much retirement savings they're missing out on by not contributing can be an eye-opening incentive to enroll or reset their contributions.
4. Offer financial education sessions
You can add to the value of your group RRSP program by empowering employees to hone their financial education. Engage your group RRSP provider to offer content, webinars, or lunch-and-learns to enhance the financial literacy of your employees and empower them to be in control of their finances.
One way to ensure you get strong engagement for these sessions is to come up with a list of potential topics and poll your employees on what would be most interesting to them.
5. Hold a benefits review during all-hands or town hall meetings
Larger organizations that hold regular all-hands or town hall meetings could add a 10-minute item to the agenda: how to make the most of your compensation package.
It can be powerful when leadership speaks to the value of the group RRSP and other benefits available to employees. The group RRSP champion could create talking points that emphasize the value of the program.
6. Make it part of your Employee Assistance Program
EAPs could include references and mentions of their matching program and access to group accounts. With the availability of numerous account types like a group RRSP, group tax-free savings account (TFSA), or group first home savings account (FHSA), employees can save toward the specific goal they are most focused on. Whether it's a rainy-day emergency fund or their first home, mentioning the group account options in EAPs is a helpful way to encourage employees to enroll and take advantage of the benefit.
Most employers that offer a group RRSP program genuinely care for the financial well-being of their employees, both now and in the future. When you encourage your staff to make the most of your program, you're also supporting their job satisfaction, peace of mind, and sense of self-worth.
That's a goal worth setting.