Categories
  • News & Events
  • PROspectives
  • Great Team vs. Good Players

    On Sunday, February 2nd, many of you will be glued to the TV watching the San Francisco 49ers battle the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 54. Imagine if either team came to Miami with just one string of players. Crazy, right? Someone could get hurt, sick or even just be having a bad day. In sports, this is called depth of field and is an absolute necessity for any team.

    So, what about your business? Don’t the same concepts apply there? Small businesses frequently struggle with the execution of this concept. We’ve heard countless stories of the one super administrator who handles hundreds of plans, or the pension manager who guards the tracking spreadsheet and reviews everything, or the whiz kid who is the “document” person. TPAs speak so proudly of these truly great employees but they can also represent some of your highest business risks.

    And so it goes with PensionPro. Many of our clients assign a person to, not only lead the charge to implement our system, but absorb all the ongoing knowledge and technical updates. We get consistent outreach telling us that an employee has moved on and has taken all the PensionPro knowledge with them. We have 8,500 registered PensionPro users, and though access to our help center articles and videos is completely free, less than 6,000 users have accessed it. TPA operations are in the hands of 30% of the employees!

    We contacted Cari Massey-Sears of Dunbar, Bender and Zapf, who brings a PensionPro staff member on site for 3 days every year. This is no small commitment, but for the DBZ team, it’s worth it. “We have and will continue to have PensionPro on-site to train us on how to use the software and better utilize the technology to better manage the business, optimize our operations and develop our staff.”

    “PensionPro’s staff are extremely well versed in not only the software but also the administration of the TPA business, our deadlines and the cyclical nature of it,” said Massey-Sears. “This allows us to not waste time explaining what we need to accomplish and to better focus on setting and achieving goals as service providers to our clients. PensionPro can be here for a 3-day period and not just teach, but help us put new processes into place. Processes that would have taken us weeks or even months to implement are able to be done in a matter of days. I cannot reinforce the value this brings to my already busy team.”

    While there are many resources available; including articles, bootcamps, training (both onsite and virtual) and consulting, it’s important to know that PensionPro is here to support you. Losing a key employee is devastating enough without considering that the person walks away with the keys to your workflow kingdom. Consider the roles at your firm, do you have multiple staff members in the “pro” seat?

    If the answer is no, it’s time to train more pros, and resources are out there to help. Whether the system is PensionPro, a recordkeeping platform or anything in between, knowledge should be spread amongst the team. Reach out to your providers and find out what resources are available for you and take advantage of them.