How Are Plan Sponsors Measuring Participant Success?
The ultimate proof of retirement plan participant success is in the results: whether the participant achieves a financially secure retirement. In the meantime, plan sponsors can look at a variety of metrics to help evaluate and track plan outcomes. The 2025 PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution Survey identified several of these metrics, summarized below. While not exhaustive, this overview illustrates the range of lenses sponsors use to gauge employee financial wellness and retirement readiness, beyond analysis of plan lineup investment options and performance.
Plan Participation & Contribution Behaviors. Participation and savings patterns offer insight into how employees are engaging with their plan and whether contribution behaviors are supporting long-term savings goals.
Plan Participation Rate: Percentage of eligible employees actively contributing to the plan.
Average Deferral Rate: Average percentage of compensation deferred by participants.
Employer Match Utilization Rate: Percentage of participants contributing enough to receive the full employer match.
Auto-feature Effectiveness. These are metrics tied to automatic plan features and their influence on participant behavior over time, including retention, savings progression, and inertia effects.
Automatic Enrollment Capture Rate: Percentage of automatically enrolled participants who remain in the plan.
Automatic Enrollment Opt-out Rate: Percentage of automatically enrolled participants who decline participation.
Automatic Escalation Success Rate: Percentage of participants whose contribution rates increase as scheduled.
Participant Engagement. Engagement metrics provide insight into whether and how participants are interacting with plan resources, tools, and support channels.
Participant Registration Rate: Percentage of participants registered for online plan access.
Online Engagement Rate: Frequency of participant interaction with plan websites, tools, or planning resources.
Call Center Volume and Participant Inquiry Patterns: Frequency and subject matter of participant inquiries to plan service centers.
Financial Wellness and Stress Indicators. These metrics offer context around participants’ broader financial health, highlighting behaviors that may affect long-term savings.
Financial Education Engagement Rate: Participation in advisory sessions or group education programs.
Loan and Hardship Withdrawal Rate: Percentage of participants taking plan loans or hardship distributions.
From Metrics to Meaning
Plan sponsors have lots of data at their disposal to evaluate plan success. Working with an advisor can help sponsors identify the most relevant data points to track, interpret results in context, and emphasize progress over time rather than relying solely on snapshot comparisons or industry averages — all while remaining aligned with the plan’s overall goals.
Sources:
https://www.plansponsor.com/surveys/2026-dc-survey-plan-benchmarking/
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