The latest digitization effort at the Thrift Savings Plan looks to improve how plan members receive information. The hard copy of the agency’s newsletter has ceased production, and the TSP Planner is now being sent electronically to millions of email addresses. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, says that there are numerous benefits to the new digital circular.
“We can see what people are interested in. We emailed four million and we had a 40% open rate. The government averages roughly 21%… What we are able to do is educate people about the difference between a contribution allocation and an interfund transfer. One is new money, one is money that’s already in the plan. We linked to a video about the L-funds, It gives us the ability to be more timely, you have a long lead time for something in print, you can do things a little bit more quickly and timely when you’re talking about an email,” Weaver said.
