Employer retirement-features education
FeatureHeld is a perception-gap diagnostic and education system for benefits leaders. Upload any company's SPD in plan setup, measure what employees believe about those plan features, compare belief to the document, and teach one feature at a time-without selling products or promising retention.
Email [email protected] · Pre-revenue · Not investment advice
The problem
Match formulas, vesting schedules, fee disclosures, and default investment elections live clearly in the SPD. On the shop floor and in the office, the picture is murkier. Benefits leaders often hear anecdotes-rarely a measured reading of what people believe versus what the document says.
How it works
Plan setup first: an employer or adviser uploads that company's SPD once. FeatureHeld accepts any plan's SPD so pulse and gap are plan-specific—not a generic template. Then measurement and education that respect plan design and advice boundaries. The pulse is built around the same three Perceived Quality of Retirement Programs (PQRP) factors studied in 2008.
Same structure as the founding study. Perceived plan features showed the clearest link to job satisfaction; accessibility showed no significant link-yet we still measure access for education fairness.
What the plan actually offers-match, vesting, fees, defaults-and whether employees can name them.
Study: employees' perceptions of their retirement plan's features were linked to overall job satisfaction (r = .37), the strongest of the three factors.
How employees feel about program quality-not just whether they can recite a formula.
Study: smaller association than features.
Can people find and use the program? Still measured for fairness-even though it did not track with job satisfaction.
Study: no significant link with job satisfaction. Measured for education equity.
Employer or adviser uploads any company's SPD once per plan. FeatureHeld parses match, vesting, fees, defaults, and eligibility into plain-language features for that plan—not a one-size template.
Eleven items across features, subjective perception, and accessibility. A short diagnostic—not a satisfaction survey dressed up as strategy. Beliefs are scored against this plan's features.
Side by side: what employees believed versus what the document says. Gap size is shown clearly. Group results unlock only when enough people share.
One feature per lesson, ordered by the biggest gaps. By age band and role only. Education, not advice.
A handoff package and calendar invite the employee can download. Nothing is auto-sent. Investment questions go to a named licensed adviser.
Evidence
Foundational dissertation evidence-not a claim that the commercial pulse is already revalidated. Correlation is not causation; we never claim features cause satisfaction or reduce turnover.
Clark, J. B. (2008). A Correlation Analysis Between Perceived Quality of Company Retirement Programs and Job Satisfaction (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix). UMI No. 3302697. Quantitative descriptive correlation study of National Management Association (NMA) professionals. Job satisfaction measured with the JIG scale in the 2008 study.
r = .30
Overall perceived quality of retirement programs was linked to job satisfaction
Modest overall association
r = .37
Employees' perceptions of their retirement plan's features were linked to overall job satisfaction
Clearest of the measured factors · modest
Age shaped the link between perceived plan features and job satisfaction (hierarchical regression; p = .021). Gender also moderated some PQRP–job satisfaction relationships in the study. FeatureHeld deliberately does not segment curriculum by gender-tracks use age band and role only.
The 2008 study reported its complete response rate among deliverable invites. Participation is a fact, not something to hide. FeatureHeld publishes the response rate on page one of every gap report.
These are correlations from one study of professional employees, not proof that features education changes any outcome. The commercial pulse ships only after new-sample revision. We make no retention claims, and we do not resell the commercial JIG scale as a FeatureHeld product.
Offer
Built for plan sponsors with 200+ employees who want measurement and education-not another black-box platform.
$4,500 up to 200 employees
Annual
$12,000 annual license
Feature-by-feature course + manager scripts
$1,500 workshop
For association education directors
Referral
Who it's for
Beachhead industries mirror the 2008 NMA study population: government, manufacturing, aerospace, and defense-where plan documents are serious and communication bandwidth is tight.
Studied population (Clark, 2008): government, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, healthcare, utilities, and other sectors.
Roughly 200–200,000 employees. Priority beachhead: government, manufacturing, aerospace, and defense-the industries that dominated the founding sample-plus related plan sponsors with dense plan documents and thin education bandwidth.
Workshop buyers who need a clean, non-advice curriculum on plan features for member employers-without gender-based tracks or retention promises.
Later channel partners. FeatureHeld measures and teaches features; licensed advice stays with the firm the client already chose.
Boundaries
Trust is built by saying no as clearly as yes.
Contact
Early conversations with benefits leaders, association educators, and channel partners. Tell us about your plan size and what you wish employees understood.
Email: [email protected]
Opens your email client with subject “FeatureHeld conversation”