There’s no denying that Americans today are shouldering greaterresponsibility for their retirement security than ever before.

With uncertainty around the future of Social Security, theincreasing costs associated with living longer, and the fact thatpeople are not saving enough, the average worker faces the growingrisk that they will not have the income they need to meettheir retirement goals.

Although employer-sponsored retirement programs, such as a401(k), do their best to keep participantsmoving in the right direction, recent research from Voya Financial’s Behavioral Finance Institute for Innovationfound that 90 percent of workplace savings plans were not “ontrack” to replace an average of 70 percent of their participants’working income, a standard industry benchmark for measuringretirement readiness.

Behavioral scientists attribute this shortfall, in part, to thewealth of data provided by computers and mobile devices, as well asthe style in which people make decisions in digitalenvironments.

Access to massive amounts of information has created a scarcityof attention and has increased the speed at which we processinformation. The online activity of participants on a retirementplan website reinforces that people are prone to making quick,instinctive decisions about important planning and investmentoptions rather than careful, reflective choices. This style ofdecision-making does not always lead to the best outcomes.

Voya’s research also looked at how advisors and employers canleverage this behavioral data to design more successful workplaceplans that nudge individuals to positive action and, ultimately,more favorable savings outcomes.

In fact, the research supports the use of five steps thatalready exist — serving essentially as a blueprint for a healthierplan while providing sponsors with important fiduciaryprotection.

Every plan should consider one or more of these strategies, ifthey haven’t already:

1. Automatic enrollment – One of the best waysto help sponsors advance their employees’ retirement goals is tofirst make sure they are on the path to saving throughauto-enrollment.

Industry research has found that this step can increaseenrollment by approximately 10 percent. Advisors should encourageclients to adopt auto-enrollment policies, reducing the number ofemployees who get overlooked or sidetracked before even signing upfor their plan.

2. Successful default options – It is importantto take a thoughtful approach to selecting an effective savingsdefault option that helps participants properly invest theiraccounts. Plan providers, consultants and advisors should spendtime educating sponsors on the various choices that would meettheir plan’s specific needs.

Behavioral data can inform which qualified default investmentalternatives (QDIA) would be most suitable. This may proveespecially helpful given the potential implications of theDepartment of Labor’s fiduciary rule.

3. Employer matching – Advisors should taketime to assess whether an employer can offer a match program to itsemployees, since the concept of “free money” often serves as one ofthe most compelling incentives to increase savings rates.Strategies like a “stretch match” can also help attractparticipants without adding major costs to the plan.

4. Automatic escalation – Advisors can workwith sponsors to develop a program that automatically adds agradual savings increase each year. Employees have the option toopt out of such an increase, but data shows that once they areenrolled, they typically don’t mind having the decision made forthem.

This can lead to greater replacement income levels and betterlong-term outcomes. Behavioral science is helping us understand howhigh these automatic escalation levels can be set before they havea reverse effect and begin to discourage participation.

5. Re-enrollment – Many participants are makinginstinctive, uninformed decisions about their plan investmentswithout thoughtful review and research. Additionally, manylong-term participants have not acted in years since first joiningtheir plan (quite possibly through an auto-enrollment feature) andthey may benefit from a “course correction” on their investmentstrategies and asset allocation choices.

Advisors should evaluate how re-enrollment using a QDIA can furtheroptimize the overall health of a plan — either by sweeping ineligible employees who were not otherwise participating or bydirecting existing participants into more diversified,age-appropriate retirement portfolios.

The above strategies offer tested, proven methods to helpovercome the fact that many participants are not thinkingreflectively about their plans. As we continue to explore new waysfor behavioral science to shape the future, our goal is foradvisors, sponsors and retirement savers alike to utilize theseinsights so they can chart a more successful course forretirement.