State Street Global Advisors has announced its paper “Ten BestPractices for Global DC Plans,” which it says offers insights tomultinational clients with defined contribution plans in differentcountries.

According to the firm, a strategic approach to those plans canserve a dual purpose: to both improve retirement outcomes foremployees and to act as a recruiting and retentiontool.

Read: Trends shaping retirement: DC advisorspolled

The 10 guiding principles provided in the paper are intended tohelp the firm’s clients improve their employees’ retirement readiness through their DCplans.

The paper divides the best practices into four categories:

1. Define a global vision and related goals, and align benefits tosupport those goals
2. Build efficient governance structures to minimize risk, andensure that plans in different countries support the overallgoals
3. Weigh the pros and cons of centralizing investment and otherfunctions to achieve operational and cost efficiencies
4. Improve plans’ effectiveness for employees

The overriding theme of the goals is to take a global approach,whether it’s in communicating among benefit functions within thecompany or in making sure that, while satisfying differing countryrequirements for DC benefits, the plans nonetheless align with thecompany’s overall strategic vision. Despite the fact that benefitsmay vary from country to country, the company must consider them inaggregate.

Among the StateStreet Global Advisors paper’s recommendations are the need tomake sure that total rewards goals are communicated globally; thatthose goals reflect the company’s core brand, culture and values;and that they are used—along with other objectives—to devise astrategic blueprint for the company’s retirement plan.

In addition, companies should take advantage of research,employee data analysis and surveys to understand their employees’needs and priorities—then use what they’ve learned to improveemployee engagement, raise savings rates, and improve investmentoptions.