We’ve got your word of the day: “Transcreation.” That’s a technique helping Principal Financial Group expand its culturally relevant program to improve retirement savings among Hispanic workers.
Transcreation is the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its intent, style, tone, and context. And it beats the heck out of simple straight translation.
With the help of transcreation, Principal Financial Group is building on the success of its Hispanic-focused retirement savings program with the Oct. 23 introduction of a new culturally relevant participant onboarding experience and enhanced digital capabilities.
For employers with large Hispanic workforces, the company says this specialized approach helps participants gain understanding and confidence as they begin saving in a retirement plan.
“Having financial confidence transcends language barriers. But we believe the process to becoming financially confident relies on resources that take culture and language preferences into account to provide relevant and meaningful education,” said Jerry Patterson, senior vice president, retirement and income solutions at Principal. “With a new onboarding platform and digital enhancements, people can feel more comfortable about starting to save and receive ongoing encouragement through clear action steps.”
The company says Principal Real Start, a new digital and mobile participant onboarding platform introduced earlier this year, has been a game-changer in terms of driving positive retirement savings outcomes. This experience has now been “transcreated” into Spanish to help Hispanic workers starting to save.
Instead of a simple English-Spanish translation, Principal is using transcreation to incorporate culturally relevant meaning and tone. With nearly 20% of U.S. residents identifying as Hispanic/Latino, Principal says there’s a deeper need to gain an understanding of the cultural concepts of this population.
“After years of working and reworking our digital and mobile onboarding experiences, we feel like we have taken a huge leap with Real Start. We have made the process so intuitive, easy, personalized, and interactive, that we are seeing participants save and take advantage of other features available in their plan at rates we have never seen before,” added Patterson. “Adapting Real Start to meet the unique cultural and language needs of the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population enables us to drive positive retirement outcomes even further.”
For more information about the program, visit principal.com or one of its Spanish language websites, principal.com/es or Principal®Hola Futuro.
Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
