Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Dan G. Blair announced the agency’s plan to conduct an extensive survey concerning federal employees’ readiness in preparing for retirement. Blair issued a memorandum to chief human capital officers of federal agencies and departments announcing the study.
The results of the study, part of the Thrift Savings Plan Open Elections Act of 2004, will assist in educating federal employees on the need for retirement savings and investment, how to plan for retirement, and how to calculate the retirement investment needed to meet their retirement goals.
"This survey breaks new ground and will provide useful information for federal employees as they seek to effectively plan for their retirement," Blair said.
The research plan calls for the survey to be distributed to a sample of approximately 90,000 Federal employees. The 20 minute survey will be completed on-line in April 2005. The survey will be used to develop a retirement readiness profile which will provide employees with their individual state of readiness using various dimensions that should be considered when planning for retirement. Agencies will be able to use the retirement readiness profile as a tool to identify the general status of retirement of their employees and to plan specific programs to address issues identified. The retirement readiness profile will be used by OPM to conduct periodic surveys of the federal workforce to track overall trends in retirement readiness.
