Retirement planning services have become a little harder to come by in the workplace, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
SHRM, San Diego, is reporting that only 39% of surveyed members say their organizations are offering retirement planning services this year. That percentage is down from to 52% in 2006, researchers say.
The researchers are basing that assessment on results from a February online survey of 534 human resource professionals who are members of SHRM. The survey group includes representatives from small, medium and large organizations.
Of those surveyed, 63% said the recession has hurt their organizations' benefits offerings "to some extent" over the past year, and 72% said their organizations' benefits offerings have been affected in some way.
In addition to reducing availability of retirement planning services, the survey participants' organizations have been reducing availability of "individual investment advice." Just 40% of participants' organizations are providing individual investment advice, down from 48% in 2006, the researchers say.
Traditional defined benefit pension plans are on the decline, too, with only 27% of organizations offering the plans this year, compared with 48% 4 years ago.
