Ballinger Memorial Hospital District’s Mouthwatering Motivator

This TCDRS employer offered employees a tasty incentive to register online at TCDRS.org.

Story by John Martin

What’s the best way to motivate a Texan? Cam Martin of Ballinger Memorial Hospital District’s Human Resources team faced this question when looking for ways to inspire her 126 colleagues to claim their TCDRS online accounts.

There’s one love that unites Texans from the mountains of El Paso to the Piney Woods: barbecue.

Cam worked out a deal with the district’s board of directors and CEO, who agreed to bring out a catering company for BMHD employees if they could reach 100% TCDRS web registrations by the deadline.

The plan was to have the catered brisket meal at the old church behind the hospital. The registrations initially rolled in fast, but the real challenge came when only part-time employees were left unregistered.

As the deadline approached, Cam found herself eight registrations short. She sent out letters to all of them, even catching an employee that had recently been called for active duty with the National Guard.

Unfortunately, they reached the deadline just shy of their goal with only two unregistered employees.

Although the storybook ending may have faded from view, Cam says the campaign was still an absolute success. It motivated web registrations and allowed her to work with TCDRS Employer Services Representative Erika Aguirre to clean up account errors, such as outdated beneficiary information and incorrect birthdates.

Cam also says that the push for web registrations has given her employees more agency and ownership over their retirement accounts and helped them learn more about their benefits. “In all actuality, they should do it because they need to do it, and it protects your account,” she says.

Please continue to encourage your employees to register at TCDRS.org.

Employees who claim their online account can watch their money grow, estimate their benefit, update their information and protect their money by making sure no one can try to fraudulently claim their account. To learn more about the benefits of registering online, watch our video, head over to our Claim Your Account page or read our FAQ here.

You can see which employees have not claimed their online accounts yet by signing into your TCDRS employer portal and accessing the "Non-Registered Online Accounts" report.

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