Poor Internal Communication Always Shows Up as Poor External Communication
As administrator of our company’s 401K plan (in the absence of our general manager), I needed to renew our ERISA bond—the bond the law requires that guarantees the company doesn’t tamper with the employee retirement funds. So here’s what happened…
I call the brokerage house that set us up with the mutual fund company that holds our 401K funds to find the name of our contact. The brokerage house tells me they no longer have anything to do with the account, and suggests that I call the mutual fund directly. I call the mutual fund. The mutual fund company says they just invest the money; they refer me to their 401K fund “administrator company.” I call the administrator company. The administrator company says they know nothing about ERISA bonds—except that the law requires that we have one. They suggest that I call their parent company—the brokerage company (the people I first called). Back to square one.
It has been months now, and I’m still trying to find someone in some department who cares enough to communicate across the organization to find the right information or find someone who knows how to find the right information about our 401K funds before I close the account and move them.
Lack of cross-functional communication within organizations eventually shows up to the outside world—to customers, to suppliers, and to strategic partners. And it drives them nuts, if not out of business.
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