Board hears plan for Paychex API rollout and webinar-driven employer conversions

At the April 15 NEST board meeting, Vestwell outlined steps to deepen payroll integrations and described measurable gains from employer webinars. "We anticipate that that will be live and available for employers to use by the end of next month," Courtney Eccles said of the Paychex 360 API and added the vendor will communicate directly with employers who indicated Paychex as their payroll provider.

Vestwell also presented conversion data from payroll webinars: staff said they were able to connect about 860 employers to registration activity and "found that of those who registered and attended, 550 started running payroll and accounted for 10,500 savers who became active last year." Board members asked for more detail: Member Andy Kao requested comparative ratios of exempt/registered employers versus other states and a trend on opt-out rates; Vestwell cautioned cross-state comparisons can be imprecise and agreed to provide opt-out trend data.

Member William Palmer raised accessibility concerns for employers less comfortable with online processes, noting some webinar participants could not join Q&A without first registering. Vestwell confirmed webinars currently require registration to receive the link but said recordings are posted to the NEST site and that client services can be contacted by phone; portal chat and a help center are also available. Vestwell said it will pursue additional regional payroll integrations after the larger provider integrations are in place.