Web site overhaul scheduled for Thrift Savings Plan

The Thrift Savings Plan is revamping its Web site to reduce the number of paper statements that are mailed out and to better communicate with its 3.2 million participants, staff members said Monday.

Officials at the 401(k)-style Thrift plan are gradually improving and tweaking the site before completing a larger overhaul by mid-summer, according to Penny Moran, TSP deputy director of external affairs.

The renovation is "making really good headway," TSP Executive Director Gary Amelio told members of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board during a Monday meeting. "I think you'll be really happy, as will the participants."

Officials are hoping to end up with a site that is simpler and easier to use. Amelio suggested that one of the goals is to "reduce the number of icons."

TSP staffers said they have consulted with a sampling of site users, and found that participants wanted a less complicated portal. The overhaul also will attempt to make the links on the site's front page more useful and clear.

Board members said they are acutely aware of the need for a high-quality Web site, noting that the Internet has become the plan's primary means of communicating with participants. Just 400,000 members receive paper statements for their TSP accounts.

According to Amelio, the reduction in paperwork and mailings has cut costs and reduced the burden on the National Finance Center in New Orleans, which handles many of the plan's administrative functions. In fiscal 2004, the TSP is on track to spend $4.4 million less to mail statements than was budgeted at the beginning of the year.

"We're saving a tremendous amount of money" by not printing as many paper statements, Amelio said.

Thrift board chairman Andrew Saul said the improvements to the Web site are extremely important, "certainly [more important] than any of the printed matter."

TSP staff members are not yet planning to make improvements to the organization's other Web site, http://www.frtib.gov, which handles issues and business matters that relate more specifically to the board.