Most American workers aren't saving enough toward retirement because they are struggling financially — often living paycheck to paycheck — and do not have the discretionary cash needed to build a retirement nest egg, experts say.

A good retirement communications and education program recognizes this and offers plan members help with such financial fundamentals as budgeting and saving.

The most effective way to communicate these lessons is with a targeted approach that takes into consideration plan members' ages and other demographic characteristics. The messaging also should be continuous, occurring throughout the year, experts advise.

Historically, retirement plan communications and education have been disproportionately focused on “the investment component — how and where you should be investing — as opposed to how much you should be saving. The fact is, the more you save, the more you're going to have regardless of where you invest it,” said Brian Heinke, a Denver-based senior vice president at TrueNorth Inc., a subsidiary of IMA Financial Group Inc.

Employers have a fiduciary obligation “to keep participants educated about investment options and general information about their plan,” said Marsha Whitehead, vice president of marketing communications for the retirement services division of American United Life Insurance Co. in Indianapolis. “But employers should never assume that their employees know anything about investing, that they have a handle on their own personal situations, or even know how to make a budget,” she said.

The problem with most retirement plan communications is “nobody is asking the really important question: Why aren't they saving in the first place?” said Kent Allison, a Florham Park, N.J.-based partner and national practice leader in PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P.'s financial education practice. “We need to look more broadly at the other financial issues workers are facing.”

In an attempt to “get under the hood to find out what's happening at home,” PwC uses a financial wellness model similar to one used in health benefits, Mr. Allison said.

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“You can't just myopically focus on getting people into the plan and getting them diversified if you're seeing lots of leakage out of the back-end of the plan,” such as by taking loans or making withdrawals to pay for short-term expenses, he said. “They may have credit card debt, their house may be under water, they may be struggling to pay for their kids' education. So they're not really focused on retirement. You need to look a little more holistically on how to get them to free up some cash so they can save more,” Mr. Allison said.

“When you educate, you need to take into account their whole financial picture,” said Donna Norwood, senior vice president of defined contribution product management at Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Retirement plan communications and education also should be tailored to get the attention of the employees targeted, said Charlie Ledbetter, a principal and national business leader for Mercer L.L.C.'s defined contribution advisers in Denver. “You're got to gauge the demographics and sophistication of the audience.”

“One of the best approaches is a real targeted one,” said Denise Foster, a principal and communications consultant at Milliman Inc. in Seattle. “It's a lot about tailoring the message to the particular employee group.”

For example, “you don't say the same thing to a 20-year-old as you do to a 60-year-old. They are at different stages of their lives,” said Diane Leary, a principal at Buck Consultants L.L.C. in New York. “How do you appeal to a 20-year-old? You might not use the word "retirement.' Say "saving for the future.' Show them compounded return on investment.”

By contrast, “with 60-year-olds, you want to talk about the spend-down options,” such as how much they should plan on withdrawing from their 401(k) accounts after retirement so that the money lasts as long as possible, Mr. Ledbetter said.

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“In financial services, we use a lot of terms that don't resonate with participants, and they shut down and stop learning,” said Genny Sedgwick, a principal and practice leader for defined contribution plan record-keeping at Milliman Inc. in Seattle. “People feel like they need to be the expert, and they realize they're not. At the end of the day, participants just want you to guide them.”

Likewise, the medium also should vary based on the method through which employees like to receive communications, experts say.

Recent research conducted by OneAmerica found retirement plan participants younger than age 40 are more likely to use online retirement calculators and mobile apps, while plan members older than 50 found articles most helpful. The survey, published Feb. 4, 2013, also found that participants in the 20- to 30-year age range are more than twice as likely to read about financial issues via blogs and social media than are 40- to 50-year-olds.

Regardless of the mode of communications, the message should be delivered continuously throughout the year, experts advise.

“Investment education is difficult to convey in one-hour segments a couple of times a year. It's like giving me an hour on how to repair my car and then asking me to drop the transmission,” said Susan Pool, a Wichita, Kan.-based senior vice president at TrueNorth.