If the economic shocks of the past five years haven’t been enough to spur people to focus on their financial futures, one wonders what it would take for them to do so.

You’d think that more people than ever would be taking the time and effort for retirement  planning … but a recent study conducted by CFO Research Services and Koski Research, done on behalf of the Charles Schwab investment firm, belies that notion.

The study, which was completed in April 2012, surveyed ~200 senior finance and HR execs from mid-size and large U.S. companies, along with ~1,000 401(k) plan participants. The research found that despite the efforts by employers to educate their workers on the financial offerings available to them, not only are most employees financially unprepared for retirement, they’re also disengaged from the process.

More specifically, over half of the employers surveyed report that their 401(k) plan participants are not taking full advantage of the investment options, features and other services offered in connection with the these plans.

And it’s not for lack of trying on the part of companies. Among the tools employers are offering their 401(k) plan participants are:

• Interactive planning tools (~93% offer)
• In-person meetings or workshops (~81% offer)

Employers are even taking the step of auto-enrolling employees into 410(k) savings plans as a way of spurring interest.

But as the saying goes … you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. In fact, only a minority of employees in the Schwab survey express the desire to manage their own workplace savings programs. They give numerous reasons for this, the more prevalent ones being:

• Don’t have the time
• Insufficient knowledge
• Just not interested

This lack of attention on their plans is illustrated further in this stunning statistic: Three-fourths of the employees surveyed spend fewer than eight hours annually managing their 401(k) account. That’s less than 45 minutes per month, on average.

Considering that for many participants, their 401(k) plan represents the single largest category of savings they have, this is a startling finding to say the least.

People talk a good game, it seems: More than four out of five respondents in the Schwab survey claim they’re interested in receiving professional investment management advice from their employer.

But this hardly translates into action. While many companies are offering such support … only ~10% of employees actually takes advantage of such advice when it is offered.

The final, sobering finding from the survey is this: For those respondents who have attempted to calculate the savings they believe they’ll need for retirement, there is an eight-fold gap between how much they’ve actually saved and how much they calculate they’ll need to have in retirement.

It’s pretty difficult to ignore that oncoming freight train … but not if you close your eyes and cover your ears.