Video: REBA Innovation Day 2016: How ScottishPower used data to get members saving for retirement

Employers have to act to encourage their employees to save, said Anne Harris, UK pensions manager at ScottishPower at the REBA Innovation Day 2016. “People are not saving nearly enough for their pension. If we don’t address and redress this problem there will be a savings crisis,” she said.

Watch the ScottishPower case study 'Maximising analytics to turn DC on its head and get members saving'

The company presented a case study of its work alongside Hymans Robertson as it has seeked to better educate and inform its employees of the need to save. “We wanted to know if the problem that we perceived we had with our stakeholder members was as bad as we thought,” she said.

The company worked with Hymans Robertson to supply all the data it had to work out where its employees were at and found more than 700 employees had less than a 20% chance of getting their planned retirement income.

“These results gave us the push to say we have to do something for employees,” said Harris.

Paul Waters, partner of Hymans Robertson, outlined the company’s Guided Outcomes product which sets each person their own pensions target and has been used by ScottishPower. “Once you have a target for that person you can analyse whether they are on track that then gives you a framework to communicate to and then personalise a message to them,” said Waters.

“People don’t understand pensions and don’t even really want to understand pensions but they do want a decent retirement plan,” said Harris.

ScottishPower sent out a new communications pack and Guided Outcomes statement to each of its members. “We have had nothing but positive feedback about this – in the first month more than 10% of people increased their pensions contributions,” she said.

This video was recorded at the REBA Innovation Day 2016.