5 strategies for boosting employee engagement with pensions
Pensions are often the biggest reward you offer your employees and one that can make the most difference to their lives when they stop earning a salary and retire.
Yet, pensions awareness remains low, and it can be difficult to engage parts of your workforce about what it means for them. According to the Association of British Investors’ 2022 review into long-term savings, only 20% of people are confident about saving for retirement.
Auto-enrolment means most employees save for their future, yet our 2023 Retirement Report highlights one in three people could still face retirement poverty.
Engaging your workforce in how they will replace their salary when they stop working is vital – and we’d like to share some top tips.
1. Make pensions entertaining
Scottish Widows’ Pension Mirror is an AI-powered tool and gamification that takes a ‘selfie’, guesses a person’s age and compares their pension savings with their peers. This is open to everyone and not just Scottish Widows scheme members (there is more support available for scheme members on what they can do next).
The Pension Mirror has been used 500,000 times since launch last autumn and, judging by the response on TikTok and other social media, it’s a good way to boost engagement.
2. Make pensions simple
Pensions are important but they’re not always easy to understand, although we’re working hard as an industry to make things simpler.
When we talk to members who are not making the most of their employer’s pension scheme and we mention missing out on ‘free money’, they take notice.
3. Take pensions to employees
There’s lots of talk about pensions during Pension Engagement Season each autumn and it’s a good springboard to get people to find out more.
Regular communications, webinars, virtual and in-person sessions build on that. These usually cover topics such as pension essentials, nominating beneficiaries to pass on pensions when someone dies and understanding pension investments.
Ask your pension provider about coming on-site to support your employees and what webinars, podcasts, and videos are available to support you and your employees all year round.
4. Encourage digital adoption
For many of us who live on smartphones, having access to a simple-to-use pensions app is essential. As an employer, promoting your pension provider’s app to get employees to check-in with their pension more often, much like they do with their bank accounts, is a great start.
Plus, using open finance technology, so they can view all their finances in one place on their app, or see their pension next to their bank account, makes their lives a lot easier.
5. Make pensions more inclusive
Scottish Widows’ 2023 Retirement Report highlighted how women, some ethnic groups, those with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community have smaller pension pots overall and face a more challenging future.
Some employers adopt progressive workplace policies that go above and beyond auto-enrolment requirements to get people saving more. That includes continuing to pay into women’s pensions during maternity leave, enhancing paternity pay and enrolling younger workers into workplace pensions.
These are just some ideas to start conversations about pensions and help people make sure that when they leave your employment, they’ll have saved for a replacement wage to help them live retirement how they want.
In partnership with Scottish Widows
Scottish Widows is a life, pensions and investment company.
