Boost employee engagement with their pension

This Pension Engagement Season (September 15 to November 6), make a meaningful difference to your employees’ futures by playing your part in the industry-wide campaign that helps people save for retirement.

Pension Engagement Season is an annual initiative led by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to encourage people to pay their pension some attention and take positive steps towards their financial future.

Why does Pension Engagement Season matter?

Every workplace is made up of different kinds of people. From the savvy savers to those just starting out, everyone has different habits, priorities, and approaches to life. But whoever’s in your workforce, everyone wants to look forward to a good retirement.

Yet insights from Standard Life’s Retirement Voice 2025 report show that many people aren’t planning ahead. Across the generations, almost a third (29%) of people have done no planning around how much money they’ll need to live on in retirement. For younger savers, planning slips further down the priority list, with 37% of Gen Zers saying they haven’t done any.

The good news is, taking small steps can help people build a better understanding of their financial future. Findings from Standard Life reveal that those who do even a little planning are more likely to feel positive about life in five years’ time than those who do nothing (46% vs 36%).

Three small steps your employees can take today

Whoever your employees are and whatever they want from life, everyone can benefit from taking small steps towards a better financial future.

Here are three actions they could take today:

Check pension savings: A good place for employees to start is to get an idea of what their retirement income could really look like. And that means encouraging them to see how much they’ve got in their pension pot. With a solid understanding of how much pension savings they have today, they can better plan for tomorrow.
Find lost pensions: If your employees have had a few jobs, they probably have a few pensions – which can easily get lost or forgotten about. Searching for any previous pension pots could be time well spent. Employees can track down any old pensions by using the Government’s Pension Tracing Service. To get started, all they need to do is enter the name of their previous employer or pension provider. Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can also get direct access to this service through our mobile app.
Get a glimpse of the future: What income will employees need to enjoy the lifestyle they want in retirement? According to Standard Life’s latest Retirement Voice report, one in five (21%) retirees say they wished they’d planned for their retirement more thoroughly. So it’s important to help employees picture what their ideal retirement could look like and how much they’d need to make it happen.

Standard Life pension scheme members can use its Retirement Income Tool, available through the app, to see how their retirement lifestyle is shaping up.

More ways to promote pension engagement

Different employees engage with their pension in different ways. But before they can plan ahead, it’s important they know how much they’ve got saved and where. In our next article, we’ll take a closer look at why finding old or lost pensions matters.

In the meantime, visit the Standard Life Pension Engagement Season hub for further support and to download campaign materials.

Remember, a pension plan is an investment. Its value can go down as well as up and could be worth less than what was paid in.