What message does your workplace pension send to your employees?

With 74% of employees saying the quality of their workplace pension reflects how much their employer cares, it's time to start treating schemes accordingly, argues Steve Watson.

Despite the important role workplace pensions play in attracting and retaining talent, average contribution rates continue to hover around the 8% auto-enrolment minimum. For many employers, pensions remain a compliance exercise rather than a strategic employee benefit.

Yet, in a competitive labour market, the pension on offer can send a powerful message about how much an employer values and invests in its people. The question is whether employers and pension providers are doing enough to make that value visible.

When almost three-quarters of employees say the pension on offer reflects how much their employer cares – and 77% say it matters when they are considering a new job – it is a clear sign that contribution rates and scheme design belong in the staff retention conversation, not just in the compliance file.

This calls for a shift in mindset.

If we want workplace pensions to send employees the right message – 'We value you and want you to stay with us long term' – we need to stop seeing them solely as a statutory obligation and start taking responsibility for how employees experience them throughout their working lives.

Younger employees do value pensions

The prevailing narrative around pensions is that younger employees are supposedly not very interested or engaged in pensions. Retirement is too far in the future to feel tangible, even more so when they have other priorities like student debt and getting on the property ladder.

Older employees, meanwhile, naturally get more engaged the closer they get to retirement. Cushon research from the Workplace Pension Report 2026 challenges this assumption.

Nearly 7 in 10 (65%) 18 to 24-year olds said pensions are important when considering a new job. While that’s lower than the overall percentage of 77%, it still clearly shows that younger employees can and do care about their workplace pension scheme.

Workplace pensions are for the whole career journey

Workplace pensions are as much about the journey as they are about the destination. If we focus solely on retirement outcomes, we risk alienating those younger employees who assume that retirement is simply too far away to feel relevant. If that were true, there would be little point trying to engage anyone under the age of 40.

The reality is that employees' relationship with their pension is shaped long before they reach retirement, and the experiences they have today will influence the decisions they make throughout their working lives.

That means meeting employees where they are. First and foremost, that requires a seamless digital experience for pensions that reflects the standards people have come to expect from the rest of their financial lives. But accessibility alone is not enough.

If employees cannot access their pension savings for decades, we need to help them understand what value their pension delivers today. That could mean showing how their employer's contributions are boosting their overall reward package, connecting pensions to broader financial wellbeing support, or giving them the tools and guidance to feel more in control of their finances.

Engagement grows when employees can see a benefit in the present, not just a promise for the future.

It’s also about language. Simplicity should be the default: plain-spoken, jargon-free communications; user-friendly, digital-first access; and the right support at the right time instead of sporadic one-off campaigns.

Any actions employees want to take, whether reviewing their contributions, designating a beneficiary, or consolidating pension pots, should feel straightforward, not daunting.

But pensions should also be just one component in a broader financial wellbeing strategy.

Financial stress harms mental health, which limits productivity and motivation and makes employees more likely to start looking for a new job. And while a good pension can help them feel more confident about their long-term future, it doesn't solve the immediate pressures that drive much of that financial stress.

This is where education and targeted guidance come into play. A broader financial wellbeing offer helps employees feel more empowered and in control and, in turn, feel more supported by their employer.

Employers and pension schemes must make value visible

Employers who focus only on making sure their pension scheme is compliant may be ticking the right boxes but still sending the wrong message to employees. Your team notices the ‘bare minimum’ pension offering.

For most organisations, employees are both their biggest investment and their most important asset. As the single, largest employer-funded benefit, shouldn't workplace pensions reflect this in the clearest way possible?

Want to dig deeper into our research on how workplace pensions strengthen recruitment and retention? Download Cushon’s Workplace Pension Report 2026: The vital role of pensions in attracting, engaging and retaining the best employees.