Admiral Group has almost doubled the number of employees joining its corporate pension scheme, thanks to a three month staff awareness campaign in the run up to auto enrolment pension reform.
The campaign, which was supported by their employee benefits adviser Jelf and corporate pension provider Scottish Widows, has seen membership of the company scheme increase from 1100 to over 2000 people since it launched in March. An additional 100 employees have moved from two existing pension schemes and more than 200 have increased their pension contributions following the campaign.
The increase in new entrants was driven by a tailored education programme which simplified pension communications and included seminars and one to one briefings with staff. The campaign used internal communication platforms to highlight the benefits of saving for retirement and joining the Admiral pension scheme.
Indeed, the recently launched Scottish Widows workplace pensions research revealed that almost three quarters (74%) of employees believe that the workplace should give them full financial advice and information on retirement planning, with 54% saying their employer’s pension scheme was in incentive to stay with the company.
Lynn Graves, Head of New Business Development, Corporate Pensions at Scottish Widows said:
“Admiral has a young workforce and persuading young people about the need to save for a pension can be particularly challenging as they feel retirement is so far away. By creating an innovative campaign that took advantage of readily accessible methods, like Admiral’s in-house TV channel, and explaining the clear benefits of saving for retirement we were able to achieve this phenomenal 60% increase in staff signing up for the company pension scheme.
“The results at Admiral demonstrate how positive employee engagement and clear communication can make a difference in encouraging more people to save adequately for a pension. The launch of auto enrolment is now just weeks away and we welcome the Government’s upcoming television advertising campaign to help raise awareness of the critical need for individuals to take responsibility for providing towards their retirement income.”
Richard Thorne, People Services Manager for Admiral Group, said:
“We wanted to review our pension provisions for a number of reasons: to ensure our staff were getting the best deal and service, to help improve staff retention by offering an attractive pension proposition and also to ensure we are ready for auto enrolment.
Scottish Widows and Jelf have dedicated a lot of time and effort to understanding our staff and the challenge of encouraging a relatively young workforce into a pension scheme. The first challenge was how to create a message that people under 30 wanted to hear. Between us we created a buzz around the scheme and developed a format which meant they saw every single staff member and told them about the pension scheme, and why it’s so important.
“They have also tailored their services for those who fall outside the majority of employees, such as those near retirement and those who already have pension provision. The level of support, friendliness and knowledge from everyone at both Jelf and Scottish Widows has been fantastic. They understand our employees and our business so they can really help us as we see our pension provision as a key long term retention tool for our employees.”
Jo Thresher, Corporate Benefits Manager for Jelf, said:
“Admiral really care about their staff and strive to offer them the best possible employee benefits, which has contributed to them winning the Great Place to Work award for the Best Large Workplace 2012. We knew we could provide staff with tailored communications which took them from a position of not understanding the value of pensions, through to the point where they understood and were able to make an informed choice about joining the scheme. Overall, we had to make our message young, fun and engaging - our strap line was ‘We Love Pensions’.”
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