How to encourage your employees to save for retirement

All your employees will have different goals for their retirement. Some will look forward to days off relaxing or traveling the world, while others may decide to keep active and work reduced hours for a little longer. Whichever their choice may be, planning ahead is crucial in order to achieve the lifestyle they want in the future.

Recent research by our parent company, Foster Denovo, revealed that only 27% of people in their 50s know how much their pension will provide them each month, which is worrying. And yet, 46% of all the people surveyed said that their biggest concern during retirement would be running out of money. Being aware of your retirement income sooner can help highlight any changes or steps that can be taken now to better your financial situation in the future.

With that in mind, I strongly believe that employers can play a vital role in improving this scenario and getting people to think about retirement well in advance. The introduction of automatic enrolment in 2012 has proven to not only put retirement planning on employees’ radar, but also to actively help them to save into a workplace pension. However, there is still much more that can be done to raise awareness of retirement planning in the workplace, which could also be an opportunity to remind employees about their overall benefits package.

Group presentations, one-to-one conversations and benefit fairs are some of the best ways to get employees engaged. Face-to-face communication is usually the best method of communication, but it isn’t always feasible due to budget constraints or lack of resources. Hence technology now plays a big part in getting employees engaged with their pension and benefits.

Employee benefits and financial wellbeing portals are becoming popular; 92% of benefits professionals say that technology can help to increase employee engagement with benefits, and 86% of business leaders agree. Most portals can either be used on their own or to complement a multi-channel communication plan.

Therefore, making trusted information available digitally, on an intranet or dedicated employee benefits portal, can help employees learn about their benefits and financial matters in their own time, at the touch of a button. Furthermore, useful tools such as pension calculators and financial wellbeing surveys could help employees to forecast whether they are on track to achieve their financial goals.

When considering implementing an employee benefits and financial wellbeing portal, be sure that it offers all the benefits above and the system is constantly updated, with relevant, current and compliance approved content. Mybenefitsatwork has just revamped its financial wellbeing hub and have incorporated a new total reward statement tool. Find out more here.