Pension awareness day – tips on how to engage your employees

By Ian Bird, Business Development Director at Secondsight and founder of Mybenefitsatwork

Pension Awareness Day takes place annually on the 15th September, aiming to promote the importance of saving for the future across the UK. It is a great opportunity for you as an employer to talk to your employees about their pension and retirement planning.

A recent research carried out by our parent company, Foster Denovo, revealed that 62% of adults are unaware of how much their pension pot will be worth when they retire, despite running out of money being the largest concern (46%) that adults have about retirement.

There are multiple methods that could help increase your people’s interest in their pensions and retirement planning. A great place to start is by reminding them about their workplace pension scheme. Explaining how the scheme works, clarifying how much they put in and how it is matched by your company can highlight how beneficial their benefits package is; and it might encourage them to contribute more. You could also share an example of how much can be saved and potentially how much their pension pot could grow to be worth.

You could consider running lunchtime workshops or one-to-one sessions, delivered by a pension and benefits expert if needed, so your employees would feel better informed of how their pension works and could also learn more about other ways to save for retirement.

When discussing financial matters, especially pensions, be sure to use plain English language as the topic is known for being confusing and unclear. It’s important that you make it easier for your employees to digest and fully understand the information.

Technology also plays a great part when it comes to engage employees with their pension and benefits; it also tends to be very cost-effective. Online portals and apps help to re-iterate your message as your employees will be able to access the information easily and as often as they like.

Mybenefitsatwork, for example, offers a financial wellbeing hub, which is a great digital tool filled with articles and resources to educate employees on financial matters and empower them to manage their money more wisely. It also features a whole section focused on retirement planning, where employees can learn more about saving for the future; it also includes a pension calculator to help employees forecast how much they are on track to retire on. Find out more about our portal here.

To learn more about Pension Awareness Day, click here.

Information correct as at 10th September 2019

Mybenefitsatwork is a trading name of Foster Denovo Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.