Royal Mail seeks member feedback on comms strategy

Pension schemes are increasingly moving to online communication tools due to cost-effectiveness and ease of monitoring, but many are finding some members still favour traditional paper communications.

The service was privatised last year. Scheme members have been affected in recent times by a transition to career average accrual, rising retirement ages and the government taking over past service funding.

In December last year it was reported the scheme was considering a revamp of its communications strategy after a survey showed only 24.8 per cent of members understood how the plan operated and how their benefits were calculated, while 62.4 per cent did not.

Mark Rugman, head of membership and benefits at the Royal Mail Pension Plan, said: “There have been a number of changes to the plan in recent years. The trustee wants to ensure that members better understand the benefits of the plan. The trustee believes it is crucial that information is communicated in ways that are engaging and appropriate for members.”

The scheme is conducting face-to-face meetings across the country to get feedback from employees. It has also issued an online survey promoted in a member newsletter, and it is offering members the chance to win shopping vouchers for participating.

“We are also examining call data from the pensions helpline in an effort to better understand underlying issues of interest to members,” said Rugman.

One aim of the review is to make communications simpler to understand. The scheme’s most recent member newsletter said: “Our new communications will cut out detail you don’t need, use simpler language and lose the jargon.”

Schemes commonly review their communications annually to ensure members are engaging with their pensions provision.

Alex Thurley-Ratcliff, head of research and development at communication specialist Shilling, said schemes look at “things like website visits, annual voluntary contribution take-up [and] people who opt in or out of different funds,” when judging the success of a strategy.

But he also stressed the importance of the questions admin teams are dealing with as an indicator of member understanding. “If there are lots of general questions, that would indicate we’re failing. We’re aiming to be sure the questions being asked are specific.”

The growth of technology has created new ways to drive and monitor member engagement. Daniel Taylor, head of administration services at consultancy Premier, said most schemes are trying to move member communications online, making the number of initial sign-ups to an online tool an important metric.

However, he emphasised the importance of monitoring ongoing engagement from members. “In some ways, that return visit is more important,” he said, adding that seeking out member feedback is important in driving engagement.

“The key mistake is that some trustees just guess at what their members want,” he said. “They don’t have a long-term strategy for it.”

Thurley-Ratcliff said that while online tools can be useful and cost-effective for communicating with members, many employees prefer traditional methods.

“A lot of our clients have members you can’t reach online… some still need paper and print,” he said.

He added: “I was talking to a big retailer with 160,000 staff and they said half of their staff still want paper.”

Taylor added: “The structure of the scheme and employer does inform the way in which the members want to be communicated with.”