Thousands of Nationwide scheme members sign up to new portal

Almost a third of the scheme's 30,000 members have now signed up to the service, which allows them to update personal information and receive timely communications. 

It comes as trustees and employers shift their member engagement strategies towards online communication.

If people are interactive with communications online, it allows trustees to set their engagement strategy and measure what’s happening

Karen Partridge, AHC

Aon research published earlier this year found that 82 per cent of organisations surveyed use email to educate and engage people with their pensions, while 63 per cent use printed communications.

More than half of respondents also offered access to an online self-service portal.

Portal developments underway

The Nationwide scheme, which has about 30,000 members, has followed suit. It launched a member portal earlier this year and “nearly 9,000 members have registered”, according to an online update from chair of the trustee board Pete Wilkin.

“Registering not only allows you access to secure online functionality, such as being able to update your address or expression of wish details, but it also means that we can communicate with you directly in a timely way and in a digital format,” he added.

The functionality available to members depends on whether they are active, deferred or pensioners.

Since the launch, new developments include an option for active members to view their latest annual benefit statements.

Deferred members will soon be able to view a current estimation of the pension payable to them at their normal retirement date.

For pensioners – or those in receipt of a dependant’s pension – members can now change the bank account they would like their pension paid into.

Wilkin said it is the scheme’s intention to keep improving the portal and that developments are already underway. 

He added that the trustees are “very keen to encourage online communications”.

The scheme will write to members to confirm their chosen communications preference or to provide more information to those who have not yet decided.

Engagement easier to measure via online comms 

Karen Partridge, head of client services for UK and Australia at communications specialist AHC, said there are a few key reasons why schemes are focusing more on online methods of communication and engagement.

“The first is cost,” she said, noting that increased postage and mailing costs have driven many to look more closely at using an online method instead.

Secondly, consumers' increased preference for completing tasks like personal banking online has had an impact, and allowing members to access their pension information in a similar way can be helpful.

“To put something in the space where a member is more used to accessing other information is important,” Partridge said.

This can also be useful for trustees. “If people are interactive with communications online, it allows [trustees] to set their engagement strategy, decide what measurement would indicate if they’re achieving what they aim to achieve, measure what’s happening and they adjust what they do in response to that measurement,” Partridge said.

It can be difficult to measure engagement and the efficacy of pensions communication if done purely by post, while using portals and online communication is often easier to monitor and measure.

Partridge said the portals that work best are those that are linked to both the administrator and the company through a single sign-on facility linked to the member’s work email address, because it makes it easy for the member.

Understand your membership

Richard Butcher, managing director at professional trustee company PTL, said that if a scheme uses a portal, “it’s got to be useful, it’s got to be relevant, and it’s got to be attractive”.

“Behind all of that is one other question, which is actually what the trustees want to try and achieve – why do they want people to go to the portal?”

He said the industry must be more dynamic in its use of modern tools and technology.

It is also crucial to be responsive to what the membership wants, while bearing in mind that some members may not want to be communicated with online, Butcher noted.

“Older pensioners tend to be offline a little bit more. People who don’t spend time in offices may not be able to log on to a PC very regularly,” he said.

While it is important to develop new tools such as smartphone apps designed to communicate with members, “we do need to be sympathetic to those people who do it the old-fashioned way”.