NAPF Annual Conference 2014: Warburtons, the UK’s largest bread baker, has this year launched the first of a three-part plan to boost engagement among a new swath of pension savers.
The baking company, which employs 4,500 people in the UK across 26 locations, set-up an engagement project team earlier this year to overhaul its communication strategy.
Key areas reviewed
Refreshing its member newsletters to make them “snappy and easy to understand” and including member case studies
Segmenting the membership and looking at the key themes along people's savings journey
Analysing member behaviour, investment and contribution choices, and how members used tools already available to them
Pension manager Anne Hunt told delegates at the National Association of Pension Funds’ annual conference last week: “With the new flexibility and the introduction of the guidance guarantee, one of the challenges will be getting out to our sites so that we can provide support to our members.”
The scheme has already driven down its opt-out rate to just 1 per cent from 2.3 per cent after it staged in May last year.
Part of this process includes refreshing its member newsletters to make them “snappy and easy to understand”, Hunt said, which includes using member case studies.
Its communication team also segmented the membership and considered key themes along the “savings journey”.
We are very keen that existing retirement communication that is good does not get watered down or stripped back
Maggie Craig, FCA
And in addition it analysed member behaviour, investment and contribution choices and how members used tools already available to them.
The focus of the engagement plan this year was on the retirement and the joining process. Hunt explained: “This became even more important in view of the announcement in the Budget and the new flexibilities in the guidance guarantee.”
The Warburtons pensions booklet will be updated early next year to incorporate changes made as part of the engagement strategy review, the guidance guarantee and new flexibilities.
On the rise
Each year, trustees write to members and give them the opportunity to change their contribution, which this year resulted in 376 employees increasing the amount they paid into the scheme.
Hunt told delegates an investment strategy review is currently underway to ensure funds are appropriate for the membership profile and the additional flexibility afforded to members.
Maggie Craig, acting head of the savings and investment department at the Financial Conduct Authority, said it will act to ensure there are no attempts to subvert the guidance guarantee.
But she added: “We are very keen that existing retirement communication that is good does not get watered down or stripped back.”
Craig said she does not expect that the guidance system set up in April 2015 will be the same guidance service in 2020.
“The guidance service up and running in 2015... will have to change,” she said. “It will have to develop as we learn more about what customers need and want… It will have to change to take account of future market developments – whether that’s the way the market is moving or new products coming on line.”
The FCA is due to issue its policy statement in late Autumn, following its consultation on the guidance guarantee.
