It’s easy to become attractive to members…

Topic:

Hot topic

Date published:

Tuesday, 15 August 2017

Author:

James Duggan

A lot of money is spent on member communications; but still they often seem to end up very wordy, very long and laborious to read.

Yes, pension trustees need to ensure communications contain all the information they want members to know; but we really can’t be surprised if member engagement is very low when the information they receive is presented as blocks of boring text!

Accuracy = lower long term cost

Lack of member engagement can have serious repercussion for a pension scheme. Our recent survey into pension de-risking found that over 40% of schemes were targeting insurance of pensions. Successful insurance of pensions - ie the right pension benefits being bought out for the best price - requires clean, accurate data. The best way to obtain that clean and accurate data is through effective communication with members.

If they don’t regularly engage well with members, pension trustees may be on a sticky wicket when the time comes and they need members to ‘help’ get things right (like seeking the best buy out quote). If the communications members received in the past have been bland and boring, trustees may get a poor response to a critical request for information.

Getting it right doesn’t need to be difficult

I have recently gone through a revamping of member communications with one of my clients. We used our in house communications expert to help change how the trustees were presenting information.

By making it much more visual, key facts and actions are pulled out in a way that catches the eye. Cutting the word count and using everyday conversational language (rather than pension speak) also had a real impact. Feedback has been great - from both the pension trustees and members.

Engaging members may or may not cost a little more. You’d be surprised what some pension schemes pay for bog standard boring communications. If there is an additional cost, only a small amount could make a huge difference. Surely this extra price is worth paying if members actually read what is provided to them and finally engage with their scheme?

For members, this is their pension scheme and their future. We want them to take an active interest in their own financial future. When we communicate in future, let’s put ourselves in their shoes and think about what attractive, engaging and informative really means.

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