Morgan Sindall ditches ‘pension’ in comms to boost engagement

The number of members registering to access its pensions administration portal increased by 5 per cent after the change.

Since its launch, 40,000 pages have been viewed on the new website, which replaces content previously delivered in scheme booklets. Of those, 1,000 visits have been made by members reviewing their investment choices.

The change comes at a time when the direction of government policy is forcing companies to reassess their stance towards member engagement and inertia.

Automatic enrolment has brought more than 10m savers into pensions at combined contribution rates of 8 per cent. While the Department for Work and Pensions does plan to remove limits on what proportion of salary is pensionable and start auto-enrolment from age 18 by the mid-2020s, it does not currently plan to increase contribution rates further – leaving paternalistic employers to either introduce their own inertia-based systems or reattempt to engage their membership.

We knew that the mere term ‘pension’ can be a turn-off, so the subtle shift to language around retirement saving has helped engage members more in planning how much money to put aside and how to invest it

Clare Sheridan, Morgan Sindall

In addition to changing its main delivery method for member information, Morgan Sindall has also reworked the content of its communications, moving away from what it describes as “corporate-styled” messaging in collaboration with communications consultancy Like Minds.

The website, which serves what is now named the Morgan Sindall Retirement Savings Plan, is based around the theme of getting members “fit for the future”, and segments information into four categories; save, grow, plan and spend.

Within each section, members are offered relevant information and can follow links to make changes to their arrangements, such as increasing their contributions, changing investments, or searching for a financial adviser.

Members also have access to a retirement modeller, which uses their details to tell them how likely they are to achieve the retirement they want.

Clare Sheridan, Morgan Sindall’s company secretary, tells Pensions Expert: “The change of language from making pension contributions to saving for the future has been a really effective move.”

Source: Morgan Sindall

“We knew that the mere term ‘pension’ can be a turn-off, so the subtle shift to language around retirement saving has helped engage members more in planning how much money to put aside and how to invest it,” she adds.

To complement the website launch, Morgan Sindall has also reworked its annual benefit statements, reminding employees of how far short they are falling with their current contributions and how to rectify this. Ongoing communication is now targeted to different cohorts of members.

“We’re in a different ball game now. We’ve shifted the focus from a company benefit that people felt had little relevance for them, to something much more meaningful and empowering. Feedback from members has been really positive,” says Ms Sheridan.

Comms expert eyes further developments

Moira Throp, the Like Minds co-founder and director who worked on the project, says there are still some improvements that could be made.

For example, members reading guidance on how to set appropriate contribution levels are directed to a form that must be downloaded, completed and sent to the company’s payroll department.

“The easier we can make this for members the better,” says Ms Throp. “Once you’re looking at investments or contributions you want to act immediately – otherwise the moment tends to be lost until the next time you think about your pension.”

She adds that communications telling members how close to – or far away from – their retirement goals they are must make it easy for them to change their circumstances and thus avoid members feeling daunted or put off.

“Now that the information is really easy to understand and feels so much more accessible, members will have more chance of seeing just what they can do themselves to make a difference,” she says. “We are also looking at potentially introducing personalised video statements which would show what difference a 1 per cent or 2 per cent increase to their contribution (plus the increased company contribution) would make to their savings pot and potential tax-free cash.”

The move has also been welcomed by independent pensions commentators. Rory Murphy, the chair of both the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund and the Ensign master trust, welcomed the departure from jargon that is scarcely understood outside the pensions industry.

“The pensions industry uses a lot of language that people don’t understand,” he says, hitting out at the behavioural barriers inbuilt in some terminology. “If people don’t decide how they want to invest their money it goes into what we call a default fund, which has terrible connotations.”

Engagement and inertia work in tandem

Mr Murphy, who has recently led the creation of a series of animated videos that help preschool children learn the importance of saving, stresses the need for financial education to begin earlier in curriculums, and for scheme communication to then be tailored to the needs and competency of individual savers.

From there, he says the industry must not neglect engagement in its efforts to improve saving levels.

“It’s their money, it’s deferred pay, and for too long the industry has said ‘we know best’,” he says. “There’s a certain arrogance of saying, ‘Well maybe people don’t quite understand what they’re being asked to do’.”

However, this does not let government off the hook. Mr Murphy says efforts to improve financial literacy and empower savers will still need a sensible back-up of policy action.

“We know in the industry that the levels of auto-enrolment are not enough to give people the retirement that they would expect and therefore until we get to within striking distance of that I think the AE rate has got to go up,” he says, before cautioning that this “might be a 35-year programme”.