Warburtons drives huge rise in member engagement

The bakery used face-to-face, print and video messages to boost engagement among the members of its defined benefit and DC schemes. It also convinced one in five members to increase their contribution rates.

Schemes that improve the amount members contribute and the attention they pay to how savings are invested give them a better chance of a suitable retirement income.

Warburtons' savings campaign

Warburtons has employees based in 12 bakeries and 13 depots across the UK, presenting an engagement challenge.

In April last year, the bakery shut its £144m DB scheme and made changes to its £21.5m DC arrangement, both of which needed explaining to members.

The scheme also refreshed the fund range, adding two new lifestyle options, and improved company contributions by 1 per cent up to a maximum of 12 per cent.

We made clear... it was the member’s responsibility to monitor their investments

It used an array of media to engage this membership, including its internal magazine, investment and saving guides, Q&A forms, one-to-one meetings, presentations and DVDs.

Anne Hunt, pensions manager at Warburtons, told the National Association of Pension Fund's DC conference: “For those that couldn’t attend, we made a DVD of the presentation, so we made sure we could capture everyone.”

She added: “We will be following a similar format for auto-enrolment.”

The scheme spread out those messages over a period of 18 months to ensure members were not overburdened to the point of switching off.

The messages were split into three main steps: setting a contribution level; choosing lifestyle or self-select investment; and understanding how DC works.

“We made it clear that while the investments were monitored by the trustees, it was the member’s responsibility to monitor their investments and make the right choices,” said Hunt.

As a result, the scheme increased the proportion of members making active investment decisions from 2 per cent to 41 per cent.

This means they were choosing the 20-year lifecycle fund (pictured), the 15-year lifecycle or self-selecting their investments.

In addition, 22 per cent of DC members increased their contributions. For DB members, the figure was 30 per cent.

CSC's e-communications

Computer Sciences Corporation has had success with a more high-tech approach to engagement to suit its workforce.

CSC has both a trust-based DC scheme and a group personal pension, together amounting to £500m in assets.

It offers benefit statements and member transactions online, reducing administration costs, and is planning to launch an iPhone app for members to view their retirement savings.

The pension scheme uses e-cards – an emailed greeting card – to announce changes to members’ investment options.

It uses the slogan 'Better save than sorry' as a running theme through these communications.

The scheme has two internet portals for members; one for administering their benefits and the other to hold scheme documents and tools, such as a risk profiler.

The [PQM] may help you recruit and retain talent. If you've got it, flaunt it

Jenny Davidson, the company's director of compensation and benefits for Emea, was also speaking at the conference.

She said: “We have had 3,000 hits on the risk profile tool. We have also had more than 1,000 viewings of our promotional film.”

Last year, CSC successfully renewed its Pension Quality Mark accreditation from the NAPF-backed organisation, in recognition of its contribution levels and governance standards.

“We do actually put the [PQM] kite mark on all of our communications,” added Davidson.

Warburtons’ DC scheme has been awarded the PQM Plus, as it meets the requirement of 15 per cent minimum contributions with the employer putting in at least 10 per cent.

Chris Hitchen, chairman of PQM, told the conference that companies offering DC could use the accreditation to benchmark their benefits against competitors, as well as to demonstrate they are a responsible employer.

“The mark may help you recruit and retain talent,” he added. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”