Star Wars Day is also our birthday. In the week that we turn three, our founder Laura reflects on who we are, what we’ve learnt, what has changed and where we are going now (three-minute read).
Who we are
I created Pen-gage because of a need. I’ve worked within the pensions sector for all my working life, which is quite a while now. Along the way I’ve been an Administrator, Project Manager, Covenant Consultant and Head of Engagement and Training. In each of them the same issues kept coming up – a distinct lack of engagement from employees on their pension.
All of us who work within the sector should see this as a fundamental failing. Instead, we make it too detailed through trying to be comprehensive. We make it too complicated through trying to be risk averse. Add to this the alarmist media coverage we encourage and the fact that it is already a challenge to get people to focus on something a long way away for most of them, lack of engagement should be no surprise.
Individuals and their employers need a new ‘mode’ for thinking about retirement planning. So, my mission three years ago was to try and tackle some of these difficulties head on. Ambitious – yes. Achievable – I was and remain convinced that it is. But as with any paradigm shift, it is sometimes slow and baby steps are required.
I started not really knowing where it would take me. With many years’ experience as a pension engagement consultant and trainer, I know that I know pensions. I know that I know the issues. However, the tricky part is explaining to someone that they have a problem they don’t know they have – and I mean this in a genuine sense and not as a sales tactic.
What we’ve learnt
We started in public sector pensions; an area I was heavily involved in beforehand. Initially employers came to me for pensions tax support, through group education sessions and individual one to one guidance. This continues to be the case. The months of October – December are usually so busy we don’t get time to breathe. Our credentials in this area have grown considerably. We had the honour of speaking at the LGA Fire Pensions Conference in 2019 about pensions tax issues and the importance of good communication.
Employers also asked us to provide pre-retirement planning and mid-career pensions sessions on site for a range of employers. We regularly cover the Teachers’ Pension, NHS Pensions, Civil Service Pensions and the Local Government.
What has changed?
Year one was just about getting ourselves out there and established. We attended some conferences. I involved myself in the local business community. I became, and continue to be, Expert in Residence at Newcastle library, providing free pensions support to small local businesses.
The need to improve and reframe how we engage with individuals on pensions has not changed. In fact, it has become even more pressing, not least because the last 18 months or so have seen significant change on many fronts.
Prior to the start of the pandemic, providing wider financial wellbeing as part of an overall wellbeing strategy was starting to emerge for many employers. Employers began to realise that financial wellbeing is intrinsically linked to mental health, employee engagement, absence and productivity.
We therefore started adapting our sessions to look at wider financial issues – such as savings, debt management and money hints and hacks – as well as retirement planning and saving. We have expanded retirement planning to investigate social aspects and expectations.
Covid put a stop to all our onsite delivery, so we switched to online webinars through applications like Teams and Zoom. Initially we weren’t sure if this was what people wanted. It’s safe to say now that it was and is. It allows people to meet across multiple locations, eliminates travel time and has become a more time and cost-efficient method for employers to provide support to their employees.
We’ve always been keen to avoid the ‘grey jumper’ reputation that pension and finance people seem to have. We combine interesting course materials with a dynamic and engaging delivery style. Ongoing feedback we receive suggests that we have successfully transitioned this to the online world.
We’ve caught the interest of many new employers, from the public and private sectors. Our session delivery has quadrupled between years one and three. We’re incredibly proud of this but we’re not done yet. In 2020 we ran over 150 webinars, 250 individual sessions and in total helped around 2,500 people. This is tremendous, but it only just scratches the surface of what I had in mind when I started.
Where are we going now?
Feeling like I was spending all my time delivering and not enough time on how we can continuously improve as a business, I wanted to add to the team. So Nigel joined us in October 2020 and never have I been so happy to work with someone I have only met in person once!
Public sector pensions are now changing due to an age discrimination court ruling. This has taken up a lot of time and focus, as we support employers in helping those who are impacted to understand the changes and how they may affect them. There is much more to come from this once the legislation is passed.
Another change we are just starting to see now is coming from individuals. Individuals’ retirement plans are changing because of Covid. Typical views include: “Perhaps we won’t retire now as we have just realised that we don’t like not being able to do much” and “Perhaps we will retire soon because we have realised life can be too short.” Added to this is the continued transition within society between working and retirement. More and more are looking at a way to shift gradually between the two. We have seen many more people who want to really engage and discuss their pension options to educate themselves around what retirement could look like for them.
So, we have moved online, added more financial wellbeing, introduced an online booking process to help employers manage their own sessions, recruited our first employee and started a podcast. I still believe we need to improve and reframe how we engage with individuals on pensions and can now claim to have a better idea as to how best to achieve it. It’s been fun so far but this is only the beginning.
