You may be aware that this is Pensions Awareness Week. A good idea. So good that the clever people at Pension Geeks who started it all off have been acquired by pensions industry heavyweights Aegon. But is awareness enough or even the right phraseology? This is more than just semantics. The implication is that making people more aware will lead them to feel empowered to take action on their own pensions.
The key test is whether raising awareness actually helps to improve outcomes. September 2021 has around 85 separate awareness events, of which pensions awareness day is just one. They also include blood cancer awareness month, national doodle day, international bacon day (yes, really!) and the world’s biggest coffee morning. In such an environment, even if we manage to be better at raising awareness than all these other worthy causes, how can we be sure we have helped people to be in a better position than they were before?
So our focus in Pensions Awareness Week is around driving change in individual behaviours. For any workplace initiative to succeed on this, we believe it needs a five-stage plan:
- Define and target your audience as narrowly as possible
- Create compelling messages, based on what you actually want people to do
- Set out clear calls to action, i.e. what specifically should people do next
- Develop a theory of change, a step-by-step process whereby people can reach or move towards the desired outcome
- Use the right messenger / channel of communication
No, it’s not rocket science but it works. And will take your initiative much further than simply ‘raising awareness.’ Get in touch to find out more.
Increasing awareness and driving change are not the same …
