Turning engagement into better outcomes

It’s undeniable that there’s a direct correlation between engagement and good member outcomes. Six years ago, we developed our industry-leading Engagement Dashboard. It’s how we could increase a scheme’s online access from 10% with their previous provider, to 56% with us. The methodology is founded on seven measurable engagement actions, which include creating online access, contributing above the scheme minimum and setting up a death beneficiary.

What this means is we’re able to provide fresh engagement data to consultants when they’re compiling governance reports for clients. It’s compared with the HL average and sector benchmark, so there’s a real opportunity for employers to spot trends in engagement, particularly delinquencies, compared to a peer group. The next step is crucial – doing something about it. The data isn’t just there for data’s sake – it’s the first step in creating a plan of action to improve engagement and, ultimately, member outcomes.

Consultants then have the opportunity to help employers address the gaps. We can provide, and really encourage, campaign driven communications, totally built for the purpose of improving whatever issue has been identified from the data. It’s about doing more than just sending a lengthy brochure – we can write bespoke communications in the employers’ language, with a real purpose to drive changing behaviours.

Putting a score on employee engagement – Engagement Dashboard for December 2024

*December 2024

We can also support members by providing financial education and one-to-ones onsite (at the discretion of the consultant). We know that these member interactions are effective – 63% of members who had a one-to-one with us decided to increase their contributions, compared to just 38% of those who didn’t have a personal meeting (data from March 2024). And we can go in with a key purpose if needed. For example, it might be that the transfer take-up is low for a particular scheme. We can then put specialists onsite to help members understand if transfers are right for them, even helping them with paperwork and application forms.

More on our Financial Wellbeing programme

As well as supporting consultants and employers, the dashboard has allowed us to shape our own campaigns for members. Among a whole host of ‘try this’ and ‘do that’ a member is sent when joining a pension scheme, we knew we needed to break up the myriad of tasks into bite-sized chunks. We created a ‘Pension Passport’ series of nudges which set out seven key actions members could take on their workplace pension journey. We linked these actions directly to the dashboard so each metric was represented. New members are then nudged with an action each month – we’re not forcing the member to do everything at once. Recent results tell us that after receiving the online access nudge, 48% of members registered their pensions online, compared to 0% of those in a control group who didn’t receive it. This initiative is new for us, but early results are certainly promising.

Pension Passport Journey

We’re confident from the last six years that the Engagement Dashboard is a robust and valuable data source. However, it doesn’t mean that it can’t evolve. The dashboard has enabled us to be at the forefront of the value for money debate, with much of it revolving around our engagement metrics. Working on the principle that most people will be in the default investment, we coined the idea to specifically engage members with it once a year. While we can measure if people are purely invested in it, we want to measure that they actually know they’re invested and understand it. We want the default choice to become a conscious decision. They’ll become active defaulters instead of passive participants. We’ve fed back our idea as part of the value for money consultation and plan on introducing it as a dashboard metric in the future.

The last six years have taught us that while having engagement data is useful, you’ve got to use it. You’ve got to intervene, which means campaign driven communications, one-to-ones, financial education – something with a clear purpose. Our metrics make it easy to identify where support is needed, aiding consultants and employers to give members the best opportunity to retire comfortably. And the benefit is not only for members, but for employers too in terms of helping to support their investment in what is an expensive commitment in many cases. We believe we’ve been a real force for better engagement among pension members, lobbying to have our data applied across the industry. With the help of our Engagement Dashboard, we’ll continue to strive for the best member outcomes.