At Ashurst, we closely consider the pension and benefits we offer and focus particularly on how we engage our people in these offerings to ensure they are of maximum benefit.
We all benefit from employees feeling equipped and able to perform at their best, and a critical component of this is providing pension, benefits and other support to employees in achieving financial wellbeing and security. This means ensuring they are not only relevant but that employees are engaged with what is available to them.
Financial wellbeing is of particular importance given the challenges of the last few years, and so by developing a programme which is driven by life events as well as challenges, we are assisting and empowering our people to find greater financial confidence. Because pension forms part of an employee’s finances, tackling the broader topic of finances also increases engagement with pensions.
Engagement with the financial wellbeing programme has to be personal and, for our people, it has been most successful where it is relevant and delivered through a range of mediums. Operating a programme which is specific to Ashurst’s pension scheme has certainly boosted participation in the programme as has choosing means of communications, such as webinars with our pension provider Aviva, which are dynamic and active. Simple choices such as hosting the sessions during working hours also encourage engagement.
Given the strong response, this approach will be further built on in 2022. Through a series of educational workshops, our people will be able to discover more about financial security such as retirement planning, changing the money mindset, navigating pension tax and learning how to build family finances. We will also be piloting in the future the opportunity for our people to attend bespoke, one-to-one financial coaching sessions to ensure even more in-depth guidance is available.
Engagement strategies need to be constantly reviewed to understand what is working, to evolve in response to what’s going on in the world and to take into account member feedback. By encouraging active engagement in the process and providing content that is accessible and personal, Ashurst is continuing to improve the experience of our people and assist them to build their own financial wellbeing and security.
Tracy McMullen is director of reward and people data at Ashurst