Platten says: “I talk about their aspirations, what they want to achieve and their options at retirement, and try to make them feel as comfortable as possible.”
Volkswagen also holds retirement planning seminars for staff who are retiring. The one-day seminars are hosted by Platten, who invites a range of industry specialists to talk about topics relating to retirement, such as finance, health, security and activities such as volunteering, while he presents on pensions.
“We recognise that getting members to save into a scheme is very important,” he says. “Equally, we recognise that it’s not just about joining the scheme, but about how it works at retirement.”
The seminars are held off site, with employees encouraged to bring their spouses or partners.
Also, online pension modelling tools are provided by Volkswagen’s pensions administrator, Capita Employee Benefits, to help employees to plan their retirement more accurately.
Volkswagen offers a trust-based defined contribution (DC) pension scheme and uses LCP as its investment consultant. The scheme has 2,800 active members, 1,800 of whom work for Volkswagen-owned Bentley Motors.
