Fidelity National Information Services achieved good results by using face-to-face methods to communicate its group personal pension (GPP) scheme.
After a number of acquisitions, the company wanted to harmonise its pensions and provide a new, more competitive scheme. Julie Chell, HR director for EMEA, says: "We were concerned people did not understand the new scheme and why we wanted to change things. We worked with Foster Denovo on a communication strategy."
At the heart of the strategy was a group presentation for every employee, followed the same day by an individual meeting with a pensions adviser at which the new GPP was explained and more general questions relating to the individual's situation answered.
As a result of the communications programme, membership of Fidelity's pension scheme increased from 40% to over 70% and average employee contributions rose from 3.1% to 6.8%. In addition, 85% of employees said that they gave the pension scheme a higher value as a benefit, while 56% said it was a reason to stay with the company.
"We could have transferred people more quickly, but taking the time to talk to people as we did actually gave us far higher, more positive results based on what we were trying to achieve at the outset," explains Chell.
