FirstGroup has rolled out virtual roadshows to help its 10,000 UK employees understand the changes to the pension scheme.

Employee Benefits first broke the news in October 2011 that the transport giant was complying with the 2012 pension reforms by using both its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme and a new trust-based defined contribution (DC) scheme.

FirstGroup, working with reward and pension communications firm Penkom, developed a bespoke online DB-DC hybrid pension modeller, which is automatically populated with pension administration data to enable members to make decisions based on their own unique circumstances.

Penkom also produced a six-minute video to explain the changes to staff, which was delivered to employees online and via DVD.

John Chilman, group reward and pensions director at FirstGroup, said: “The video and bespoke modeller were central to our strategy to replace the workplace pension roadshows we used to hold.

“This produced substantial cost savings and significantly reduced our resource requirements. It also enabled many more members to access personalised information than was possible through the face-to-face pension roadshows.”

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