More than half (57%) of employer respondents do not personalise pension communications for individual employees, according to research by Willis Towers Watson’s UK defined contribution (DC) master trust LifeSight.
Its survey of 131 organisations also found that 37% of respondents do not currently have any plans to play a greater role in supporting the long-term savings of their employees.
The research also found:
- 56% of respondents believe their employees do not save more into their pension because they are saving for a house or holiday instead.
- 20% of respondents feel that the complexity surrounding pensions and the lack of understanding of the reward on offer prevents their employees from saving more into their pensions.
- 17% of respondents cite affordability as the main reason why their staff are not saving more into their pension.
- 97% of respondents are experiencing pension inertia within their workforce, such as employees remaining at the default contribution rate or in default investment funds.
David Bird (pictured), head of proposition development at LifeSight, said: “This is a worrying, but unsurprising finding. Employees focusing on short-term savings is a common challenge. Personalising pension communication could be an important way of addressing inertia in pension savings.
“With the recent increase in the state retirement age to 68 for many, employees will need to take a much more proactive approach to saving if they want to retire well or earlier. Providing engaging online tools which make members’ saving decisions more relatable can help nudge them into action, for example, by helping them understand how it impacts the age at which they can retire.”