Live Nation Entertainment has harmonised pensions for its UK staff following its merger with Ticketmaster Entertainment last April.
The entertainment and concert promoter has used its larger 1,500-strong workforce to renegotiate better deals with its providers.
Previously, Ticketmaster had three group personal pension (GPP) schemes and Live Nation had one, provided by Friends Provident. It has now harmonised its offering, transferring staff from both firms into a new GPP, also with Friends Provident. It has negotiated a lower management charge for scheme members.
Brian Newman, international HR director at Live Nation, said: “We have aligned contributions, so some Live Nation people were brought up to the same level as Ticketmaster, which is good news for employees. Nobody’s contributions have gone down. It has been a big achievement for us.”
Immediately after the new pension scheme was launched, the firm saw a 6% increase in membership to 35% of the workforce. This has now risen to 40%, and to boost take-up further, Live Nation is planning to offer staff one-to-one financial education sessions. “While we think of our workforce as generally younger, as the organisation matures, so do our people and their lifestyle needs,” said Newman. “This is an important way of ensuring our employees plan for their longer-term future.
“We have been able to drive some additional value out of the relationship with Friends Provident in terms of information on fund selection.”
The company’s online benefits portal, provided by Thomsons Online Benefits, has allowed Live Nation to gather the data it needed to harmonise its pension schemes successfully.
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