Carlson Wagonlit Travel has reduced its dependence on scheme trustees by switching from an occupational defined contribution pension plan to a stakeholder arrangement. The business travel company has seen 97% of staff move into its new plan, which offers contributions between 2% and 10% linked to its salary grading structure.
Sue Kavanagh, HR director for North Europe at the firm, said: "One of the things we were getting increasingly concerned about was the amount of legislation around pensions. It seemed like every month a new piece of legislation would come out, which the trustees would have to consider." She added that whereas there may have been four full-day trustee meetings a year, this has now been reduced to two half days per annum.
Kavanagh added: "Trustees feel a lot more confident now because we understand a lot more, it's not so complicated going forward. It's becoming increasingly difficult for organisations to find people to become trustees, there is a lot of liability and lot of legislation surrounding that role. We hadn't got to the state where we couldn't get trustees but I think that was one of our concerns."