The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) accredits and supports a global community of 227,000 members and 544,000 future members. The organisation is headquartered in London and has around 1,400 employees in 44 countries with around 950 in the UK.
As befits the first accountancy body to admit women to membership in 1909, the association is very engaged with the topic of increasing financial education and wellbeing across the employee population and is keen to support open conversation on important issues such as women and pensions.
Employees in the UK have access to the ACCA group personal pension (GPP) plan. Alison Hanlan, global head of reward at the ACCA , says: “We regularly review the benefits we offer to identify any ‘life points’, like maternity leave, where our employees are making choices that will have financial implications now and in the future. We want to make sure that there are no unintended barriers in the way our benefits have been set up and make sure we are having the right conversations with employees.
“Through our UK pension provider, our employees have access to a tool that shows them the impact on their projected pension if they change their contributions. This is so important for bringing pensions into current budgeting conversations,” Hanlan says. “It also shows savers their life expectancy, this is so important for women as they are likely to live for longer than men, so it has real implications for how much they might want to save.”
ACCA also has a financial wellbeing strategy in place with Nudge, explains Hanlan. “We were really mindful of the need for personalisation and encouraging all employees to really engage with their finances, particularly women and saving into their pension.”
“One of the most impactful steps we have taken is to ensure that there is diversity in our pension scheme governance group. When we are taking decisions about what to communicate, when and how, having a wide range of women's voices at the table is one of our biggest weapons.”
