Offering employees greater flexibility around how they save and broader access to the fund market were the key reasons behind investment management firm Martin Currie’s decision to introduce a workplace savings platform in 2013.
Craig Gibson, head of reward, explains: “We offer all our employees membership of our self-invested personal pension (Sipp) to help them save for retirement but we know that some might be saving for other goals such as a deposit for a new home or a child’s education.”
To make it as easy as possible to do this, the employer introduced Hargreaves Lansdown’s Corporate Vantage platform, offering employees access to a range of savings and investment products, including an individual savings account (Isa) and a share account alongside the Sipp.
Having access to these additional products has proved popular, with around a quarter of employees also holding a further product on the platform. Gibson expects this will increase further in the next couple of years. “The changes to pension rules are likely to result in more employees looking at different options for their long-term savings,” he says. “It’s good to know we’re already offering this flexibility through the platform and catering for our employees’ current and future needs.”
