The Mott MacDonald Group is a global engineering, management and development consultancy with 16,000 employees across 150 countries, and a headquarters in the UK. It is one of the largest employee-owned organisations in the world.
Mott MacDonald has a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme for all UK staff; this is a master trust arrangement provided by Aviva. All new starters since 31 December 2004 qualify as standard scheme members and therefore receive matching contributions of between 4.5% and 7%. Legacy age-related contributions are higher under this arrangement.
Just under 10% of the organisation's current employees still have entitlements in its defined benefit (DB) scheme, which closed on 31 December 2000.
The organisation also provides access to both a cash Individual savings account (Isa) and a stocks and shares Isa though Aviva's My Money scheme, which Mott MacDonald launched in March 2018. This additionally offers a range of core financial benefits, including life assurance and permanent health insurance. Employees can also select additional life assurance cover and a critical illness policy for themselves and a partner, or access a will writing service.
Stephen Pearn, group HR infrastructure and projects manager at Mott MacDonald, says: “We think it’s important to help employees with decisions that will contribute to their wellbeing in terms of lifestyle, health and finance by making appropriate, decent quality benefits accessible to them as simply as possible.”
For example, Mott MacDonald’s flexible benefits programme, which has been in place since January 2009, includes a number of lifestyle benefits, such as annual leave, a cycle-to-work scheme and gym memberships. These are provided alongside its financial products. “We can tell by the level of engagement we get at annual benefits enrolment that most employees really value these opportunities,” adds Pearn.
The majority (95%) of the organisation's employees are currently members of the workplace pension scheme.
Pearn concludes: “Mott MacDonald has never considered supporting anything other than pension as the appropriate vehicle for the majority of employees when it comes to securing a decent income in retirement. We don’t see providing easy access to an Isa [as] detracting from our deep commitment to pension provision.”
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