When Ben Thomas joined Newcastle Building Society as head of reward in 2023, one of his first priorities was to benchmark how the organisation performed against competitors.
Central to this was its pension scheme. “We offered a competitive pension that was above the market median but a majority of colleagues weren’t taking advantage of it,” Thomas says. “That didn’t align with our ambition of connecting communities with a better financial future.”
With the impending launch of a new flexible benefits platform, provided by Zest, the organisation had a strong push on raising awareness of the pension scheme and how its 1,800 employees could engage with it, including increasing contribution levels. “When national insurance was reduced, we sent out communications suggesting that the extra increase in pay could be put into a pension,” says Thomas. “We did the same at our pay review in April.”
Alongside this, the organisation has run specific pensions sessions through its own financial coaching provision, which have been attended by more than 250 people, either online or in-person. Alan Sanderson, who leads the building society’s financial coaching and wellbeing programme, both internally and externally, says: “We looked at the pension scheme but also retirement planning in general, and the different ways [employees] can save.”
Sessions also covered the issue of small pension pots from previous jobs, including those where people had opted out of state earnings related pension scheme (Serps) provisions, and whether it makes sense to leave those where they are or consolidate with their current plan.
In the past nine months, Newcastle Building Society has seen a 15% increase in employees increasing pension contributions, and 99% of staff have logged into its Colleague Reward flexible benefits site.
In June 2024, it also became an accredited Living Pension employer, working closely with the Living Wage Foundation. This involved changing its default provision to a total 12% contribution, with 7% coming from the building society and 5% from staff.
Alongside other measures, the changes are already having a positive impact, says Thomas. “We’re at one of the lowest levels we’ve seen for attrition and our ability to recruit people has increased,” he says. “We’re also seeing higher levels of colleague engagement.”
