UK bank Santander works closely with employees to ensure they have the information they need to make informed decisions about their pension, including producing webinars which aim to demystify the topic.
Gregg Hall, senior compensation and benefits manager at Santander, explains: “We have one which is an introduction to investing, and covers the basics of where their money goes and what options they have. We also work with a partner to offer [employees] free financial coaching, which includes pensions support.”
So far, around 700 staff from the UK employee base of 15,000 have taken up a free introductory financial coaching session and 300 then went on to sign up for further sessions, which have no direct cost but are a tax-deductible benefit.
Alongside this, the bank works closely with its pension provider and employees to ensure its staff remain engaged with pensions throughout their working lives, sending out emails 15, 10 and five years before retirement with suggestions around what they should be considering at each point.
In 2026, the business is planning a push to increase the number of people who take full advantage of the workplace pension scheme. It offers staff the minimum employer contribution of 8% even if they do not themselves contribute to the plan, but this has led to some people choosing to just take the employer contribution, says Hall.
“We all know that 8% isn’t enough to get a good retirement outcome so part of our communication strategy for next year is to ask those people if they have considered paying a bit in themselves,” he says. “If they do, they can get up to 12% employer contributions through our contribution structure.”
Alongside private medical insurance, the pension scheme is one of the top two recruitment and retention tools for the organisation, believes Hall. “Pensions have been in the news a lot recently with the speculation around the budget, and people want to know they have a good deal,” he says.
