Scisys, an IT and technology company headquartered in Chippenham, introduced a workplace savings platform, provided by Hargreaves Lansdown in April 2013. The wrap offers a range of savings and investment products to the Scisys pension scheme’s 235 members.
The organisation has since seen 62% of members contributing more than the minimum they are enrolled at, and 42% contributing 15% of salary or more, the level typically recommended by advisers to fund a comfortable retirement. Some 83% of members are registered to view their account online, 31% of whom logged in during September.
Kate Wisniewski, HR manager at Scisys, says: “It is lovely to see that people are saving more than the minimum. The workforce is highly educated, skilled and financially savvy, and the [organisation] was aware that many would want to get involved in the pension themselves. The wrap ticks a lot of boxes for us. The service is online and employees are empowered to make their own choices if they want to. If they don’t like an investment fund, for example, they can change it.”
In fact, 47% select their own pension investments and are proving good at making successful choices: on average the top 10 funds selected by members have outperformed the default fund by 3.2% per year over the last five years.
In addition, 16% of members save into additional savings vehicles such as individual savings accounts (Isas) and the Lifetime Isa (Lisa) alongside their pension. The average age of the workforce is 44, but this masks clusters at either end of the age range. This means that some staff may be getting close to the lifetime allowance and although the organisation only makes pension contributions, this group may wish to invest in an Isa instead of accruing more into their pension. At the other end, young graduates are also choosing to invest in a Lisa as well as their pension, to save for their first home.
“From the conversations around the building, people ask each other if they have seen an article on the website and so on,” adds Wisniewski. “It works really well for us. From my perspective, it is a big headache gone; they manage it themselves with good support from Hargreaves Lansdown.”
Read more:
What workplace savings schemes complement pension arrangements?
Infographic: Employees' expected source of income in retirement
