2005
(18/07/2005) Eight-and-a-half million British employees believe their employer doesn't offer a company pension - New Research
Nearly one-in-three British employees (31%), equivalent to around 8.5 million people, believe that their employer doesn´t offer a company pension scheme, according to new research from AXA.
The situation is worse for part-time employees where 41% believe their employers do not offer a company pension compared to 28% for full-time employees.
At the heart of the problem is poor communications. Of those who do take advantage of occupational pensions schemes, a third (33%) believe their company is either poor or very poor at communicating the benefits of the pension to staff.
Letters from the company are ranked as the most favoured method of communications, with more than half (57%) of workers selecting this as one of their favoured sources of information. Annual statements (53%) and booklets (41%) were also rated highly.
However, staff intranets were poorly rated, with just 29% of company pension scheme members favouring this communications method, with multimedia such as CD or DVD (8%) and letters from trade unions (22%) also scoring badly.
Mark Rowlands, Business Development and Marketing Director at AXA Corporate Benefit Solutions said, "This survey shows that a lot of employers are failing to reap the rewards of offering a pension scheme because they are ineffective at communicating important benefits to their employees.
"They need to fundamentally review why they offer a pension scheme in the context of their commercial and staffing objectives and then use the scheme to help meet those objectives. For example, an integrated communications plan can ensure that staff understand the value of the benefits the company is offering which in turn helps with staff retention and reduces the costs of recruitment."
Summary of communication methods
Respondents were asked;
Which of the following, if any, would you use to get information on your company pension benefits?
| Communication Method | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Letter from the company | 57% |
| Annual statement | 53% |
| Booklet | 41% |
| Newsletter / magazine | 36% |
| Intranet | 29% |
| Presentations at work | 25% |
| Letter from Trade Union | 22% |
| Multimedia e.g. CD or video | 8% |
| None of these | 6% |
| Don´t know | 1% |
- Ends -
Notes to Editors
The survey was conducted over the phone by TNS from April 8th - 24th 2005. A representative sample of 1,797 people were interviewed across the UK.
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About AXA
AXA is a world leader in financial protection. AXA's operations are diverse with major operations in Western Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA employs 120,000 staff and tied agents and, as of 31 December 2004, had €869 billion in assets under management. Reported total revenues for 2004 were approximately €72 billion. Our previous company performance is not a guide to how we may perform in the future.
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