Shift to DC highlights communications challenges
23/09/2010
It’s a story we know well. The shift from DB to DC is happening very quickly. Today, only 23% of DB schemes are open to new members. Almost 70% of them are closed. Just 10 years ago these numbers were reversed.
And in the absence of DB, DC schemes are flourishing. But DC scheme members need a lot more support and encouragement to make the right choices. This is why the NAPF put good communications at the heart of the Pension Quality Mark, making it one of the three standards schemes must meet in order to qualify for the PQM.
But compared to other countries, DC communications in the UK is an emerging market. It is only very recently that large companies have come to the DC party in earnest, and begun to confront genuine mass communications challenges.
This is why the NAPF was proud to sponsor research into international DC communication campaigns, which was undertaken earlier this year by Spence Johnson. During the first quarter of this year Spence Johnson collected 90 excellent pensions communications campaigns from 9 countries, but most came from five: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and the USA.
The Pensions Communications Project 2010 delivered details on each of the 90 excellent campaigns Spence Johnson collected, and showed what the strategy was behind each one. The report describes a wide range of themes which are predicted to emerge across these campaigns.
One of the most important themes to emerge is the benefits of scale in offering good quality DC communications. In NAPF’s own work around Super Trusts, the NAPF has already identified the advantages scale can offer around costs, expertise and efficiency. These same advantages extend to communications, where scale can reduce costs and increase quality.
A summary of Spence Johnson’s Pensions Communications Project 2010 which is now available on the NAPF website. The full findings of the report are available for purchase for NAPF fund members.
