Theo Rasmussen· People Analytics Lead, Steinbach Industrie
Posted in Benefits & Wellbeing ·
We closed our defined benefit scheme to future accrual at the start of last year and moved about 900 remaining active members into the defined contribution plan the rest of the company already had. Dutch industrial business, 2,600 employees in total.
The technical work went well. The communication went less well. We explained the change accurately and at length, and almost nobody understood what it meant for them personally until the first statement arrived. Calls to the pensions desk went from about 30 a month to over 400.
My main lesson is that we should have led with individual projections, even rough ones, rather than the scheme-level story. Interested in what others who have been through it found.
9 helpful · 5 insightful · 2 agree · 4 replies · 205 views · 3 following
Senior Compensation Analyst, Beacon Retail Group
Same experience at a UK engineering firm. The single most useful thing we did was a one-page personal illustration: what you have built up, what you would have had at 65 if nothing changed, what you are projected to have now, and the transition payment. About 600 members, and 78% opened it, against 22% for the general booklet.
Senior Compensation Analyst, Beacon Retail Group
I would add: train line managers before members hear anything. Ours found out at the same time as their teams and could not answer the simplest question, which made it look as if the company was hiding something. A 45-minute briefing a week earlier would have cost nothing.
Total Rewards Manager, Aurora Hospitality
Slightly different view. We did the individual projections and they caused their own trouble, because people treated the projected figure as a promise. Two years later markets were down and we had complaints quoting the illustration back at us. I would still do them, but with a range rather than a single number, and with the low end shown as prominently as the middle.
Director of Benefits, Bellwether Consulting
Good point on ranges, and I wish we had done that. On managers, agreed entirely. We also underestimated how many members near retirement wanted a conversation with a person. We eventually funded one session each with an independent adviser for anyone within ten years of retirement age, about 210 people, and take-up was 64%.
