25% of UK Employees Don’t Know Who Provides Their Pension: How Effective Is Your Pension Communication?

We help businesses of all shapes & sizes reward their staff 🚀
09/08/2024
7 mins

The latest statistics from Drewberry’s 2024 Workplace Pensions Report revealed that while the majority of employees pay into their Workplace Pension, 25% don’t know who provides their scheme. This gives us crucial insight, suggesting there’s a significant knowledge gap when it comes to staff understanding their pension.

It’s in your best interest to ensure all of your employees have a good understanding of their pension scheme. Not just for employee engagement, but to help staff make informed retirement decisions. In this article, you’ll learn more about these survey findings and how to improve your pension communication.

A Quarter Of Employees Have No Idea Who Provides Their Workplace Pension

When we asked UK employees if they know who provides their workplace pension, 25% said no.

The good news? The majority do know which UK pension provider manages their pension 🥳. However, with 1 in 4 employees less informed about their pension provider, it suggests there’s some work for employers to do.

Employees Don’t Understand Tax Benefits Of Workplace Pensions

But it’s not just the providers staff don’t know about, they also don’t understand pension tax relief.

  • 50% knew how pensions tax relief works
  • 40% of employees said they didn’t understand the tax relief associated with pensions
  • 10% were unsure.

Staff Don’t Understand Salary Sacrifice

Staff also told us they didn’t understand salary sacrifice pension options.

  • 38% understand how salary sacrifice works
  • 31% had heard of salary sacrifice but don’t understand it
  • 25% of employees hadn’t heard of it
  • And 6% were unsure.

This lack of understanding indicates that more needs to be done in terms of communicating the workplace pension scheme to your staff.

25% Don’t Know How Or Where To Access Info About Their Pension

We also asked employees if they knew how or where to access information about their pension. These findings give us a better understanding of why staff might not know who their provider is.

24% of employees said they didn’t know how to access information about their pension or would need support from their employer. This shows there is a communications gap somewhere and strategies need to be worked on.

  • 14% would need help from their employer
  • 10% had no idea where to find information about their pension.

Employers Could Be Doing More To Teach Employees 👩‍🏫

Although there appears to be a lack of understanding across the board when it comes to workplace pensions, employees want to improve their knowledge. We asked staff whether they thought their employer could be doing more.

27% thought their employer communicated their pension scheme well, however, the vast majority felt more could be done.

  • 44% had received some education, but they think they need more
  • 27% think their employer communicates well and doesn’t need to do more
  • 22% say they’re not clued up about pensions and need more education
  • 8% weren’t sure.

What Do Employees Want?

When asked what education they wanted from their employer, financial planning and how to save for retirement topped the list (67%), this was followed by:

  • Salary sacrifice and how to increase take home pay (47%)
  • Tax benefits that come with pensions (43%)
  • Consolidating pensions from previous jobs (40%).

We then asked how employees want their pensions info to be communicated. Access to a financial adviser topped the list (37%), followed by:

  • Webinars / learning sessions (34%)
  • Email comms (33%)
  • 1-2-1 sessions (33%)
  • Employee benefits platform (31%).

The good news is that some employers are already providing information in ways that align with employee needs. 48% told us they receive information on their pension via email and 34% have employee benefit platforms such as My.Drewberry 🙌.

Why Does Effective Communication Matter?

Ensuring your employees understand the ins and outs of their Workplace Pension scheme is paramount if you want to keep staff engaged and opted into the scheme.

It’s not just about knowing the provider’s name, it’s about your employees truly understanding their benefit, so they get the most from it. If you offer a salary sacrifice pension but staff don’t understand the benefits of it, how can they truly value what’s on offer? The answer is: they can’t.

Effectively Communicating Your Workplace Pension

It’s clear there’s a knowledge gap when it comes to Workplace Pensions. However, you can ensure this gap is closed by ensuring you implement a strong communication plan.

You need to regularly and consistently provide communications about the pension via different channels. This might include email, your company’s intranet, and staff meetings, for example.

Currently, 34% of employers use benefit platforms, such as My.Drewberry, to ensure their company benefits are seen and utilised by employees. These types of platforms also provide useful calculators to help staff get a better understanding of how much they might need for retirement. It can also go a long way in getting your pension provider’s name out there, helping your team to understand who provides their pension.

Get Expert Advice On Your Workplace Pension

As the data shows, there’s definitely a lot employees don’t know about their company pension. For your staff to truly utilise their retirement benefits and find value, it’s important they understand the scheme and all its components.

By improving how you communicate, you can turn a mandatory benefit into a highly valuable one. Need help with your Workplace Pension? Get in touch with our team by calling 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk. Our employee benefit consultants are the experts and can help with your communications strategy.

Why Speak to Us?

We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.

We all deserve a first class service when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

Contact Us

Head Office & Pensions and Investments
Senator House
85 Queen Victoria Street
London
EC4V 4AB
Personal Insurance & Accounts Payable
Telecom House
125-135 Preston Road
Brighton
BN1 6AF
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Drewberry Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Companies House No. 06675912

Drewberry Ltd registered office: Telecom House, Preston Road, Brighton, England, BN1 6AF. Telephone 0208 432 7333

Drewberry Ltd (Financial Conduct Authority No. 505473) is an Appointed Representative of Quilter Wealth Limited and Quilter Mortgage Planning

Limited, which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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