Communication is a balancing act. With every transmission, communicators are often balancing several, sometimes conflicting, factors at once. At any given time, communicators are talking directly to people with vastly different sensibilities, priorities, and even job roles, finding the throughline that connects them all is always a give and take.
This is most strongly felt in pensions communications. With attention-grabbing and concerning stories making the headlines, pension schemes can be one of the most emotive and uncertain topics to tackle. There’s a lot of negativity around the subject, which can put employees off from fully capitalising on the range of benefits at their disposal. With the majority of Brits either not paying in or paying very little as well as citing pensions as the main reason for leaving a company, it’s never been more important to inspire employees into action.
Psychologically, pension communications come up against several paradoxes. Government research indicated that life events are cited as good prompting points for employees but not milestone birthdays. According to Phoenix Insight, Midlifers are best motivated by visualising their futures whilst simultaneously being intimidated to picture growing older. These conflicting narratives to weather mean that it’s not always obvious which avenue to pursue and what maximises impact. On top of this, there’s the question of where you place responsibility. Any good pension scheme offers a range of options for employees.
Technically, it should be within each employees’ control to get the most out of their particular schemes. But at the same time, auto enrolment has worked to provide people with a safety net, with 77% of the UK workforce having a pension because of it. It’s natural for many to feel it’s the responsibility of the organisation to handle these affairs, especially when they see that x amount of a pay slip is spent on it. Again, you have to straddle the paradox of taking control of the situation and giving employees the reins.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, as pension communications present an incredible opportunity to motivate and even upskill employees. Every demographic might want particulars out of their pensions, but everyone can benefit from financial education and toolkits. If anything, it makes these learning opportunities more vital because they’re the crucial throughline across all the personas you want to speak to. 82% of people like to feel in control of their finances and whatever age your workforce is, you can galvanise them into improving their futures, no matter how close they may be.
The reason pension comms can be such a balancing act is because it’s the litmus test of how much organisations really care for their people. As much as we talk about fending off competition and holding up good business practice, retaining talent should fundamentally include giving them a better quality of life. Going the extra mile to make sure everyone feels considered should set the bar for all communications.
