Research by online pension adviser Wealth Wizards has revealed today that over a fifth (21 percent) of British workers say pension and future financial advice is only being given to senior staff. This figure rises to a quarter (25 percent) in London and the West Midlands.
Over 40 percent of Brits feel let down if their company fails to support them with advice on their pension and future finances, and two-thirds (67 percent) believe it is irresponsible of companies not to provide their employees with pension advice. The research also looked at how the provision of pension advice could impact loyalty to an employer, with over half (57 percent) saying they would be more likely to stay with a company that cares about their pension and future finances. When looking for a job, over a third (39 percent) will actively seek out those employers that care about the financial health of their workforce.
Andrew Firth, Chief Executive of online pension adviser Wealth Wizards said: ‘The research shows that many employers are reserving the provision of financial and pension advice in the workplace for senior management, despite the demand for this kind of advice to be accessible to all. With auto-enrolment and the shift towards individual responsibility for pension saving, employers need to take a more active role in providing access to advice for their workforce on how best to manage pension and retireDon’t bother listening if you’re not going to act
Organisations that have high levels of employee engagement listen to their employees and act on their feedback. Employee voice is one of the key enablers of employee engagement, but it is also a potential cause of disengagement. Employees become increasingly cynical when they see no action taken as a result of their feedback, especially when leaders celebrate an “improvement in our engagement scores”. At the Engage Employee Event on 14th April 2016, Grass Roots polled several hundred senior HR, Engagement, Internal Communications, Talent and Leadership & Development professionals and the results were telling.
We asked three simple questions: In the last 2 years, I have completed an employee survey
Yes: 97.5 percent
No: 2.5 percent
Employee surveys are an important part of an employee engagement strategy
Yes: 100 percent
No: 0 percent
I am confident that our approach to acting on survey results is highly effective
Yes: 23.7 percent
No: 76.9 percent
So in summary, all see employee surveys as important, most are doing them, but only around 20 percent believe that what their organisation then goes on to do with the information is highly effective. One of the most common complaints about employee surveys from employees is “what’s the point of completing a survey – nothing changes around here anyway”. Really what they are saying is “Don’t bother listening if you’re not going to act”. Surveys can unfortunately be seen as a tick box exercise. Transactional rather than transformational engagement. In fact, 4 out of 5 people believe that their manager would not act on the information. But we all know that you don’t improve engagement by just measuring it. You have to actually do something about the data.
Here’s a quote from an article by Annamarie Mann and Jim Harter of Gallup. “Companies that base their engagement strategy on a survey -only solution can find themselves caught in a “rinse and repeat” pattern, focusing on engagement periodically, usually around survey time. The result is that these companies make false promises to employees, pledging change through intensive communication campaigns but providing little actual follow-through.” According to research conducted by Gallup, managers account for up to 70 percent of variance in engagement. Your focus needs to be on your Managers. Give them clear easy to use feedback asap, and provide them with action planning tools to help them.
“Many responsible employers are making financial advice accessible to all employees across their organisation via Wealth Wizards’ Pension Wizard. This service is often provided as part of an employee benefits package, which can play an essential role when recruiting and retaining staff. Staff recruitment and retention is no longer just about a salary – employees are increasingly looking for benefits packages that meet their requirements, and this research tells us that employers that care about the financial health of their workforce come out on top.” The younger generation are most intent on finding an employer that will provide access to financial advice, with nearly a half (47 percent) of 18-24 year olds stating they actively look for this perk when job-hunting.
