1. A case study – Nationwide Building Society
Ian Baines
Head of Pensions

2. Nationwide Building Society
The world’s largest building society…
The UK’s second largest mortgage provider
One of the largest savings providers
Major provider of current accounts, credit cards and personal loans
15 million customers and members – no shareholders
Over 700 branches across the UK
Around 18,500 employees and a head office in Swindon

3. PRIDE The way we do things… Putting our members and their money first
Rising to the challenge
Inspiring Trust
Doing the right thing in the right way
Excelling at relationships
PRIDE drives our employee recognition – and once a year, we celebrate our true PRIDE superstars

4. Summary of employee pension arrangements
Nationwide Pension Fund – DB
Closed to new members but open accrual
c6,000 current employees are members
Nationwide GPP with Friends Life - DC
Open to all employees & used for AE
c12,000
Employees not making pension savings
c600 i.e. 3%
The key challenge we identified in 2014
Despite higher matching contributions most employees in the GPP paid minimum contributions i.e. likely poor outcomes

5. DC enhancements – 2015/2016 Old DC benefit design
Life assurance of 4 x salary
2 year vesting for full ER contributions
Core 9% ER contribution (5% if < 2 years)
Core 4% EE contribution set as default plus ER additional matching up to 3%
New DC benefit design
Life assurance of 8x salary
No vesting
Core 13% ER contribution
No change to ER matching conts but EE cont. default reset in January each year at 7%
Incapacity benefit of 2x salary

6. Three Phase Engagement - 2015/16
Education & Awareness: March /April 2015 – Don’t just dream it, Plan it! campaign:
People Manager communications – Employee Pensions team led workshops, tool kit for delivering a pensions team briefing session
Team Briefs (launch of poster competition), News stories, LIVE mag, Twitter feeds, Branch energisers and Huddles
Introducing the changes: July 2015
Changes announced via news stories, Manager roundups, segmented group direct communications, Film
Implementation of the changes: September
Series of ‘Youchoose’ communications regarding Additional Contributions messaging
Follow up communications reinforcing messages to ensure employee understanding

8. Results
Employees in GPP paying > 4% core EE cont. up from c9% (end of 2014) to c90% (January 2016) and is currently c84%
Employees in DB paying AVC's increased from c8% (end of 2014) to currently c11%.
General increase in employee engagement e.g. logging on to websites, attendance at seminars, staff surveys etc.
Employees not in DB or GPP fell from c5% (end 2014) and is currently c3%

9. New Nationwide Pension Fund website launched
Follow up communication iniatives – DB/NPF
New Nationwide Pension Fund website launched
Introducing new interactive member communications & annual newsletter
Greater use digital information for all members – current employees, pensioners & deferred pensioners

10. Follow up communication iniatives - GPP
Encouraging employees to “own” their pension savings, manage their investments and focus on their target income at retirement

11. Conclusions
Behavioural “nudges” can definitely work in increasing pension contributions.
A good communication strategy is important but it shouldn’t all be about the numbers and logic it also has to focus on emotional levers e.g. “ Don’t just dream it plan it!” campaign.
Support from the business and alignment with business goals and culture is essential. As is support from other key stakeholders e.g. staff union.
It also helps to have a great pension provider (Friends Life) and a great adviser (Hymans Robertson).
And the Secret to Good Employee Engagement is ….it’s never finished!