PENSIONS
Pension engagement – unlocking financial potential for every employee
Glenn Dobson, Workplace Engagement Manager, People’s Pension, explores how organisations can encourage employees to engage with their pensions
W hen I speak to employees engagement is still far too low. We recently carried out research and found that nearly one in five savers have never checked how much is in their pension savings. That’s a staggering figure when you consider how vital these savings are to long-term financial wellbeing. It’s not just about numbers. It’s about people. And it’s about the role you play in helping employees take control of their financial futures. With automatic enrolment (AE) now well established and the retirement landscape evolving – amid questions around the future of the triple lock and rising life expectancy – ongoing engagement is essential for financial security. across the UK, one thing which becomes clear is that pension The current state of pension engagement Despite the progress made since AE was introduced, many employees remain detached from their pensions. Our research shows that one in five savers check their pension just once a year, and one in three don’t know how much money they have saved in all their pots. That means a hefty
amount of people are flying blind when it comes to their retirement planning. Some common questions I’ve heard from employees around their pension include: l “can I put more in?” l “can I transfer other pots in? l “how do I find my old pension pots?” These are perfectly reasonable questions, and they reveal not just a gap in financial literacy, but an open goal for them to get much more out of their pensions with little effort. Engagement tends to be higher among employees in tech and office-based roles, where regular face-to-face dialogue and structured onboarding programmes help foster awareness and understanding of pensions. In contrast, more transient or remote roles such as those in logistics or field services, often show lower levels of interaction. This is typically due to fewer opportunities for direct communication and less consistent access to pension education, making it harder for employees in these sectors to connect with discussions around retirement savings. And the consequences are real. Low engagement leads to missed opportunities,
poor retirement readiness and ultimately, financial insecurity in later life.
Pension talk can be life changing On the other side of this, increased pension dialogue often has impactful and lasting consequences. At a pension engagement session in the Southwest, an employee in his 50s shared the difference that attending the previous year’s session had made on his life. He’d followed a tip to use the Government’s Pension Tracing Service and discovered a forgotten pension from a job he held at 18, which had grown to a total of £75,000. He returned this year to share his story and express his gratitude. It’s a clear example of how simple engagement advice can empower employees to act and uncover financial opportunities they might otherwise miss. That’s a life-changing amount for that employee. And it’s a reminder of the £31.1 billion sitting in lost pension pots across the UK, according to the Pensions Policy Institute. Imagine the impact we could have by helping people reconnect with all that lost money. Pay and pension professionals are powerful allies to make this happen. Payroll
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | December 2025 - January 2026 | Issue 116 56
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