Nearly one in three large employers have experienced difficulties recruiting staff with specialist pensions management skills and relevant expertise to run their internal pension schemes.
The survey, by Ross Trustees found that one in four large employers are planning to reallocate responsibility for pensions management internally, as they struggle to recruit specialised resources.
Ross Trustees said that reallocating oversight of corporate pension schemes to non-specialists runs the risk of pensions management receiving less attention at a time when the complexity of the pensions landscape is increasing.
The past year has seen a number of new pension regulations introduced, including the reformed single code of practice and TCFD reporting requirements.
Despite the pension skills gap, Ross Trustees’ research shows two in three (66 per cent) of large businesses surveyed have not considered bringing in external support when their current pensions manager leaves the business. Yet less than a third (29 per cent) felt they had the necessary in-house skills to reallocate these responsibilities internally, potentially putting them at risk of a skills gap should complex scenarios arise.
Ross Trustees trustee director Geoff McKenzie says: “In-house pensions managers are a crucial but often overlooked role within a company. With a role often spanning financial, legal and HR, the skills of a professional pensions manager are in short supply.
“This is especially worrying given the progressively complex pensions landscape. Pensions are headline news at the moment and the increasing regulatory burden placed on scheme governance means it is difficult for the role of a pensions manager to be performed by non-specialist alongside another day job.
“External pension services firms offer one tway to address this skills gap, either for the long term or for a short-term project where pensions issues feature. With in-house pensions managers in short supply, external advisory services offer a cost-effective way of ensuring all regulatory requirements are met and offer businesses extra capacity to deal with any unexpected events.”
The survey was conducted among 500 senior executives of firms employing at least 250 people.
