Engagement strategies need to respond to the diverse needs of all scheme members.
That was the main takeaway of a panel at the Corporate Adviser’s Master Trust and GPP Conference discussing meeting the DC engagement challenge and delivering complex messages to a diverse audience.
Standard Life head of master trust Donna Walsh said that digital engagement could improve retirement outcomes for savers but multichannel engagement should be open and people should be helped through the channels that they want to use to interact.
She highlighted that there are around 11 million adults in the UK that don’t have the basic digital literacy skills for everyday life.
Walsh said: “Digital can help people to and at-retirement. You can use data to make it much more personalised and monitor action versus intention and bring in wider financial wellness as well.
“We are working with Digital Unite to bridge that inclusion gap. We see across the board an eight-to-one ratio of digital to telephone interactions which shows the prevalence of digital day-to-day. However, when it comes to more complex or vulnerable situations, we see that ratio shrinking.”
She also noted how gender, ethnicity, culture and socioeconomic background can result in different needs and thus require different engagement strategies.
Syndaxi Financial Planning Robert Reid said that there needs to be a degree of personalisation when it comes to advice. But he also noted that people tend to think advice and guidance are interchangeable.
He said: “I can see some form of triage being really good as a filter point for schemes.”
Wealth Wizards business development director Nick Hall agreed with Reid’s statement.
He said: “I think the future is going to be about codifying guidance and advice and following a principle of what you can do for a member to get the right outcome. Providers can go a step further than they are doing at the moment.”