It’s shown in various studies and research, that salary isn’t the be all and end all when people search for their next role.

Flexible hours, the physical working environment, a family-friendly internal culture, strong opportunity for development and progression: all have been cited as the overriding reason why candidates choose a certain role over alternative opportunities.

However, recent figures show that three in five people claimed the quality of an employer’s workplace pension was the deciding factor when it came to accepting a specific job offer.

Though it’s perhaps not surprising that 77% of workers in finance, banking or accountancy place importance on their employer’s pension provision, it’s interesting that 56% of employees in the IT industry choose pensions as the ‘pull factor’.

Despite such a focus on their future, 59% had no idea how much their employer were contributing towards their later years; 41% had no clue what they themselves were paying towards their old age!

Said Angela Seymour-Jackson, Managing Director of Workplace at Aegon UK, “It’s good to see people taking into account the quality of a pension scheme when considering a prospective employer, especially when over half of those in work are expecting it to be their main source of financial support in retirement.”

“Across the board, employers should be speaking to their employees much more regularly about their joint contributions. Traditionally, people have just received an annual statement, which is all too easy to file away and does little to plug engagement gaps. Technology now means 23% of those in work are using online services to review and make decisions about their pension pots, and now it’s possible to monitor and manage savings via a smartphone,
this proportion could be a lot higher.”

As well as attracting new appointments, a decent pension scheme can help retain employees. Given that the majority of companies are required to implement a workplace pension scheme by law, the opportunities to use it as both an influence on new employees and a retention mechanism with existing workers are there.

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