Designs of distinction

Lisa Young-Harry, Trustee Chief Operating Officer of HSBC Bank UK Pension Scheme, explains how communications and member understanding made it a contender for the PLSA’s 2022 Pension Quality Mark Distinction Award.

HSBC Bank UK Pension Scheme’s trustee board takes its role in managing the scheme very seriously, and has recently updated its mission statement to include two member focussed priorities:

• To help members to make well informed decisions about their retirement savings

• To deliver an excellent service experience for members

Engaging communications are key to achieving these goals. We believe that we must thoroughly understand our membership’s demographics and implement a communications strategy tailored to their differing needs and expectations.

Analysing Member Demographics

The trustee board regularly monitors our member demographics. Using LCP’s Horizon technology we can look at realtime data on a variety of key metrics, from member contributions by age, salary, gender and tenure, to member investment and retirement decisions.

We use our data analysis to segment our membership and build a suite of email nudges that are automatically triggered by specific events in their careers. In a single click, these nudges take members from their email account to the tools and pages of our scheme website, futurefocus (https://futurefocus.staff.hsbc.co.uk), that are relevant to them.

Our average nudge open rates are over 70% and our website visits continue to increase, with an average of around 50,000 visits to futurefocus each quarter.

About The Scheme

HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations, serving approximately 39 million customers globally. The bank employs approximately 35,000 people in the UK and works hard to ensure that its workplace is an inclusive, diverse and meritocratic environment.

HSBC offers a defined contribution scheme for current employees including a generous bank core contribution as well as pound for pound matching up to 7% of pensionable salary. The scheme has over 170,000 members and assets of over £37.5 billion as at December 2021.

Regular Member Surveys

We run regular member surveys and focus groups, with our latest survey taking place in 2022. We use member feedback to help with the design of our communications strategy and to plan new initiatives and campaigns for the year ahead.

SUPPORT FOR NEW JOINERS AND MID-CAREER MEMBERS

Member survey feedback told us that our regular intakes of new joiners wanted more information, including simple, short explanations of how the scheme works, projections of the future value of their contributions, explanations of how to use their personal pension account, My Pension, and help to set a saving target.

In 2022 we developed a range of tools for new joiners including a quick start guide that explains the pensions basics in simple terms, a new joiner induction video, and a new joiner website page. Our regular data analysis also showed us that taking a mid-career contribution break or going part-time can significantly reduce a member’s DC pension pot. In 2022 we launched a bespoke scheme pensions saving ‘MOT’ for mid-career members. This included a simple interactive guide and checklist to help members take control of their savings.

Keeping Communications Accessible

We regularly review the reading age of our communications from the trustee board to members, aiming to keep this as low as possible. We also use a layered approach, for example:

• An initial ‘push’ communication, like a nudge or postcard about a topic, will be short, providing only the most important high-level details using simple, non-technical language.

• Members can access more detailed information via a link in the nudge to a webpage. From there, they can access booklets, fund factsheets and other guides. These can provide longer, fuller explanations and may contain some more complex pensions or investment terminology.

Our Esg Communications

In 2021 the trustee board committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the scheme’s defined benefit and defined contribution assets by 2050, halving its carbon emissions by 2030 for its equity and corporate bond mandates.

In 2022, the trustee board agreed a three-year ESG communications strategy, including a range of new campaigns to boost member engagement with ESG policies and netzero targets. We have already created a new ESG website page for members (https://futurefocus.staff.hsbc.co.uk/ active-dc/managing-esg-risks) along with an explainer video and annual ESG bulletin with a topical dashboard and newsletter content.

Retirement Support For Members

Our scheme has a growing population of members aged 50 and over. In 2018, the trustee board appointed a guidance provider to deliver bespoke retirement seminars and follow-up guidance calls for active DC members over age 50. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, in 2022 we expanded our seminar programme to deferred members and ran a pilot seminar for members under 50. Our retirement webcast and seminar programme has gone from strength to strength, with very high attendance rates and excellent member feedback including:

Brilliant, I didn’t understand pensions, so this has been fab… Great sessions and nice and lighthearted even when talking about getting older and retiring! Very good session, covered a wide range of subjects and gave lots of things to consider going forward.

SUPPORTING MEMBERS THROUGH THE COST-OFLIVING CRISIS AND MARKET VOLATILITY

During this period of financial difficulty and uncertainty, we believe effective communication is more important than ever. The trustee board has paid particular attention to member behaviours over recent months, monitoring their contributions, opt-outs, investment, and early retirement decision.

We have used these insights to design communications that support and reassure members, including articles in our annual newsletter as well as tailored email nudges and special alerts on our scheme website, futurefocus.

THE HSBC BANK UK PENSION SCHEME’S – DC SECTION PENSION QUALITY MARK AWARD

The HSBC Bank UK Pension Scheme’s – DC Section was first accredited by PQM in 2009, making it one of the longest-standing holders. It holds the PQM Plus standard.

PQM and PQM Plus recognise exceptional DC schemes that go beyond minimum regulatory requirements. They require good contribution levels (a minimum of 12% with at least 6% from the employer, and 15% with at least 10% from the employer for PQM Plus), strong governance and a clear focus on encouraging employees to save for their future. These are all qualities that shine through in the HSBC Bank UK Pension Scheme.

£In 2022, we shortlisted the scheme for the PQM Distinction Award, which recognises the very best in DC scheme design, governance and member outcomes.