Workers are living and working longer than ever before. So what’s your retirement plan? More and more employees simply don’t know. They aren’t taking advantage of company pension schemes. So much so that last month the government introduced auto-enrolment for large employers – but I can’t help but wonder if HR teams should focus their attention elsewhere.
Many of us would consider ourselves part of the ‘new generation’, who are more excited by benefits that we can utilise here and now. The idea of long term financial security seems an impossibility as we struggle to pay the weekly shopping bill and grimace each time we fill up our cars. We all know that we should plan for the future, yet figures show that we’re not. Will auto-enrolment simply signal a mass exodus as we struggle to opt out and claim but those valuable pounds?
Our own experience at The Voucher Shop shows that flexible benefits scheme participants make full use of any discount savings available to them on household items and grocery shopping – anything to get that month’s expenses down. But we also see travel and leisure vouchers consistently in the top 5 most popular choices, year in, year out. We know, therefore, that people simply refuse to give up their annual holiday. They will look at alternative cutbacks before considering axing this, which indicates a ‘live for today’ attitude amongst staff.
At a time when employee engagement, motivation and productivity can have a real impact on company success and improve job security, should HR teams spend so much of their time trying to force pensions on us? Surely sourcing innovative ways to help employees stretch their salaries further will have a greater impact on productivity and workplace happiness right now.
