In a significant development to its members’ education offering, AXA is launching Pensions TV – a new online video programme designed to engage younger employees with their corporate pension arrangement.
Recent research by the National Association of Pensions Funds* found that pensions are the benefit employers feel most constrained talking about, despite the fact that it is often the most valuable employee benefit an employer will offer. Pensions TV is designed to overcome this barrier, particularly with younger members of the workforce who often experience ‘pension inertia’, to help them plan a successful retirement strategy.
Pensions TV complements AXA’s existing bespoke member education programme, which already includes literature, face-to-face seminars and electronic support. The concept is presented in four online programmes, each designed to appeal to an individual’s financial attitude which have been identified through AXA’s research into behavioural finance.
These include people who are:
- Living for now
- Savers
- Have other priorities
- Regret not starting earlier
The programmes follow three employees who demonstrate these varying approaches to retirement planning in real situations, with a storyline that continues throughout each episode. They aim to help young professionals feel affinity with the characters and identify their own retirement planning short comings, encouraging them to take action.
The multi-media programme will be supported by an intranet site, HTML emails and a teaser poster campaign.
Mark Rowlands, Head of Consultant Relations at AXA, commented: ”AXA meets a lot of employees through our work place marketing support programme and it’s clear that a number of individuals struggle to engage with their pension arrangement, as they’re focusing on the here and now. Our research and experience of behavioural finance and emotional engagement has helped us to develop Pensions TV, giving employers a tool that allows them to communicate effectively with their employees about pensions.”
“We’ve designed Pensions TV as a way of illustrating the long-term impact of not taking an active role in your retirement planning to help everyone, but especially young professionals, understand the need to take control of their pension provision sooner rather than later.”
*NAPF Calls on government to make it easier for employers to talk about pensions – press release.
