Case studies: fleet street has given pensions boardroom notoriety, now could be your chance to help steer bosses towards total reward. (Industry Overview) Sarah Ball.
in line with inflation. Employees can now flex this up to 1/36th.
Contribution sabbaticals
Another organisation that has recently redesigned its pension provision in the context of refashioning its total reward offering is Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow. Following the merger of Hewitt with Bacon & Woodrow last year, the new organisation launched a flexible benefits package in October 2002. Its 15,000 employees can choose on an annual basis, whether to contribute to a Care scheme, or to a DC one. Interestingly, the legacy arrangements were both DC, not DB, so the Care scheme is actually the new kid on the block in this arrangement.
Given that Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow is an actuarial and human resources consultancy, one assumes that employees have the financial literacy to cope with weighing up their options year-on-year. Kevin Wesbroom, principal design consultant, says: "Given that our proposition to clients is that the 'one size fits all' benefits package is dead in the water, we feel that the total reward deal we offer to our own employees is consistent with that."
One area of internal debate was over whether the consultancy should allow employees to take contribution sabbaticals, given that encouraging retirement saving is another key message of its external brand. It decided flexibility for the individual employee was still important, and settled on allowing contribution sabbaticals of up to three years. Wesbroom says: "22-year-old trainees, realistically, might not place pension saving that high on their agenda. They may have other financial planning priorities. Dare I say it, they may even prefer to have a bit more of life at that age, particularly if they reckon their earnings will be much higher when they qualify."
When a dyed-in-the-wool actuary starts talking in terms of total reward, you realise how times change.
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