Client Success with Centrica | Standard Life Employer

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Centrica needed to change their employees' perception of pensions. Here's how Standard Life helped them put the energy back into pension engagement.

My name is Charlotte Williams and I'm the Pensions manager at Centrica.

My role involves looking after the central pension scheme, working closely with the administrators, with the trustees and the advisers. An important part of my role is helping our colleagues engage and understand their retirement savings, and that's probably my favorite part of my job.

Centrica is an energy and services company and operates in many countries. The most well known part of Centrica is British Gas.

So at Centrica, we provide an overall rewards and benefits package, and it's really important for us that our colleagues engage and value it.

We really want our colleagues to understand their retirement savings and hopefully help them improve their retirement outcome. This is really important for Centrica so that we can help attract and retain our colleagues, which is really important for us as a business that we really want to help colleagues understand their pensions so that they can get the most from Centrica.

And we hope that what we can do is help them take steps to improve their retirement outcome and achieve the lifestyle that's right for them at retirement.

Now we were aware that pensions can sometimes seem complicated, but it doesn't have to be that way. So what we wanted to do is come up with a way to try and simplify pensions, to help our colleagues engage and make it more manageable for them.

So the Smart Progress bar idea started as a pensions checklist, but instead of having a static pensions checklist, what we wanted to do was something that was a bit more interactive and a bit more engaging for our colleagues.

We've been surprised and really pleased with the results that we saw with the launch of the Smart Progress tiles.

So we saw a huge step up in our number of colleagues who were accessing the on my pension platform.

So we saw 55% of our colleagues go onto My Pension platform during the launch of their Smart Progress tiles, which was brilliant.

Looking at the beneficiary tile in particular, we saw that the number of people who have now nominated beneficiaries has gone up considerably. So for our colleagues, we are now sitting at 45% of our colleagues who have nominated their beneficiaries, which is brilliant.

And we also saw on the contributions that we had. A number of our colleagues went on to that contribution tile and whilst majority kept their contributions the same, we did see that for those who did make a change, almost two thirds of those actually increase their pension contributions, which is again brilliant to see and we've made it clear that they can pay more and get more from Centrica, which is one of our key goals.

So the Smart Progress bar has been really important to us, and our goal has obviously been to get our colleagues engaged in their pensions and simplify pensions for them. And by doing this, what we're hoping is that we can help our colleagues achieve the right lifestyle for them in retirement and be able to afford to do this by starting to think about their pensions now and as they go through their career at Centrica.

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Challenge

Centrica is an international energy business encompassing brands including British Gas, Hive and Dyno. It sought to stimulate ongoing pensions engagement among its employees.

The challenge was to change the perception that pensions are dull and confusing. By introducing user-friendly tools, Centrica aimed to make pension planning simple and accessible, helping employees approach their future confidently.

Centrica turned to Standard Life in 2019 to empower its employees and put them in control of their retirement savings. Together they launched the user-friendly My Pension online dashboard, a tool designed to encourage members to consider and manage their retirement savings effectively.

In 2020, we launched our intuitive Client Analytics tool. This innovative solution, along with My Pension, allowed Centrica to unlock real-time data insights and a comprehensive view of members' financial journeys.

This resulted in a solution that could reach all members, including non-desk based staff, to inform and increase engagement with their pension options and retirement goals.

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Solution

Optimising member experience with behavioural science

In a three-way collaboration between ourselves, Centrica and our behavioural science partner, we evolved MyPension to remove friction points.

These included complex jargon, negative language, and insufficient clear actions.

Introducing the Smart Progress Bar

Inspired by behavioural science insights, we suggested incorporating gaming design/mechanics into MyPension to increase customer engagement and action.

We also identified five key areas with Centrica where a fresh approach would encourage interaction.

Our behavioural science partner helped design interactive, colour-coded, quick-access tiles within a new Smart Progress Bar that show members which pension actions they need to complete, providing a clear roadmap for their pension planning. The design elements, such as the use of colour and interactivity, were specifically chosen to increase customer engagement and action

The tiles include:

Beneficiaries: Update/review beneficiary information
Contributions: Find the right level for members and maximise what is available through Centrica
Investment options: Understand the default and other options available and select their own based on individual beliefs, culture and attitude to risk
Nominated retirement age: Aligning this with members' goals
Are you on track?: The Standard Life Retirement Income tool helps members check they are on track for their desired later-life income

Incomplete tiles are coloured amber and display an alarm bell indicating that action is required. A timestamp shows how long the task will take, alongside prompts explaining what’s needed and why.

Following task completion, tiles turn green, display a 'tick', and deliver a confirmation message. Green tiles revert to amber after 12 months, encouraging members to stay engaged and keep their details in check.

The Contributions tile

The Contributions tile provides personalised messaging which clarifies the maximum pension contributions available from Centrica.

Depending on members' circumstances, the tile will highlight where they're missing out or display a 'congratulations' message while suggesting further options (e.g., additional voluntary contributions).

Communicating the benefits

Centrica created a month-long campaign to launch the Smart Progress Bar, encompassing:

A welcome email to everyone with MyPension access
News articles on Centrica's intranet
Posters around offices and TV screens
Updates on Centrica’s wider HR team call, to help cascade information to different business units
A £100 Amazon voucher to five winners picked at random from members who turned their tiles green

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Results

Our partnership and innovative features has led to a significant increase in engagement and contributions from Centrica members, demonstrating its effectiveness. Standout results include:

55%

of members visited MyPension
45%

of members now have beneficiaries nominated
12%

of members who reviewed their contributions contributed more to their pension pot
24%

utilising the Retirement Income tool
28%

clicking through to review their retirement date

Our work with Standard Life here has helped to change our members’ thinking around pensions. Whereas before it was often regarded as overwhelming and complicated, the new Smart Progress Bar helps to break things down for people into just five key areas, to get them to easily start thinking about how small actions can make a huge long-term difference. The refreshingly unique gamification aspect enables our members to quickly view their actions and progress in the most user-friendly way possible, while enabling them to feel empowered, in control, and well-informed – something that, amid the recent cost-of-living crisis, has never been so important.

- Charlotte Williams, Pensions Manager, Centrica

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Client Success Story: Centrica

Client

Relationship since

Industry

Results

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Challenge

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Solution

Optimising member experience with behavioural science

Introducing the Smart Progress Bar

The Contributions tile

Communicating the benefits

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Results

55%

45%

12%

24%

28%

Communications that create impact

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