How to empower every kind of employee to engage with their pension

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This Pension Engagement Season (15 September–6 November), make a meaningful difference to your employees’ futures by playing your part in the industry-wide campaign that helps people save for retirement.

What is Pension Engagement Season?

Pension Engagement Season is an annual initiative led by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). It aims to encourage people to pay their pension some attention and take positive steps towards their financial future.

For the fifth year running, we’re here to help employers like you empower every employee to shape what’s next.

Why does Pension Engagement Season matter?

Every workplace is made up of different kinds of people. From the savvy savers to those just starting out, everyone has different habits, priorities, and approaches to life. But whoever’s in your workforce, everyone wants to look forward to a good retirement.

Yet insights from our Retirement Voice 2025 report show that many people aren’t planning ahead. Across the generations, almost a third (29%) of people have done no planning around how much money they’ll need to live on in retirement. For younger savers, planning slips further down the priority list, with 37% of Gen Zers saying they haven’t done any.

The good news is, taking small steps can help people build a better understanding of their financial future. Our findings reveal that those who do even a little planning are more likely to feel positive about life in five years’ time than those who do nothing (46% vs. 36%)

Helping you make the most of the season

With Pension Engagement Season fast approaching, now’s a great time to start planning how you’ll get involved and encourage employees to take action. 

To help, we’ve created a range of campaign materials that make it easier for you to engage each and every employee this season. From the organised-types to those who go with the flow, all our resources are designed to reflect the different personalities you’ll find across your workforce. That means you can build a campaign that gets more employees thinking about their pension.

Find everything you need to get started by visiting our Pension Engagement Season hub.

Three small steps your employees can take today

Whoever your employees are and whatever they want from life, everyone can benefit from taking small steps towards a better financial future. Here are three actions they could take today:

1. Check pension savings

A good place for employees to start is to get an idea of what their retirement income could really look like. And that means encouraging them to see how much they’ve got in their pension pot. With a solid understanding of how much pension savings they have today, they can better plan for tomorrow.

With Standard Life for your workplace pension scheme? Our mobile app has something for everyone. Employees can download it or log in to easily check how much they’ve got saved so far. 

2. Find lost pensions

If your employees have had a few jobs, they probably have a few pensions – which can easily get lost or forgotten about. So searching for any previous pension pots could be time well spent.

Employees can track down any old pensions by using the Government’s Pension Tracing Service. To get started, all they need to do is enter the name of their previous employer or pension provider. Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can also get direct access to this service through our mobile app.

3. Get a glimpse of the future

What income will employees need to enjoy the lifestyle they want in retirement?

According to our latest Retirement Voice report, one in five (21%) retirees say they wished they’d planned for their retirement more thoroughly. So it’s important to help employees picture what their ideal retirement could look like and how much they’d need to make it happen.

Our Retirement Income Tool, available through our app, can help employees see how their retirement lifestyle is shaping up. This can reveal if they’re on the right path or need to make some adjustments to achieve the retirement they want.
 

More ways to promote pension engagement

Different employees engage with their pension in different ways. But before they can plan ahead, it’s important they know how much they’ve got saved and where. In our next article, we’ll take a closer look at why finding old or lost pensions matters.

In the meantime, for more support and to get your campaign materials, visit our Pension Engagement Season hub.