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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.
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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:
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.