The organisation
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has a total Local Government Pension Scheme (LPGS) workforce of 1386 employees. They first took advantage of the salary sacrifice Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contribution (Shared Cost AVC) scheme in 2019, after the realisation that there was limited awareness of the employee benefit internally and their employees were oblivious to the significant savings they could be making for their future.
A salary sacrifice Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contribution (Shared Cost AVC) schemes is a cost efficient way for LGPS members to increase their retirement benefits. The scheme enables employees to save money alongside their pension pot, which in turn can lead to a more comfortable retirement.
Lyn Butler, Deputy Director of People at UCLAN, is a huge advocate of the scheme and has always been passionate about employee mental and financial wellbeing. Lyn embarked on an internal promotion campaign to help raise awareness and remove any confusion surrounding the scheme. Lyn noted that after the campaign employee morale was notably improved.
Objectives
Increase awareness of their Shared Cost AVC scheme internally
To offer the best financial wellbeing employee benefit to all LGPS members
To increase the long-term financial wellbeing of all employees
June 2019 scheme launched
LGPS members 1386
The implementation
UCLan were provided with bespoke digital assets to internally promote the scheme. One of the most successful methods to reach out was a targeted email invitation to all LGPS members, leading them to a 1-to-1 video call meeting with an AVC Wise retirement expert! This helped to eliminate any confusion surrounding the benefit.
In 2019, AVC Wise hosted two webinar sessions exclusively for UCLan’s LGPS members, focussing on two core subjects:
Your LGPS and SCAVCs - An introductory session giving them a basic education of their main scheme LGPS and introducing Shared Cost AVCs.
How to retire early and with more money - A session focussed on the benefits of our Shared Cost AVC scheme.
The webinars were promoted via digital posters, banners, intranet posts, newsletter copy and promotional emails. Employees had access to AVC Wise’s ‘always on’ resources including animated explainer videos and a retirement calculator.
“Since we introduced the scheme, the savings have been phenomenal. This shows what a valuable benefit it is to our organisation and our employees. UCLan has saved a huge amount to date in Employer NICs, and our employees have saved £40,413 for their future. Best of all, introducing this scheme has not caused a huge workload for us – AVC Wise made the implementation seamless.” - Gill Bruce, Reward & People Operations Manager, UCLan
The results
The launch of the campaign was highly successful and resulted in the following impressive savings for UClan and their employees.
452 Total employee registrations
141 Total accepted plans
25-55+ Employee take-up age range
30.17% Total employee registrations vs LGPS members
£40,413 Total accepted employee salary sacrifice
£6,103 Total employer monthly savings
£133,566 Total employer savings since launch
Educating your LGPS workforce on the employee benefits available to them has never been more important. Mental and financial wellbeing is high on the agenda for most people. Get in touch today to find out how you could be taking advantage of this for your LGPS members.