"Just like high school students, not all pension members are the same," says AHC's Peter Nicholas as he talks about member communications.
It's that time of the year again. The moment I get to see the value of the education I'm buying for my children - the school report. I'm not quite sure who's more anxious, me or my two typically teenage daughters – "Awe, whatever!" Will I be amazed and delighted, or confronted by those haunting words from my own history, "room for improvement". Either way, what I want to know is, did I get value for money?
In many ways the problem is mine. Do I really have any idea what their learning objectives were for the last school year? Not really. I know they do lots of subjects, they occasionally become rather anxious about a piece of homework or an upcoming test, yet it's hard to distinguish this angst from the other day-to-day dramas of school life and teenage girls (and more recently teenage boys).
Life certainly is a journey. And if you don't have a plan, any road will take you.
This is also true of pension communication. Time and time again I see money spent on pension communication without clear objectives and, worse still, without any measurement framework. Surprisingly this is in stark contrast to pension investment governance. There is an investment philosophy, an investment policy, investment strategy and measurement, measurement, measurement.
Why is this not the same in member communication? Where is the communications philosophy, the communications policy, the communications strategy and the communications measurement?
I believe that member communication is the one thing that can make the difference between the outcome generated by the scheme and the outcome experienced by the member. If, as an industry, we are serious about delivering quality member outcomes then we must take a more strategic approach to member communications. Each scheme, each trustee board must have a view on the outcome they want for members. This starts with an understanding of where they are today, a vision of where you'd like them to be, a deliberate plan to get them there and measurement to track progress.
Just like high school students, not all pension members are the same. They have different capabilities, history and biases. They have differing learning styles, different learning challenges and require different learning support to achieve their outcomes. Based on my observation of my two daughters the same gender, age and postcode doesn't mean the same learning behaviour.
And this really is the nub of the challenge. It's often said that communication is simply too hard to measure. Well this is true only in the absence of a communications philosophy, policy and strategy. Without this, what do you measure? Without this what is the money being spent on, communication or compliance? Without this, money is simply being wasted on communication tactics. They may be funky in design, but to what effect? Sun Tzu said it best: "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."
The school reports are just in and, *phew*, I am a very proud Dad. Maybe there was a strategy? Both girls won awards for "Attitude to Learning" and individual subject prizes. A fabulous result? I'm still left wondering what were the objectives for the year, were they achieved and most importantly, did I get value for money?
Written by Peter Nicholas, managing director/CEO, AHC
peter.nicholas@ahc.com
