Pensions: so what?
Provide for tomorrow, see benefits today
Pensions may be a relatively low priority compared to the day-to-day running of your business. However, there are many significant benefits, particularly in terms of your relationship with your workforce and their perception of you as an employer. While these advantages are not measurable - and therefore hard to quantify - they are still highly significant:
| • | Stay up front in a competitive labour market
Good pension provision can give you the edge in a competitive labour market. When it comes to attracting and recruiting the best in your field it is important not to be outgunned in this area. |
| • | Retain your best people
An attractive pension plan can help you hang on to the people you can't afford to lose. As well as providing financial security, offering a pension gives the members of your workforce a sense that they have been recruited for a career, not just a job. |
| • | Value your employees
Creating pension provision within your company shows that you value your employees as individuals, even beyond their working lives. This will improve overall productivity. |
| • | Empower your employees
Involving your employees in the design of a pension scheme can be an empowering process. It helps them to be sure that the company is acting in their best interests rather than its own. This is extremely important for successful pension uptake. |
| • | Employee and customer perception
Do you invest in people? Or is yours the kind of company that doesn't offer a pension scheme? This could damage the perception of the company amongst employees and even customers. Pension provision is a long-term commitment that shows you're here to stay and ready for the future. |
As well as these benefits the Employer Task Force on Pensions has also recommended that the government consider introducing further financial incentives to encourage pension provision amongst small businesses.
