Aurie Styla (right) presents the award to Fidelity International’s Clare Gonsalves (left) and Jamie Bullock (centre)
As part of our series looking at what firms did to win their accolades at the WSB Awards 2023, WSB speaks talks to Fidelity International global head of workplace investing communications and engagement Jamie Bullock about winning the Financial Education Provider of the Year accolade
What does it mean to win this award?
We are so delighted to have been selected as Financial Education Provider of the Year at the Workplace Savings and Benefits Awards. Our submission covered our Workplace Investing financial wellness offering including our Workplace Workout member engagement programme, our Virtual Pension Centre and our Pension Session videos with comedian Mark Watson, and we are proud to be chosen as the winner amidst some impressive competition.
What do you believe sets you apart from your peers?
We have taken a really focused approach to understanding our member base and the current barriers to engagement. The findings from our research have allowed us to set very clear objectives and KPIs and to design our communications strategy to support, educate and communicate with our members in ways which will resonate with them. We've devised an innovative educational programme that supports members to take ‘small steps' with the aim of helping them to engage not only with their workplace pension, but their broader financial future. We've focused on making financial wellness fun, providing the content members really want in a way that is engaging, accessible and relevant to them.
What are the key challenges facing your clients and how are you helping them address them?
One of the key challenges is the spectrum of financial confidence within our member base. Our ‘small steps' approach is intended to make the complex world of pensions simple by providing members with small, actionable steps. Starting with education on basic, day-to-day financial needs (budgeting, debt, savings and protection), we encourage members to use our online tools and content to assess where they are on their financial wellness journey, establishing goals and looking at where there may be gaps. We created our interactive Virtual Pensions Centre where members can enter a purpose-created world and navigate immersive online rooms to find out more about their pension and how it is invested. To combat the perceived ‘dryness' of the subject, we also commissioned humorous educational videos on pensions, fronted by Mock the Week comedian Mark Watson, and introduced gamification technology to assess its impact on member engagement.
How will you continue to improve your services to clients over the coming 12 months?
We are aware that our members' needs are always changing as they move through various life stages. The support that someone needs when they are starting their career and their first experience of a pension is different to what they may need if they are starting a family or changing career. And different again to someone who has several pension pots and may be thinking about retirement for the first time. We are going to continue working with behavioural scientists to make sure we ‘nudge' our members to participate in their own financial wellness in ways that suit them. And we are going to keep working on our segmentation, making sure that members receive the support and information they need, at the right time and in a format that works for them.
The winners of the 11th anniversary Workplace Savings and Benefits Awards were announced at an event held at London's Marriott Grosvenor Square on 7 September. To see the full list of winners and find out more about the awards, visit: wsbawards.co.uk
