Last week, I started describing to you the process I went through when I decided to climb the Himalayas.

I spent months mulling over the idea. This was not a commitment to enter into lightly!

But even after I was sure I was going to do it, I didn’t just hop on the next plane to Nepal.

I still had to answer the question: “How is this going to work in practice?”

So, I spent months training, cycling and running long distances to get myself fit enough for a trek at high altitude.

I also had to find a reputable group to go with and invest in some serious equipment.

Finally, I had to tie up loose ends at work, to make sure I could be absent for a month.

Although it’s a very different situation, employees who decide to put more money into their pension go through a similar process.

You see, even after staff decide in principle to save more, they often don’t act straight away.

They, too, need to answer the question: “How will this work in practice?”

They might, for example, want to understand more about auto-enrolment and how it works.

They might have questions about their investment options.

They might need to investigate how diverting money into their pension will affect the rest of their finances.

And they also might not be sure exactly how much more they need to save for retirement. To work this out, they may have to think carefully about their financial goals for the future (and even their life goals).

In short, they need to move from a general intention to save more, to a practical solution.

This is the third phase in our 5-step model to get people to save more. We call it the ‘Preparation’ phase.

As an HR or benefits director, you need to support your employees through this phase by helping them weigh up their options.

Pension communications is your key tool.

Offer them information about your pension scheme and show them how to get started (or increase their contributions). Provide answers to their more general questions about how pensions work and the issues they need to consider.

It is a key role, because if people don’t follow up their initial decision to save more with specifics, there is a risk that dealing with their pension becomes just one more thing they intend to do – and never act upon.

You have to keep them moving forward. (So they don’t slide backwards.)

To make this stage easy for you to implement, we have developed a library of pensions comms materials which you can use in your own company…

…so that if you want to help your staff engage with pensions, you never have to spend time working out, “How will I do that in practice?”

For example, you could make use of a tried-and-tested presentation which answers your staff’s biggest questions, both about pensions and about your own pension scheme.

Here’s an example of one of the slides:

The presentation can be easily customised to your own company, and our own experienced consultants will deliver it. People love the opportunity to ask them questions face-to-face!

But that is just one of many pieces of content you could use. There are also engaging videos, learning modules, interactive guides, a regular magazine – and much, much more – all ready to send to your staff at short notice.

Not only are they designed to change your employees’ behaviour around pensions and savings, they will also save you time.

To find out more about what’s included in the ready-to-go comms package, and how it might work for you, click here.

Your staff need to understand pensions before they’ll put more money towards retirement.

Let’s give them the answers they’re looking for.