Nearly two-thirds of global pension and benefit managers claim that day-to-day operational activities are limiting their ability to add value and are hampering their strategic contribution to the company, according to professional services firm Towers Watson. Research from the latest Current and Emerging Global Benefit Themes Survey shows that 75% of participants also feel there is increasing pressure for them to do more with less, suggesting they are going to have to change the way they do things if they are to create the time to focus on more value-added activities.
Steven Yu, Head of International Consulting Group, Asia Pacific, Towers Watson, said, “Our research shows that global or regional headquarter (HQ) pension and benefit managers are under relentless pressure to focus on activities that will add value to their organisation, but are finding themselves swamped in day-to-day operational tasks.
To overcome this, managers need to take stock of the activities the global pensions and benefits team are undertaking, and look at whether the activities are creating impact for the business and are being undertaken as efficiently as possible. Global pension and benefit managers also need to use different resourcing models for HQ activities—such as insourcing, co-sourcing and outsourcing—to create space to focus on more valuable opportunities.”
According to the research, 71% of HQ pension and benefit managers predict a significant increase in their global or regional involvement in pensions and benefits in 2015, with the top three focus areas expected to be global control and oversight of pensions and benefits, financial management of pension and benefit costs and risks and employee appreciation of pensions and benefits. Respondents also named the UK, the U.S. and Germany as the top countries to focus on in 2015 for financial and strategic pensions and benefits review reasons, the Netherlands due to pension legislation changes and Brazil, China and India for more operational reviews.
Yu continued, “The overwhelming consensus from respondents is the belief that real value added business opportunities exist from HQs getting more actively involved in pensions and benefits management globally, for example to help bring global perspective to key local decisions. The challenge is to free up the time to deliver this value—and to use any such time really well.
“Our work with global pensions and benefits centres of expertise has identified insights and techniques which multinational companies can deploy more systematically to help square this circle. The trick for HQ pension and benefit leadership is to articulate and embed a coherent global pensions and benefits strategy and management approach—and support it with enablers such as roadmaps of priorities, policies, guidance, technology and networking forums for sharing experiences. Towers Watson is also helping several multinational companies rethink their global models for oversight, operating and organisation of their global pensions and benefits team. This enables the global benefits team to realise the strategic opportunities for the company and its employees.”
Towers Watson have provided some advice for HQ Pension/Benefit Managers on how they can achieve their priorities:
- Understand where your organization is on the global benefit management continuum, where you want to be and how to get there. Develop a phased approach to address country, strategic and infrastructure priorities.
- Instill a sense of common purpose among global benefit team members, supported by a global management framework aligned to the business.
- Assess every HQ activity for business impact and efficiency, and continuously identify process improvements.
- Collect and maintain only those data that have a clear recurring purpose and value.
- Leverage technology, standardized processes and third parties to support and accelerate the journey.
- Build regular and constructive connections with key business stakeholders to drive value, including providing thoughtful input and responses to procurement and audit activities.
- Conduct robust resource planning for business as usual, project activities and contingencies.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
