Globalisation and Digital Innovation driving change in Occupational Savings

It’s an exciting time to be delivering international occupational pension and savings services as more employers are turning to the flexibility and portability of international plans to meet the challenge of catering to an increasingly mobile and geographically dispersed workforce.

Traditionally, international occupational pension and savings plans were used by multinationals and non-governmental organisations that had expatriate employees or staff based in challenging locations. Fast forward and today we are seeing small and medium-sized enterprises operating in innovative new sectors such as biotechnology, green energy or international education now using these tried-and-tested products to attract and retain staff.

Whether it’s a tech company with their experts working digitally across four continents or green energy providers building infrastructure across a range of countries, the same applies.  All employers have the same objective of attracting and retaining the best staff and delivering on their duty of care to those employees. The workforce is also changing and is now populated predominantly with millennials and Generation Z, who hold employers to a different standard and demand more.

International products, previously a little-known solution for niche employee populations, are now coming into their own as under-pressure businesses are looking to find simple and cost-effective ways to deliver meaningful benefits to a demanding new workforce –who are building their career, can work remotely, will often not retire in their home country and do not want to be disadvantaged.

By using an international occupational plan, employers can provide benefits to personnel that may not fit into an existing domestic pension scheme, including:

• Mobile expatriate employees.
• Local nationals in challenging locations with poor or no retirement provision.
• Employees working offshore, such as maritime and oil and gas.
• Contractors working on international infrastructure projects.

By using an international occupational plan, employers can sweep all these disparate employees up into one plan and build the rules to suit their needs. In this way, employers can gain economies of scale, the efficiency of dealing with only one pensions’ provider and deliver simplicity to staff through clear messaging and ease of use, while also having the flexibility to factor in additional benefits for senior leadership or critical staff or including an additional savings element so employees can save easily for medium term goals such as house purchase or their children’s education

Digital innovation allows employees to stay connected to their pension, wherever they are in the world.  Sovereign provides a paperless, real-time solution to match the expectations of the changing workforce, so they can engage whenever it’s convenient for them. This also takes some of the pressure off HR teams, while still delivering on their duty of care and treat their staff equitably.

There are no minimum or maximum population sizes. Our international products are here to provide solutions to thorny problems. For further information or to talk to our experts, contact Jo Smeed.