Changing the Channel

Learnings from the evolution of Communications as a capability

The trends that first inspired us to investigate communications as a capability through innovative, multimodal research in 2022 – shifting stakeholder needs and expectations, increasing requirements for transparency and perspective on a range of thorny issues, and the real-time information sharing that characterizes a complex operating environment – continue to influence pension administrators and investment managers. As a result, our central research question – how might we gather and share insight into pensions’ communications practices to elevate the capability and its impact? – is still highly relevant today.

In 2024, 17 organizations participated in the second edition of our Communications as a Capability research study (up from nine in 2022), completing a detailed online survey and an in-depth interview addressing communications strategy, structure, operations and priorities. This year, we included a review of member portals (where applicable) alongside our survey of more than 1000 Canadians with workplace pension plans on the impact of communication. The result is a robust quantitative and qualitative assessment of the capability, tracking its evolution and elevation within the pension industry.

In 2024, the ways in which communications as a capability is changing the channel were encouraging. Communications has made meaningful progress from invisible work – where its infrastructure, effort and value are not always obvious – toward establishing the capability’s influence and impact in the pension industry.

What’s going well?

Our 2024 research identified positive change since 2022 in:

· The capability’s role in developing enterprise strategy, and the increasing use of communications strategy to define the scope, requirements and impact of the function;

· The shift from reactive to proactive work, and the questioning of the ‘run agenda’ to focus limited communications capacity on the highest value activities;

· The inclusion of non-traditional activities and skillsets in the communications mandate and team in response to changing stakeholder needs;

· The research-led approach to understanding members and the investment in data-informed segmentation; and,

· The emphasis on maximizing the communications potential of tools like member portals, through stronger partnerships with technology and pension services.

We will look to see these positive trends continue in future research, alongside evidence that communications within pensions are tuning in to additional opportunities for impact.

What’s next for communications?

We have four ideas that we believe are ‘what’s next’ for communications in the pension industry – and we’re here to help organizations seize these advantages:

Learn the language of growth. Communications will need to evolve the public good framework of our activities to consider the relevant elements of sales and marketing – such as promotion, selling, product/service management and marketing information management – whether or not a pension organization has an explicit growth mandate. The industry is entering a quasi-competitive era and the financial advice needs of our stakeholders (particularly, members) are growing more acute: communications must adapt to this changing context.

Build segmentation muscle. The excellent foundational work to research and segment stakeholders will mature into a real-time capability to dynamically segment and engage, as required, by strategic or operational challenge or opportunity. For example, imagine confidently identifying the subsegments of members impacted by a plan design change or operational issue and engaging them with targeted messaging. This capability requires a supportive legal and privacy framework, flexible and accessible data collection and storage, and technology-powered identification of stakeholders and distribution content – all of which should be a priority for communications.

Innovate already! Perhaps emboldened by increasing, research-informed confidence in stakeholder needs and preferences, communications in pension organizations will begin to innovate in a meaningful way – using unprecedented creativity in content, more digitally-relevant tactics and emerging technologies, like AI, to power processes and outcomes. Given the legacy apathy and real need of our members and stakeholders for financial security and support, communications plans activities should swing for the fences.

Do what only communicators can. As the capability becomes more established in the pension industry, communicators will increasingly use their superpowers to contribute unique value. They will operate as the two-way flow of information between the world out there and the people in here, aligning messages to member expectations, navigating politics and spotting trends – further blurring the lines between communicator and strategist and overtly influencing outcomes at the governance level. The communications toolkit will expand to include sensing, scenario planning, narrative building and stakeholder management as core and vital competencies of the trade.

Communications is a critical capability for pension organizations, offering huge potential to impact stakeholders, strategy and service. To each of the pension communications leaders who took the time to participate in this research, contributing your experience and perspective to the evolution of your discipline, thank you!

For others interested in learning more about this research, we’d be happy to share our perspectives: please get in touch at hi@fusestrategy.co.