A Royal Mail Pension member survey and focus groups showed that while members were engaged with the Royal Mail Pension Plan, two thirds didn’t fully understand their benefits.

Our challenge was to refocus the way the Plan was communicated so that members were more satisfied with the information that they received, had a greater understanding of their benefits and were able to make informed choices about their benefits.

Taking on board member feedback, I worked as part of a team to create the visual identity and gave the communications a new look and feel, using simpler language and engaging imagery to help improve understanding. We also introduced ‘Cyril the Squirrel’, a friendly character dedicated to giving members an ‘in a nutshell’ guide to their Plan. We redesigned the Plan’s benefit statements using simplified language and layout to identify important information. One of the challenges while creating the guide was ensuring we included personalisation fields, as each guide would be sent to an individual member with their own specific information inside. This was also a careful consideration when preparing the guide for print.

To cement these changes we re-launched the Plan’s website, using the new look and the same straightforward language. The new website featured an animated Cyril to help members find the information they wanted, along with a new modeller to aid retirement planning. The ongoing programme includes a review of all hard copy communications, which will always be important to members, given the nature of the company.

View the website:
www.royalmailpensionplan.co.uk