Barclays Bank PLC

The issue

Recognising that their current pension arrangements were not delivering to their values, Barclays wanted to ensure that their employees took full advantage of the savings opportunities being made available through the Bank's pension arrangements. Statistics showed that over 60% of the members of this scheme were not investing in their pension by making any personal contributions. Also, as this scheme relied on the investment performance of individual member's 'pots' all of the risk was being borne by the members themselves.

Barclays' key objectives were to deliver new pension arrangements, which would:

• introduce greater certainty
• share risk and responsibility between the Bank and its staff
• empower members to make appropriate provision for their retirement.

Barclays had in place a shared service delivery model spanning their pensions, payroll and HR functions. The backbone of this was a highly integrated and developed IT infrastructure encompassing call centre capability; a major system for payroll and HR; a pensions administration system; and workflow and electronic document management solutions. Implementing a new scheme would have a knock-on effect on this infrastructure so careful consideration was required to ensure the new scheme integrated into this model.

Our approach

Due to the current levels of concern surrounding occupational pension schemes, the review attracted a great deal of attention both internally and externally. An ambitious timescale of nine months coupled with the scale of the change meant that Barclays needed an adviser they could trust so that they could deliver the project successfully.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has a long-standing relationship with Barclays, so our knowledge of their people, systems and culture, helped us to work closely with them to deliver a tailored solution on time.

The Barclays Pension Governance Group had already commissioned a high level review of Barclays' current pension arrangements, which was used as a starting point to finalise the details of the pension scheme, called 'afterwork'. We assisted with workshops to see how the proposed scheme would work in practice at Barclays, through the application of a changing and evolving service delivery model.

There were more than 100 Barclays employees involved in implementing the project across three sites in the UK, so it was crucial to work within a structure that facilitated clear and concise communication, and allowed us to advise on the project at both a micro and 'big picture' level.

The finalised pension scheme and IT systems were assessed for risk management issues before being implemented.

The outcome

In line with the tight timescales, afterwork was implemented for new employees and Barclays are currently in the process of transitioning some 24,500 members from their defined contribution scheme. All processes and automation to support the efficient operation of afterwork have been fully integrated and aligned with the existing IT infrastructure. The implementation of the new pension scheme enhances the overall benefits package provided to employees.

For further information about this case study, please contact Peter Sparshott at peter.sparshott@uk.pwc.com or on +44 20 7804 4391.