A new buzzword in human-resource (HR) circles in recent years has been the term 'employee engagement'.

It is defined as "a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organisation that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort in his or her work".

Many HR professionals have been researching and implementing the key drivers of engagement, with varying degrees of success on productivity and morale at the workplace.

While this concept applies to current employee benefits, what about its applicability to future employee benefits offered by the employer?

Some argue that the second-most important benefit offered by your employer, after a salary, is a pension plan which has as its objective ensuring that team members are afforded some income to maintain their standard of living when they are no longer able to work.

The effort which is placed on employee engagement for workplace productivity is not replicated when it comes to education, awareness and appreciation of a pension plan.

This is further compounded by our culture, which does not glorify savings (or lack of consumption), by low levels of financial education, and a lack of discipline with respect to saving for the future.

The result is that many of our most valued and productive team members will face a hard and long-suffering retirement due to lack of preparedness.

Companies guilty of this malpractice will find it increasingly difficult to attract the required calibre of workers, as the suffering of retired workers will be evident to all.

To move forward as employers, members and regulators, the following are necessary:

Employer commitment: the senior management of the organisation has to commit to ensuring that its team members understand the benefits and also the limitations of their pension plan. Management has to take the lead — walk the talk — and ensure that the HR team is refocused on this initiative. One practical example is to set targets for the HR team linked to their incentives relating to the pension understanding, awareness of, and communication to all staff members.

Internal communication: The organisation must ensure that a structured communication programme is established for this effort, such as pension matters in the staff newsletter, a scheduled agenda item at all staff meetings, frequent presentations from the pension administrator, and the inclusion of frequently asked questions about pension on the company's intranet.

These are all meant to educate and reiterate the benefits of pensions, and over time, to change behaviour, attitudes and expectations. The communication message should also focus on:

Clarifying expectations - Many persons contributing to a pension plan have expectations that are unfounded based on heresay and lack of information.

Reiterating importance - The various messages from the organisation must stress the importance of retirement planning, especially considering Jamaica's high inflation rate over the past 30 years.

Offering rewards - This will make the exercise more interesting and exciting for all participants. There are a range of tactics that could be employed, such as prizes for the most knowledgeable department, most improved department, and the unit making the highest pension contribution (that is, the additional voluntary contribution).

Communication should not be taken lightly, as a Watson Wyatt's 2005-2006 Communication ROI Study found that between 2000 and 2004, companies with the most effective communication programmes returned 57 per cent more to their shareholders than companies with the least effective communication programmes.

Regular feedback: The success of these initiatives must be measured periodically to ensure that the message and methods are having the desired impact.

Regular meetings: The regulatory authorities should consider mandating that all pension plans have periodic meetings with members to discuss stated issues. This could force trustees to undertake sessions with their members in an attempt to improve the level of understanding of pensions in Jamaica.

Senior executives and HR managers must not only focus on employee engagement for the benefit of the organisation, but must consider and embrace the concept of improving the financial awareness of their staff members.

One deficiency is that staff members are only valued for the contribution to the success of the organisation.

But who takes an active interest in the financial security of our staff members, especially when they are most vulnerable?

Does the responsibility of HR end with a pay cheque?

Why hasn't HR redefined its role towards ensuring the financial security of its staff members?

The financial success of our organisations is twinned with the financial security of our staff members, and until we realise this marriage, efforts to maximise employee engagement will achieve limited progress.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, there already exists a vehicle to assist in this endeavour. Additionally, a pension plan is the most tax-efficient vehicle to save for retirement, increasing its attractiveness.

The objective of pensions is future protection, as embodied in the following quote from Warren Buffet: "Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

Rezworth Burchenson is managing director of Prime Asset Management Limited, a pension-fund investment and management firm.