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Oracle launches group personal pension with 89% take-up rate

Oracle has rolled out a group personal pension to its entire UK staff, with an 89% take-up.

The moves comes as ex-Sun Microsystems staff were the last part of the pension project which saw the closure of 31 pension schemes and the introduction of a new GPP.

Pensions advisor Secondsight managed the communication exercise.

A total of 1,000 Sun Microsystems employees attended 38 presentations across nine UK locations.

Presentations were supplemented by webinars for non-office based staff, as well as an online pension video. The 16-minute video is available to all employees on its iLearning site, Oracle's internal training platform, and on a stand-alone microsite.

Since the communication drive, Oracle has seen over 80% of Sun Microsystems employees attend a presentation or webinar, 87% of Sun Microsystems employees join the new pension and more than a third (36%) of Sun Microsystems employees are paying more than the minimum matched contribution of 6%.

In addition 44% give up part of their flex fund to invest into their pension, giving a total average employee contribution to 11%.

Employees are taking charge of their own risk profile with 61% of Sun Microsystems members now picking their own fund from three profiles on offer - Cautious, Balanced and Adventurous, in addition to some who picked from the wider fund range.

Oracle operates a matched scheme at 6% of salary. It launched salary sacrifice in conjunction with the GPP. For all employee contributions greater than the 6%, Oracle invests a further 6.9% of the employer NI savings back into the employee's plan, further enhancing the individual's pension savings.

Vance Kearney (pictured), VP for HR, EMEA, said: "The goal of this entire exercise was to reduce Oracle's 30 plus schemes into one and I am delighted the final part of the roll-out is now finished with the harmonisation of our Sun Microsystems colleagues into the scheme.

"Whilst it has been a complex and time consuming project for my team over the last year, it has been the right one for our employees and our business. The change to one pension was not just about saving money but about encouraging Oracle employees to save for their retirement.

"As I have said before, offering a pension without educating members on the need to save is a waste of time. Providing guidance and education through presentations was the key to this project's success, this is one of the reasons why 87% of Oracle employees are now members of the new scheme and more importantly, more than half of colleagues pay more than the minimum of 6% of headline base salary into the scheme."

Mark Bingham, partner at Secondsight, added: "There is clear evidence of a link between those employees that attended a presentation or webinar with those that joined the Oracle scheme, those that increased their contributions and those that picked their own investment profile."

When we analysed the results from the whole Oracle population, 89% of those that attended a presentation/webinar joined the scheme. 59% pay more than 6% of headline salary into their pension scheme against 38.5% who did not attend one and 71% made an active fund choice compared to just 18% of members who did not attend a presentation.