Sanlam Employee Benefits continues winning streak with communications award

Sanlam Employee Benefits added to its growing list of accolades for the year with an award from the Institute of Retirement Funds (IRF) Communications Challenge 2011 for the Sanlam Umbrella Fund. The award recognises the fund’s comprehensive understanding of its target market, and follows awards for Employee Benefits Product Supplier of the Year by the Financial Intermediaries Association (FIA), and Principal Officers Association’s prize (The Imbasa Yegolide Awards) for umbrella fund of the year.

“One of the key criteria of the award is thorough analysis of a fund’s target market, including an analysis of the diverse nature of the fund,” says Dalene Bennett, who chairs the Sanlam Umbrella Fund’s Communication Sub-committee . “We believe this award is an acknowledgement of our significant understanding of our fund’s member base. We undertake extensive analysis in order to achieve this level of understanding and we are thrilled to receive such recognition from our peers. A multi-pronged approach is vital when it comes to member communication and our strategy continuously strives to include all member groups and remain accessible for each of these groups.

Bennett says that this most recent award for the umbrella fund business is testament to the superior quality that the Sanlam Umbrella Fund offers. ”It also means that Sanlam Employee Benefits has now scooped three major industry awards for the year. While we are immensely proud of this achievement, we remain acutely aware of the need to sustain this level of service, while continuing to improve our product offering to achieve the best results for our clients and ultimately improve retirement saving education throughout South Africa.”

According to Bennett, retirement communication faces a number of challenges such as reaching more inaccessible members, providing unlimited face-to-face support, keeping language simple and tackling the language barrier in South Africa. “Retirement fund strategies still have a long way to go before they can meet all the needs of today’s consumer,” she explains. “They will need to diversify even further to satisfy all demographics across the country, and we cannot ignore the advantages of social media for communication means. Sill, we have to bear in mind the limitations of many of our members when it comes to online access, and we continue to look for solutions to reach all of our members with to the point information about their investments.”

However, Bennett says that over the past few years, retirement fund communication has certainly evolved, with trustees going further than just providing members with annual trustee reports and benefit statements. “More than 90 percent of funds have evolved and responded with changes in communication media, by designing fund internet and intranet websites. These were originally spearheaded by employers as part of their HR function, but trustees soon took charge of this offering. The internet capability has shifted from information dissemination to include a transactional one. Members can now change beneficiaries, investment and risk options, as well as obtain details on trustees, fund rules and benefit structures online.

“Service providers, such as Sanlam, also use mass media to communicate and educate retirement fund members, with many training courses offered to individuals and member aiming to increase retirement saving knowledge,” she concludes.