From school reports to stewardship reports
“Clear the loft” was the instruction so, instead of that extra round of golf, this Sunday found me sorting through the accumulated memorabilia of my life... when I found my first school report. According to this, I was 5.25 years old and Grade B. Back then we called a spade a spade!
Looking through the comments I was either ‘good’ or ‘fairly good’, with occasional deviations showing I ‘listened with interest’ or ‘enjoyed the lesson’. Frankly, I had no idea what sort of child I was or how my parents worked out what I had done all term!
For reports to be meaningful, they must paint a picture. Describe what happened. Put some flesh on the statistical bones. Look forwards. Some summary judgement that ‘Bloggins has made quite good progress this term’ is not really good enough.
It is the same with stewardship reports. Trustees need a complete picture of what has happened, what is going on and what is in the pipeline. Otherwise how can they judge their administrator’s performance and how to sustain or improve performance in the future?
Often we measure administrators’ performance solely by time-based SLAs, ignoring the issues they face with getting reliable and timely information from others in the ‘supply chain’ (AVC providers, HR/ Payroll, etc.) and whether just promptness of service is what members appreciate. Yes, everything with a statutory deadline should be dealt with promptly, but member appreciation of the service is wider than that.
Reporting member satisfaction quarterly provides a balanced view of administrator performance. Members’ views on timeliness, ease of access, clarity of information and whether promises have been kept is a rich source of information for trustees, letting them know whether their administrator is meeting members’ expectations daily. Some clients go further, using telephone recording to measure whether their administrator is ‘treating customers fairly’ – whether their own or the FSA’s standard.
Stewardship reports should tell trustees about progress on delivering data for the actuarial valuation, issuing member benefit statements, the pension increase exercise and year end events. Looking forwards, what is planned for the next quarter, what legislative developments are on the horizon (like the need to plan the issuance of Pension Saving Statements) and what projects are underway or being planned (e.g. data cleansing exercises to support liability management). While the detailed project management reporting is available to the respective project steering groups, it is important the trustees have the big picture.
Good governance requires transparency, so clear and auditable reporting is needed so trustees can sleep at night, assured that everything has been done in accordance with legislation and regulations.
And the stewardship report can be a handy place to record transactional information, like the movements in membership numbers, details of delegated discretions and contributions monitoring.
But how many parents would rely on just a school report to find out how their child is doing? Parents’ evenings may be difficult to get to, but there is nothing like talking to your child’s teachers to form a complete view of your child’s performance. Likewise, visiting the administrator – if only once a year – is a great way to see how they are dealing with members, how motivated they are to give a good service, what they are doing to continuously improve what they are doing. It also gives trustees the chance to make a difference – spot something that could be improved, say ‘thanks’ for a good job and understand the challenges facing the administrator.
It is also an opportunity to see how both parties can work together strategically for the benefit of the scheme – share the trustees’ strategic plan and discuss how the administrator can support the achievement of these objectives.
Maybe if my teachers had done a bit more of this, my parents would have worked out how I managed to achieve 14 stars that term and went on to get an MBA – not bad for a B grade eh?
by Michael Mann
Administration Director - Projects