Vincent Shimutwikeni and Sabrina Jacobs
On a Friday morning in Windhoek, you may find employees in running shoes and corporate T-shirts preparing for a company walkathon.
Some organisations have gone further, organising running clubs, entering corporate teams into marathons and even taking wellness activities to Swakopmund.
There is nothing wrong with this. It is encouraging to see employers investing in the physical health and wellbeing of their people.
But it raises an interesting question: How much are we investing in their financial wellbeing? We spend considerable time talking about physical wellness, mental health, medical aid, nutrition and exercise.
Yet one of the most significant components of an employee’s long-term financial wellbeing often remains quietly in the background: the pension fund.
For many employers, the pension fund remains primarily an administrative function. Payroll deducts the contribution, information goes to the administrator, records are processed and statements are issued on a yearly basis.
But a pension fund is much more than a deduction on a payslip.
It is a deposit towards the life you will live long after your final payslip, the future you!
A benefit hiding in plain sight
When employers compete for talent, they speak about salary, medical aid, incentives, bonuses, flexible working arrangements, career development, culture and wellness programmes. These are all important components of the employee value proposition.
Yet retirement is arguably one of the largest financial benefits an employee will receive from an employer over the course of a career.
The employer contribution is part of the employee’s employment package. It is remuneration directed towards a future need rather than received in cash today. That makes the pension fund an important Employee Value Proposition tool.
A good retirement arrangement can contribute to attraction and retention, but also to financial wellbeing and retirement readiness.
An employee who understands that their employer is helping prepare them for life beyond employment may experience the benefit very differently from someone who simply sees “pension deduction” on a payslip.
Financial preparedness, much like physical fitness, also differs from one employee to the next.
A young employee may be focused on building strong financial habits and understanding the value of long-term investing, while someone approaching retirement may be focused on preserving savings and assessing their financial readiness to stop working.
Just as wellness programmes cater for different fitness levels, financial wellbeing initiatives should recognise that employees at different life stages have different needs, priorities and goals.
The regulatory environment also supports greater member engagement.
FIMA places increased emphasis on information and transparency.
Section 271(5), for example, requires a fund to provide a new member or beneficiary with the fund rules, while section 272(9) requires members to receive amendments, rescissions or additions to those rules.
Section 281 further gives members access to important fund documents, including financial statements and the valuator’s report.
The principle is simple: an employee cannot meaningfully participate in their retirement if they do not understand their benefit.
That is where employers have an opportunity.
What if we treated retirement like wellness?
Retirement planning is often viewed as something for the distant future.
Yet employees who better understand money are often better equipped to manage debt, make informed financial decisions and build long-term financial resilience long before they reach retirement.
Consider what happens when a company organises a marathon or walkathon.
The employer does not simply tell employees where to meet. There is planning, communication, registration, transport, branding and motivation.
Organisations invest in these events because they understand that wellness is not achieved merely by making an initiative available.
The same thinking could be applied to retirement.
Imagine an employer taking its employees to Swakopmund for a wellness weekend and, alongside the physical activities, dedicating meaningful time to financial wellbeing.
Employees could engage with retirement professionals and understand their benefit statements, contribution levels, investment choices, beneficiary nominations and what their retirement income might realistically look like.
Imagine an employee leaving that session knowing not only how many kilometres they can run, but also how many years they have left to prepare financially for retirement.
That is employee wellness in a broader sense.
The pension fund should become part of the employee value proposition, rather than remaining an administrative process between Payroll and the fund administrator.
The conversation needs to change
Perhaps the greatest opportunity lies in changing the language.
Instead of telling an employee, “Your pension contribution has been deducted,” we should be able to say, “This is what you and your employer are doing today to prepare you for tomorrow.”
That is a very different conversation.
The pension fund should not only be discussed when employees join, resign or retire. It should form part of the broader financial-wellness conversation throughout the employment relationship.
Ultimately, an employer’s responsibility to its people is not limited to getting them safely through today’s working day. There is also an opportunity to help them prepare for the day when that working day comes to an end.
We have become very good at encouraging employees to walk for their health. Perhaps it is time we gave the same energy to helping them walk confidently into retirement.
After all, the company willing to take its employees all the way to Swakopmund for a marathon should be willing to go just as far in helping them understand the financial future they are running towards.
*Vincent Shimutwikeni & Sabrina Jacobs are directors at the Retirement Funds Institute of Namibia (RFIN)
