Topic: Engagement

It’s Dementia Action Week 2019 and the Alzheimer’s Society’s brilliant campaign (#DAW2019 #AskUsAnything) has inspired me to share my story of becoming a Dementia Friend and Champion.

With 4 Dementia Champions and at least 50 Dementia Friends colleagues at The People’s Pension, we think this is a great way of looking out for our customers, our colleagues and their family and friends. Dementia Friends is the biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of dementia.

All walks of life

So, back in October last year I used one of my volunteering days (at B&CE, provider of The People’s Pension) to attend an Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Champion induction session in Brighton. What an amazing day, learning something new with a lovely group of people from all walks of life. It was both interesting and inspiring to hear why everyone in the group had chosen to be there.

Our group, ready to learn more about dementia, included a front of house theatre manager, several people from social care groups and Sussex care homes, a veterinary nurse passionate about the bond between humans and animals and a fabulous company called Pedal People – they take care home residents out in bike trailers to enjoy the wind in their hair and feel the sun on their faces. Lovely stuff.

Raising awareness of dementia

It really helps to understand the challenges people face living with dementia and the simple things we can do to help. Those challenges might include feeling anxious or stressed and fear of not being able to remember things, follow conversations or concentrate on anything, every-day tasks included.

Keeping people’s busy daily schedules in mind, especially our phone-based teams taking calls from customers, we produced an online training module. This means anyone can log on, at a time to suit their schedule, and learn more about dementia. It doesn’t mean they’ll become an expert – and they’re not expected to. But, by taking 5 or 10 minutes out of their day, the module gives them access to industry-specific online videos from the Alzheimer’s Society.

Small things, big difference

Every little counts and we’re delighted to be doing our bit towards creating dementia-friendly communities and transforming the way the nation thinks, acts and talks about dementia.

Too many people affected by dementia feel that society fails to understand the condition they live with. Dementia Friends help by raising awareness and understanding, so that people living with the condition can continue to live in the way they want. And who doesn’t deserve that.

Becoming a volunteer Dementia Friend means joining and becoming part of a social action movement.

The ‘action’ doesn’t have to be anything big, it might be something as simple as:

• sharing something you’ve seen about dementia on social media
• changing the language you use when talking to or about someone with dementia eg saying ‘living with dementia’ not ‘suffering with dementia’.

800,000 people in the UK live with dementia and this is expected to double in the next 40 years. Food for thought.

Go on, become a Dementia Friend.

Would you happily chat to your colleagues – or your boss – about money? For many of us, the “m” word’s a taboo subject.

To make the best decisions about our future it’s crucial we’re able to talk about finances and understand the options. I’m therefore pleased to see that employers are starting to view financial wellbeing and retirement planning as part of their responsibility towards staff. It’s great news for creating a more open culture. But it seems there are some big differences between the generations when it comes to discussing money.

Employers step up to the plate

In my work for The People’s Pension, I speak to employers up and down the country. I’m seeing something of a groundswell of companies understanding the importance of financial education. Many are keen to go beyond simply enrolling their staff into pensions and making sure they’re aware of their pension (although that’s a great start of course). They’re encouraging their staff to actively engage with their retirement planning and think about the bigger financial picture.

How they do this varies, with employers taking a whole range of different approaches to turn the tables on apathy. Some are investing in late-life planning and communication programmes at various stages, providing life skills as well as paying salaries. Others don’t do much for people earlier on in their careers.

Preparing for retirement is seen not just as an issue for individuals but also for the wider business and jobs market. Some affluent older employees may be “rich” thanks to defined benefit pension schemes but this picture’s likely to change for future generations. Some workers face more challenging circumstances and end up in a position where they can’t afford to retire. If older employees stay forever and a day because they have no other choice, it can cause problems for businesses if it limits new talent coming through or leads to health issues.

Older but not wiser?

During a recent enlightening discussion with employers, they talked about the polarised attitudes of older and younger generations. Millennials are apparently happier to air their “dirty laundry” and have a different, more open attitude towards money than many of their older colleagues. I was pleasantly surprised to hear how younger staff at one company had loved financial awareness training and debt consolidation courses!

Millennials are also more interested in where their money is invested – something we should be mindful of as an industry when we consider things like Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria. For the majority of people thinking about their pensions, return on investment remains king but perhaps this perspective will evolve with future generations.

Stopping taboo by simply talking  

The importance of planning for a comfortable retirement is firmly entrenched in my mind. As an organisation, The People’s Pension is dedicated to creating simplicity for our customers and making sure both employers and employees understand how their pensions work and what all the sometimes scary jargon around financial products means for them. We want our customers to be as actively engaged with their pensions and retirement savings as possible. It’s great to see that many employers want the same for their staff.

I’ll do all I can to support this movement so more of us think about the future and are able to afford to retire or reduce our workloads when we choose to. Talking about money is a good place to start.

Steven is a former National Business Development Manager for B&CE, provider of The People’s Pension. He has been replaced by Duncan Reeves.