Support | Why an employer's duty of care extends to preparing employees for retirement

By Sarah Herd, Head of Workplace, Wren Sterling

If your company is just buying a cake and waving retiring employees off into the night after a buffet in a local pub, you are probably falling short in your duty of care responsibilities as an employer.

If that sounds a little unfair, you just have to remember that retirement is likely to be the single biggest decision of your employees’ life. In a world where employers are providing workplace pensions and carrying out governance on that pension, failing to provide financial advice options feels like a miss. It’s also the sort of sticky benefit that retains employees, as they can see real value in the service that their employer has facilitated.

Whether employees have enough money for retirement is a primary concern, but there’s also how prepared they are mentally for it, and crucially, whether they’re going to make the right financial decision with so many options available.