Outsourcing

Scenario

A large employer runs its sizeable hybrid pension scheme in-house, with a team of ten people.  The team runs smoothly and the members are happy, but because the team has plenty of demands on its time from the business generally, the work takes a little bit longer to do than it might, and work sometimes slips through the net and doesn't get done.

The company wants to concentrate on its core business and decides to outsource the team via a TUPE transfer (the "Lift and Shift").  The key requirements for the business are to ensure that the scheme members are properly looked after and keeping the pensions team together is seen as an important factor in acheiving this.

The Decision

The business considered several providers ranging from niche providers such as BBS, through to multi-nationals.  Whilst BBS were slightly better value than its competitors, the primary reasons for our selection were that BBS:

• was able to take all of the existing staff and integrate them into its existing team;
• recognised that keeping and motivating the existing team was key to the project;
• was able to ensure that the pensions manager retained his critical position as Secretary to the Trustees, ensuring that the trustees enjoyed continuity of service;
• had work flow monitoring controls and systems that reassured the trustees that the service to the members would be maintained, and in certain areas improved.

BBS was very proud to win the appointment against extremely stiff competition.

The Outcome

When the staff transferred to BBS, we were immediately impressed by the quality of the team, and the processes that were in place. The process of transfer and data audit, however, did turn up a significant backlog of work that needed additional time and resource to clear it.

The trustees agreed with BBS that until the backlog was cleared it would not be expected to meet its service standards.  During the first few months, BBS identified all of the work outstanding, and wrote to all 1,700 members to confirm when the work would be completed.  By carefully managing the workflow, the team met its target, and BBS could then meet the service standards in accordance with the agreement.

In the first 30 months of the appointment, BBS undertook 6,000 pieces of work, and of these 5980 were completed within target.

Other than through one retirement, all of the transferred staff have remained with BBS.  BBS has benefited from the skills that the team has brought, and the team have benefited from participating in a pensions-focused environment.