Peer Intelligence | Summer 2023

By James West

CEM’s VoC initiative is powered by a simple but powerful idea: pension funds always have potential to improve the quality of member services at a given scale and budget. Though increasing the budget to improve quality always comes first to mind, I recognize that this is not always an option. There are other ways. Knowing where you stand (in your members’ perception, not yours) and how you stack against peers is a good start. It allows you to know your baseline and identify the biggest areas of opportunities to focus efforts. Add to this best practices and common-shared knowledge, and now you have a path for improvement. You are not alone in the journey.

If you look at the big picture, the same principles that underpin our flagships pension administration and investment benchmarking services are at play here too. If we work together to pool our individual data, we can access a more robust aggregated dataset that provides solid context and direction. The total is more than the sum of its parts. Wouldn’t you agree?

‘On your marks’: VoC’s Advisory Board, Initial Data submission, and Rating scales

First, we will be engaging with members of our CEM community that are interested in being on the VoC World Advisory Board with plans to hold our first meeting in September. This is a chance to help us shape the VoC framework for millions of worldwide members who expect a lot from us, especially in their retirement years. We are counting on you.

Second, as we roll out the service, we will start accepting data submissions in October for the July-September quarter. If you have questions and/or would like more information on how to participate in VoC, I encourage you to reach out to us. We can help and now is the best time.

Key things to remember:

You do not have to use all the questions in our framework (it has seven questions). However, the greater your participation, the greater your insights. We are currently researching rating scales and methodologies to convert scales and will be establishing a preferred rating scale. Consistency in data reporting is key for comparability purposes.  

VoC’s Data Submission Platform and Reporting

Over the coming months, we will be building our online survey submission and the VoC dashboard with a goal to complete by the end of 2023. This does not impede us from moving forward now as we will work with “paper” submissions and “paper” reports until we make this a completely digital subscription. 

We believe the VoC initiative can propel improvements for the benefit of pensioners worldwide. As you might understand, there will be a small quarterly fee for subscribers, but we are waiving this fee until we hit “critical mass”. Joining now gives you access to a global dataset, infrastructure, and reporting capabilities via our online Dashboard.

Ready to participate?

If you would like to join or at least explore VoC in more detail, please reach out to your Director, Client Coverage. They will offer suggestions for data collection and submission and answer any other questions you may have. I’m also available to support you. Please reach out to me at james@cembenchmarking.com. 

Have a wonderful summer!