WorkLife, the innovative new employee benefits service designed for small businesses launched by OpenMoney, is partnering with Smart Pension to add workplace pensions to the suite of products on its digital platform. As part of the partnership, Smart Pension will be available to WorkLife’s customers at a preferential rate.
Most smaller companies are required to offer their employees a pension through auto-enrolment, which is usually another layer of administration for business owners to deal with. Smart Pension makes managing a workplace pension straightforward. Now, as part of the WorkLife platform, benefits and pensions will integrate with a company’s payroll, making it even easier for employers and employees to see their full financial picture.
The tie-up is the latest step by WorkLife to support the financial wellbeing of Britain’s 16.5 million* small business workers. WorkLife already offers free financial advice to employees, provided by OpenMoney, along with free mental health support and a wide range of discounts on shopping, eating out, and health and fitness.
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The addition of Smart Pension, a ground-breaking pension provider, makes WorkLife an even more compelling service for small and medium-sized businesses. The WorkLife platform would normally cost companies £2 per employee per month, but it is currently available free of charge for the rest of the year to help smaller businesses struggling in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rob Marshall, managing director of WorkLife, said Smart Pension is a perfect fit for the platform. He explained: “Smart Pension is different from any of the other pension providers we spoke to. Its focus is on financial wellbeing, making pensions more understandable so that workers can take control of their retirement planning. This is the same ethos that runs through WorkLife and OpenMoney.
“Workers are increasingly turning to their employers as a point of trust when looking for guidance around important issues such as money. A pension is a vital foundation stone in everyone’s finances and workplace pensions make it much more straightforward for people to start saving for their retirement, so it’s important that small businesses offer their workers the best pension they can.”
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Paul Bucksey, director of distribution at Smart Pension, said: “Smart Pension and OpenMoney share a common goal of making life easier for employers and their employees. We look forward to working with OpenMoney’s WorkLife platform to provide clients with a high-quality, tech-enabled workplace pension.”
WorkLife gives smaller companies and their workers access to the kind of benefits and discounts only usually available from big corporate organizations. In addition to free financial advice from OpenMoney and mental wellbeing guidance from Thrive, WorkLife has a range of benefits and discounts that could add up to hundreds of pounds worth of savings each year for employees.
These include shopping and restaurant discounts from Purecard and health and wellbeing deals via My Active Discounts. WorkLife also offers workers discounted rates on life insurance and critical illness cover from Anorak and household insurance from Uinsure. More benefits are to follow soon.
The WorkLife platform, which can be accessed via a smartphone, tablet, or computer, is simple for employers to set up online, linking up with payroll so employees can see and keep track of all their benefits, savings, and salary in one place. Employers can even add their own benefits and rewards.
