The problem

The Covid-19 pandemic meant there was a high demand on the pensions team. New Covid pension regulations, staff absence and social distancing meant our pensions retirement course could not have continued in its usual format.

This course gives potential NHS pension retirees more information about their retirement, the options available to them and the process for retiring. The historical delivery method was that team members would travel to a venue and deliver the course to fewer than 20 potential retirees. This would happen at least four times a month and presenters may give slightly different talks depending on experience or preference.

The challenge

• How and do we continue to present the courses in a post Covid world?
• How could we find time to keep the courses running?
• Did we have the technology in place across our client base to make the move on-line?
• Could we just take the course online or do we start again with the whole format of the course?

The outputs

The headline benefits of the project were:

• a far better product
• consistency of delivery
• a slicker delivery method
• better value for money in time and travel costs
• saving on CO2 for travel.

And it was a great team moral building exercise in a very busy period.

The outcomes

The benefits of the project were:

• it really brought the team together in what was a challenging and difficult period for everyone. The team worked together brilliantly, helping each other with the vision, ideas, build and critique
• we saved time in the long run which allowed us to deal with all the additional work Covid threw at us and going forwards gives us more time to concentrate on our core functions, helping scheme contributors and ensuring pensions data is accurate and up to date
• we no longer travel across West Yorkshire to various venues, cutting down our carbon footprint
• we have a better more consistent product for the attendees.