Rethinking the approach to Member Education

Engagement and empowerment

The numerous challenges brought about by Covid-19 saw members of the Alexander Forbes Retirement Fund asking pertinent questions about their financial matters. In turn, this made us look at how we could better inform individuals on the importance of belonging to a retirement fund, giving them what they need when they need it.

We realised that having specific information available when fund members need it most allowed individuals to make informed decisions. We explored ways of engaging with members as they reached different milestones in their lives, focusing on real-life situations like the birth of a child and relooking at one’s will.

From knowing to doing … making financial literacy and financial courage a game

Getting personal finances right is about much more than just having a good financial literacy level. Pairing it with human skills like goal setting, difficult conversations, and emotional intelligence will take members from knowing to actually doing better. This is financial courage.

We took a step back and analysed the gaps and opportunities in delivering financial education, and also took a critical look at what was in the market. We concluded that delivering effective financial education was hindered by several obstacles around insufficient or unsuitable content, as well as people not having enough time or motivation to skill up.

Empower connects individuals to content, people and resources that matter

Our team’s answer was to develop the Empower learning platform experience. It offers content from a variety of sources, allowing one to learn with and from others, or to self-direct.

Empower helps fund members build knowledge, skills and good habits to achieve financial well-being using their cellphone, tablet or desktop.

Meet our chatbot, ‘Nova’

The process starts with the individual having a conversation with a chatbot, ‘Nova’, which helps identify knowledge gaps, reducing feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed. These gaps are then addressed on the learning platform through content curated through artificial intelligence.

The platform not only provides financial literacy content but also on developing human skills such as goal setting, project management, having difficult conversations, managing stress and mindfulness.

Doing is knowing … join communities of learning

The Empower platform allows individuals to collect points for completed content, introducing a gamification element. Individuals can join groups to feel part of a community and be in a shared safe space with sounding boards for ideas and decisions.

These communities of learning are hosted by subject matter experts on a variety of topics that mimic life events, specifically the ones which impact our finances, such as having kids, marriage, divorce, retrenchment and retirement.

Empower is an exclusive benefit to the Alexander Forbes Retirement Fund

The main objective is building our members’ financial literacy and increasing their financial courage gradually.

ENDS