Nearly half of all councils facing pension fund recruitment issues

The Pesnions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has released a new guide looking at recruitment, retention and resourcing for Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds.

This guide – Talent management in the LGPS: the three Rs – provides an analysis of common challenges facing funds in the LGPS along with examples of best practice that are being, or can be, taken to address them.

The creation of this guide follows snapshot research with LGPS funds which found that of these issues, recruitment was the most commonly cited problem, with 47% of surveyed respondents saying they had experienced a recruitment problem, while 33% experienced issues with retention. The majority of funds surveyed (80%) said that staff resourcing poses a challenge to administering the fund and to managing its investments, and 73% agreed that resourcing poses a challenge to governance.

The hurdles facing recruitment, retention and resourcing often overlap – in particular around pay, location and skills. The PLSA’s research has also shown that a recurring theme is the challenge of recruiting and retaining younger people. These points are all explored further in the full guide, which is available for LGPS members of the PLSA, details on our website here.

Tiffany Tsang, Policy Lead: LGPS and Defined Benefit, PLSA, said:

“The LGPS has been undergoing a period of significant change in recent years. The largest of these has been the advent of the LGPS pools and this has presented a variety of opportunities and challenges for the sector. For instance, the pools and other policy developments since 2010 have put increased pressure on recruitment, retention and resourcing needs.

“Whilst our research identified challenges, it is important to note that there are also important successes, such as low turnover rates and high retention over time, indicating that LGPS funds are hiring the right people for the right roles. The focus now must be on working to address the reasons behind these challenges, in order to help increase the number – and widen the pool – of prospective employees for LGPS funds. We will continue to work with our members to help monitor and tackle the issues raised in this guide.”