Issue - meetings

74.1     The Board considered a report providing an update on matters relating to Pensions Administration activities.

74.2     The Board discussed the performance information contained in appendix 1 of the report. The Chair asked about the Retirement Notification key performance indicator (KPI) and whether the performance reflected a shorter time to carry out this task. TD asked for an explanation of the variation in the performance of the Transfers in Quotation Value, which was good at the beginning of the year but a little more variable later on.

74.3     Paul Punter (PP) Head of Pension Administration responded that the time allowed for the Retirement Notification task had been reduced which is reflected in the KPI information. Had the old KPI remained in place the December result would have been 97%. Staff training and a reduction in the number of processes for the Transfers in Quotation Value task led to an improvement in performance at the beginning of the year. Since then, work volumes have been going up and the nature of some of the tasks has changed requiring more time to complete them. The chart shows two key staff were also seconded to projects for the month which impacted the checking resource available. PP said he would like to review the suitability of the new KPIs in say six months. PP commented that he is happy with the overall performance against the KPIs which is at 95%.

74.4     LW asked what progress had been made to fill the vacant posts and bring staffing levels up to the full complement of staff.

74.5     PP outlined that the recruitment to the vacant posts had been delayed slightly by the need to check and establish new gradings for each of the posts. This process is expected to be completed very shortly now that the technical nature of the pension administration roles has been clarified. The need to fill the vacant posts is acknowledged and the hard work of the team throughout the pandemic has been recognised.

74.6     PP reported that helpdesk performance has improved with lower abandoned call rates and improving call answering times. The helpdesk is answering or clearing 85% of the enquiries it receives, with the rest passed to the Pension Administration Team (PAT) for resolution. There is still room for improvement, but overall PP is happy with the service the team is getting from the helpdesk. LW commented that she is getting fewer comments from members about the helpdesk and performance appears to be better.

74.7     The Board RESOLVED to note the updates contained in the report.