Touching hearts, changing lives with one-to-one retirement planning at the heartlands: A case of the Central Provident Fund Board

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Touching hearts, changing lives with one-to-one retirement planning at the heartlands: A case of the Central Provident Fund Board"

Derek Mason
5 years ago
Views:

1 Good Practices in Social Security Good practice in operation since: 2016 Touching hearts, changing lives with one-to-one retirement planning at the heartlands: A case of the Central Provident Fund Board Certificate of Merit with Special Mention, ISSA Good Practice Award Asia and the Pacific competition 2018 Ministry of Manpower Singapore Published

2 2 Summary The mission of Singapore s Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board is to enable Singaporeans to have a secure retirement. Our CPF Retirement Planning Service (CRPS) broke new ground by breaking away from our traditional service delivery model. CRPS is a personalised service to engage Singaporeans on retirement matters impacting them when they reach age fifty-five and sixty-five. This service can be accessed easily either in person or digitally. We developed an end-to-end good practice to deliver this brand new, immensely successful, citizen-centric experience: Instead of waiting passively for Singaporeans to visit us, we ventured out of the safety confines of our service centres to proactively reach out to Singaporeans by going to where they live. Rather than pointing Singaporeans to generic retirement information and asking them to contextualise it themselves, we delivered personalised retirement information in detailed infographics to them face-to-face or digitally. Instead of recruiting fresh graduates, we employed retirees to engage Singaporeans deeper by sharing their personal retirement journeys and experiences in using digital services. The issue or challenge What was the issue or challenge addressed by your good practice? Please provide a short description. The two most common sentiments on retirement among Singaporeans are: present-day bias i.e. there is greater tendency to consume now rather than save for the future; and over-optimism i.e. the belief that things will somehow turn out fine in the later years. These sentiments run counter to retirement planning and Singaporeans often find themselves being uncertain about the multiple retirement options when they reach age 55 and 65 (e.g. withdrawal of their retirement savings; choice of life annuity plans). They are also unprepared for the long-term impact of their decisions. Therefore, our challenge was to engage Singaporeans reaching age 55 and 65 by: enabling them to benefit fully from the CPF system; equipping them to be better stewards of their financial resources; and presenting ourselves at the right time and place in their lives and focus the conversation on the possibilities, rather than the rules.

The main objectives were to engage Singaporeans reaching age fifty-five and sixty-five at the right time and place in their lives, so that they could understand their retirement options fully, and

3 3 Addressing the challenge What were the main objectives of the plan or strategy to resolve the issue or challenge? List and briefly describe the main elements of the plan or strategy, focusing especially on their innovative feature(s) and expected or intended effects. The main objectives were to engage Singaporeans reaching age fifty-five and sixty-five at the right time and place in their lives, so that they could understand their retirement options fully, and make the best decisions for their unique individual circumstances. We introduced CRPS, a personalised service to engage Singaporeans on retirement matters impacting them when they reach age fifty-five and sixty-five. This service can be accessed easily either in person or digitally. During the session, we explain relevant retirement options using a personalised infographic and presentation screen in a language that the citizen is comfortable with. The main elements of this strategy are: We collaborated closely with another public service organisation, the People s Association (PA), to go beyond our existing brick-and-mortar service centres, and reached out to passive and elderly Singaporeans at where they live. We achieved this by setting up pop-up stores (or what we called mobile service centres ) at the heartland community centres all over the country. These were specially-selected locations where Singaporeans frequent, and which were not near town centres. This allowed us to take CRPS to the heart of the communities and enabled Singaporeans to have easier access to the service, especially those who lack access to the digital version of CRPS. Publicity for the Mobile Service Centres and CRPS in action

Sample of CRPS personalised infographics given to customers We tapped on the Senior Academy in Singapore to recruit retirees so that they could engage fellow Singaporeans deeper by sharing their

4 4 We experimented with various methodologies that were then unconventional within the organisation. We used Design Thinking to create, test and refine the personalised infographics and experience of CRPS by gathering feedback through observations and interviews. Sample of CRPS personalised infographics given to customers We tapped on the Senior Academy in Singapore to recruit retirees so that they could engage fellow Singaporeans deeper by sharing their personal retirement journeys, and experiences in using digital services. The Senior Academy promotes active ageing by training retirees for part-time jobs. We further bridge any gap in their competency and job-fit by giving them comprehensive classroom training, role-plays and on-the-job training. Retirees undergoing classroom training

5 5 As CRPS gained traction across the country, we leveraged the momentum and applied Behavioural Insights in the CRPS invitation letters to nudge more Singaporeans to make full use of this voluntary service. We achieved this by running a four-arm randomised controlled test over three months: one original letter and three different prototypes. The most effective prototype (which has since replaced the original letter) worked by providing Singaporeans personalised information and telling them we had arranged an appointment on their behalf (pre-commitment). This arrangement increased the take-up rate of CRPS by more than 200 per cent. Targets to be achieved What were the quantitative and/or qualitative targets or key performance indicators that were set for the plan or strategy? Please describe briefly. Our quantitative and qualitative targets are: 1. Level of one-stop service by the mobile service centres per cent of Singaporeans who visited the mobile service centre and who would not need further services face-to-face (80 per cent). 2. Level of understanding the retirement options after using CRPS per cent of Singaporeans who have improved understanding of the retirement options after using CRPS (80 per cent). 3. Whether Singaporeans who have benefited from CRPS and/or mobile service centres would recommend them to their family and friends per cent of Singaporeans who would recommend CRPS and / or mobile service centres to their family and friends (80 per cent). 4. Satisfaction level of the retirees whom we employed to engage fellow Singaporeans in retirement journeys and digital services (80 per cent). Evaluating the results Has there been an evaluation of the good practice? Please provide data on the impact and outcomes of the good practice by comparing targets vs actual performance, before-and-after indicators, and/or other types of statistics or measurements. Yes, we have evaluated our good practice. It is an overwhelming success across the country. Singaporeans who attended CRPS and/or used our mobile service centres were extremely satisfied and impressed by the simple and clear communication of the retirement options applicable to them via the personalised infographic. In summary, we achieved the following: Extremely high level of one-stop service by the mobile service centres 90 per cent of Singaporeans who visited the mobile service centre did not need further services face-toface (our target is 80 per cent).

6 1. Extremely high level of understanding the retirement options after using CRPS 90 per cent of Singaporeans have improved understanding of the retirement options after using CRPS (our target is 80

6 6 1. Extremely high level of understanding the retirement options after using CRPS 90 per cent of Singaporeans have improved understanding of the retirement options after using CRPS (our target is 80 per cent). 2. Extremely high proportion of Singaporeans found CRPS and/or mobile service centre exceedingly useful more than 95 per cent of Singaporeans who have benefited from CRPS and/or mobile service centres would recommend them to their family and friends (our target is 80 per cent). 3. Extremely high satisfaction level of the retirees whom we employed to engage fellow Singaporeans in retirement journeys and digital services 100 per cent of the retirees whom we employed were satisfied with their experience (our target is 80 per cent). As icing on the cake and a testament of the project s success, we won the Most Innovative Project Gold Award at the Public Service Excellence Awards. This is the pinnacle of public service innovation awards in Singapore. Showcasing the winning project at the Public Service Excellence Awards Convention Lessons learned Based on the organization s experience, name up to three factors which you consider as indispensable to replicate this good practice. Name up to three risks that arose/could arise in implementing this good practice. Please explain these factors and/or risks briefly. There are two factors which we consider as indispensable to replicate our good practice.

7 7 Firstly, it is the use of human-centred design principles to create this good practice. We made use of the most relevant tools from different methodologies like Design Thinking and Behavioural Insights and used qualitative and quantitative data to understand Singaporeans better. From the insights gathered, we designed potential solutions, and tested them with Singaporeans to co-create the most effective practice. It was due to the rich insights and data gathered from the fusion of methodologies that we were able to create comprehensive, personalised contents for both our physical and digital services. Secondly, it is the openness to collaborate with other organisations to implement this good practice, which showed that what we lacked was not our limitation. We may be limited by our knowledge and resources, but we overcame them by working with others. For example, we worked with People s Association to set up the pop-up mobile service centres to reach out to more Singaporeans. There are two risks that arose in implementing our good practice. Firstly, it is the possibility of failing to create effective contents to communicate our complex retirement options to Singaporeans. The challenge we faced was two-fold i.e. we needed to provide sufficient details so that the richness of the options was not lost, and yet we needed to keep the contents simple enough for Singaporeans to understand. To mitigate this risk, we used the human-centred design principles of understand, design, and tested our contents with Singaporeans. We knew that personalised, meaningful and relevant contents can help Singaporeans to understand their retirement options better. Secondly, it is the possibility of selecting the wrong mobile service centre locations and thus failing to reach out to more Singaporeans. To mitigate this risk, we collaborated with People s Association as they are a grassroots organisation and had deep knowledge of the demographics of the various communities they operated in. They not only recommended suitable locations, but also provided the necessary logistics to enable us to run the mobile service centres successfully.

Good Practices in Social Security

Good Practices in Social Security Good practice in operation since: 2007 ISSA Good Governance Guidelines in Practice: Service standards for Members and Beneficiaries The Singapore Experience A case of