Retirement target operating model

We were asked by a client to support them in defining their future state retirement journey should look like, what capabilities are required to support it, and the changes required to put those capabilities in place

The challenge

Our client is an outsource provider of public pensions administration in the UK. They had recently submitted a proposal to secure a contract extension for the ongoing provision of services to their main client

As part of the proposal, they committed to improve the overall member experience, and through work done after the proposal was submitted it was clear that the most important part of the experience to get right was at the “point of retirement”

Our client therefore decided to focus their improvement efforts at the “point of retirement”, and they asked PEN to support them in defining in detail what the future state retirement journey should look like, what capabilities are required to support it, and what changes are required to put those capabilities in place

Our approach

We took the following steps to deliver the required outcome:

  1. Map customer journeys – We worked closely with our client’s team to define a set of ‘design principles’ for the retirement experience. We also worked with them to identify their main customer segments and bring them to life in personas. Using the personas and the design principles, we then helped them map the current and future state retirement journeys, and validate the maps with colleagues from across the business and directly with customers themselves
  2. Define the target operating model – We then identified the capabilities that are required to deliver the desired customer journeys, defined in detail what they should look like, and assessed the gap between the current and future state of each capability. This resulted in a clear description of the capability builds required to bridge the gap. We documented the desired customer journeys, supporting capabilities and changes required in a detailed “target operating model” document, which painted a clear picture of how people, processes and technology should be organised and described the potential FTE savings
  3. Develop a roadmap for change – Finally, we prioritised the capability builds for delivery in several phases based on an agreed set of criteria (e.g. experience benefit, savings benefit, cost to deliver, time to deliver), with “quick wins” prioritised for delivery first so that our client could demonstrate improvements in the member experience to their main client

The outcome

The outcomes of our engagement were:

  1. Consensus around what the future state retirement journeys should look like, what capabilities are required to support it, and what changes are required to deliver those capabilities
  2. Confidence in the C-suite that there is a plan in place to deliver the capabilities in the right order, based on the relative benefits they create for both customers and the business – including potential FTE savings
  3. A polished set of outputs which could be shared with the business’s main client and used to demonstrate that the company is taking seriously it’s promise to improve the member experience
  4. Providing the business with a “best practice” example of how to initiate major change programmes; that is, to start by defining the end-state customer experience, and then define and cost the changes required to deliver it

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