Majority of employers believe pensions should be invested responsibly

Latest findings show that 80% of employers (compared to 65% of employees) think it’s important that a workplace pension fund is invested responsibly.

Aviva’s ‘Working Lives Report 2022: The Big Squeeze’ revealed that a further 19% of employees said that responsible investment is important, but only if it doesn’t impact the performance of their funds.

Another 55% said that they didn’t know if their workplace pension fund is invested responsibly.

Maiyuresh Rajah, head of investment strategy and propositions at Aviva, commented, “It could be that employees and employers either consider return on investment more important than having funds invested responsibly, or that they see them as mutually exclusive in that ‘you cannot have both’.”

Interestingly, both employers and employees agree that climate change is one of the top three most important things that pension providers should take into consideration when looking at investment contributions.

Rajah added, “Employers and employees say that climate change is an important consideration when investing into a pension, but capital needs to be redirected to make an impact. The first step is education. Employers, with the help of pension providers and advisers, have a crucial role to play in helping their people understand the impact they can have on climate-change and society through their workplace pension.

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