No-Touch or
Hands-On?
Why the pensions
workforce
can be both
2
No-Touch or Hands-On? Why the Pensions Workforce Can Be Both
Pensions workforce demographics are changing. To achieve the mission and deliver
good outcomes with the same—or fewer—resources, pension systems must refocus
the workforce. No-touch processing, where intelligent IT services provide end-toend fulfilment of customer needs, can help by removing “hands” from transactional
activities, and placing them on high-value, complex work.
According to Accenture research, pension systems
believe that no-touch processing helps reserve human
resources for those who need them most: 49 percent in
the United States, 61 percent in the United Kingdom and
88 percent in Australia believe this to be true.1 Australia
has the advantage of the most experience implementing
no-touch processing.
By rethinking how work is shared among man and
machine, cultivating the skills needed to deliver customer
service for the digital age and creating a foundation
to support employees in the no-touch processing
environment, pensions systems can get the most value
from the workforce.
Three ways forward for the pensions
workforce
A majority believes that to successfully adopt more notouch processing, a combination of the right IT system and
the right workforce is needed (see Figure 1).2
Many have focused on getting the IT portion right—but
what about the people portion? No-touch processing
enables pension systems to deliver customer service for
the digital age, but it requires some changes to workforce
composition, skills and training.
Get the most from man and machine. To get the
most from IT systems and the workforce, pension systems
can use analytics to identify which transactions can be
automated. Transactions where humans add no value,
usually because there is no subjective decision or element,
should be pushed straight through to no-touch processing.
Pension systems surveyed agree that no-touch processing
can help improve internally efficiency (81 percent in the
US, 86 percent in the UK and 96 percent in Australia) and
help with handling basic transactions (78 percent in the
US, 87 percent in the UK and 97 percent in Australia).
When employees spend less time on transactions that can
be completed by digital intelligence, they can use their
human intelligence to focus on complex work, such as
Figure 1. Key ingredients for successful no-touch processing
Which of the following best describes your opinion? Successfully adopting more
straight-through processing is primarily about... (Not showing “Don’t know”)
Putting the right IT system
in place to enable it
7
A combination of both the right IT
systems to enable it and the right
workforce to complement it
11
Putting the right workforce
in place to complement it
7
83
76
91
7
11
2
US
UK
Australia
No-Touch or Hands-On? Why the Pensions Workforce Can Be Both
guiding pension members on their retirement journeys.
In this way, the people who need the most attention and
customer service will get it.
Norway is seeing the service benefits of no-touch. There,
electronic submissions enabled application times to be
cut from months to minutes. Forty percent of all pension
claims are now submitted online and an additional 26
percent are assisted by caseworkers, allowing valuable
resources to be deployed elsewhere. For example, a new
pension call center gives users direct access to dedicated
pension experts.3
Upskill and reskill the workforce. Moving to no-touch
processing reveals opportunities to equip employees
with new skills that enable them to better support the
mission. For example, while no-touch requires a tech-savvy
workforce, people also need soft skills as their roles evolve
from transactional processing to coaching.
Pension systems in Australia (77 percent) believe that as
they adopt more no-touch processing, the skill set needed
among employees changes significantly. Across Australia,
the UK and US, 52 percent believe employees will need to
specialize in handling more complicated circumstances,
such as sickness and bereavement.4
Employees themselves want to broaden their skill set.
Accenture research shows that 62 percent of employees
are assessing the skills they will need for the future.
These include skills like ideation, emotional intelligence
and the ability to communicate ideas.5 Scaling and
developing the entire pensions workforce—including
those previously tasked with transactional work—creates
a more versatile workforce capable of achieving better
outcomes at lower cost.
Lay the groundwork for nurturing human capital. As
the pensions workforce evolves, so must the training and
operating model to support that workforce. Specifically:
Training–Talent management and training should support
the agency mission, and also the needs of employees.
Eighty-three percent of organizations are tailoring their
talent management practices to meet the needs of
individual employees.6
Employers in the digital age are also offering employees
more opportunities to grow beyond the four walls of
the organization. Malaysian multinational Sime Darby, a
government-linked company, is now partnering with third
parties to develop its high-potential employees by placing
them in a talent exchange program at other companies.7
3
Operating model–The shift from transactional to
coaching roles for staff requires a corresponding shift in
the organization, roles, management and quality metrics
for an organization. A focus on efficiency of throughput
is accelerated in the IT sphere but replaced in the human
sphere with a focus on efficiency of outcome. Decades
of emphasis on shifting staff from front-office to backoffice needs to be tempered with a new form of virtual
front office where human interaction is encouraged,
not minimized.
The Australian Department of Human Services has
redefined its operating model to provide services that are
based on the level of assistance that a person or family
needs. The vast majority of people are moved to a digital
interaction where the agency workforce is not required
to intervene. For those in greater need of assistance, the
case/collaboration model allows different organizations
to collectively support the person or family through a
transition. The model has been successfully piloted in select
communities.
Creating a pensions workforce for the future
No-touch processing will not replace humans. However,
it does provide opportunities to refocus humans. Across
markets surveyed, a majority says that over 50 percent
of current processes still require significant human
intervention.8 When employees have more time to focus on
those tasks that require the human touch, it will ultimately
better support the agency in achieving its mission to serve
pension members before and during retirement.
For more information,
contact:
About Delivering Public
Service for the Future
Mark Jennings
[email protected]
What does it take to deliver public service
for the future? Public service leaders must
embrace four structural shifts—advancing
toward personalized services, insight-driven
operations, a public entrepreneurship
mindset and a cross-agency commitment to
mission productivity. By making these shifts,
leaders can support flourishing societies,
safe, secure nations and economic vitality
for citizens in a digital world—delivering
public service for the future.
Owen Davies
[email protected]
Connect with us to learn
more on delivering public
service for the future on
Twitter @AccenturePubSvc
References
1 2015 Accenture No-Touch Processing Survey
2 IBID
3 Accenture client case study; “Norway’s
innovative pension program wins computer
world’s prestigious 2012 Human Services
Achievement award;” online at https://www.
accenture.com/us-en/success-norwaysgroundbreaking-new-pension-systemsuccessfully-launched
4 IBID
5 Accenture Strategy Employee Research on
Being Digital, 2015
6 Accenture, “Workforce of the future:
Humanizing work through digital,” https://
www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-workforcefuture-humanizing-work-digital.aspx?c=strat_
wrkfrcftr_10000006&n=otc_0215
7 Simedarby website: http://www.simedarby.com/
Sime_Darby_Embarks_on_Talent_Exchange_
Programme.aspx
8 IBID
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