Millennials: Fun on the job, no worries about pension

Challenge, a good salary, nice collegues, but above all fun. These are the aspects millennials look for the most in their jobs, according to a survey set out by pension provider BeFrank. Worries about their pension are nearly nonexistent in this generation.

BeFrank asked over 1000 millennials about work, income and pension. To the question “What do you consider to be the most important aspect regarding your job?” almost half responded with “fun” as the most important. Women (51%) did this even more than men (47%). Other important aspects are having a ‘good salary’ (13.6%), ‘challenging work’ (11%) ‘nice colleagues’ (5.5%). Also ‘career opportunities’ and ‘location’ are important aspects to millennials. “Only 0.6% mentions ‘having a good pension’ as an important aspect of their job”. Says Marianne de Boer, director of BeFrank.

Pension Gap
Most millennials don’t worry about their financial future at all. A little over half of the respondents has never checked their current personal pension account. Almost a third of the respondents did check their personal pension account over the last year. A lot of millennials don’t seem to worry about a possible pension gap. A pension gap means that a reitred person isn’t able to get 70% of his last salary out of his personal pension account, which is necessary to be able to keep up his current lifestyle when he retires. “Almost 30% of the respondents fears they will not have saved enough by the time they retire. 54% says they haven’t even thought about this yet. Reason? A big part of the millennials thinks they are too young to be occupied with pension and another part thinks that pension will no longer be available to them by the time they reach the retirement age” says De Boer. “Previous research has shown us that pension awareness is low in the Netherlands, but that there are so many young people that have no clue if they will have enough money to retire, is worrying”.

Complicated subject
To make sure as many millennials as possible will have enough pension benefit to live on after they retire, BeFrank uses clear communication and smart online tools. “Like the pension planner for example, which you can access at any time, to check your pension’s current state. Besides this, you can adjust your expected retirement age at all times and see what consequences this has on your financial future. To encourage people to view and keep track of their pension, we have evolved multiple actions, such as organizing pension meetings at clients offices. Through pilots we will see what works best and leads to the best results” says De Boer. This is necessary, because a lot of young people still think pension is a dull and complicated subject, according to the survey, two third of the respondents confirms this.

About the survey
The survey was conducted by PanelWizard Direct. This is the survey panel of Kien research and it has over 30,000 members aged 16 years and older. The panel members have stated in advance that they are willing to participate in market research. PanelWizard applies the Gold Standard of MOA, the industry-wide recognised calibration tool for research results. Over 1.000 Dutch people that were born between 1982 and 2002 participated in this survey.

About BeFrank
BeFrank has been active in the group pensions market since 2011 and is the first premium pension institution (PPI) in the Netherlands. BeFrank offers a clear pension, straightforward communication and an online service at low cost. It is part of NN Group Bidco B.V.

For more information, contact Isabelle van Ast. Email: pers@befrank.nl, Tel: +31 (0)20 5621118.