Defined benefit (DB) trustees could collectively save 3,000 days of work by adopting new technology-driven solutions, according to research from OneDB.

OneDB, Willis Towers Watson’s (WTW) integrated DB scheme management service, said moving many traditional scheme monitoring processes into an up-to-date online dashboard was expected to save an average individual trustee four hours each year.

With around 1,200 DB schemes being valued at between £50m and £500m, OneDB noted that this time saving would collectively offer trustees approximately 3,000 working days per annum that could be used to focus on scheme strategy.

OneDB noted that the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown had resulted in greater scrutiny being placed on how trustees spend their time, adding that technological improvements could help schemes remain on track and assist decision-making in virtual environments.

WTW head of OneDB, Gareth Strange, said: “Trustees fulfil a crucial role for pension schemes, but that doesn’t mean that the traditional ways of working need to stay as they have always been. During the crisis, trustees are likely to have already adjusted to working from home by adopting technological solutions.

“We anticipate that this shift will cause trustees to look at where they can make better use of technology to save time, through dashboards and data tools, and perhaps to move away from longer meetings, to shorter and more regular updates, based upon tackling specific aspects of their work.

The research added that other technological upgrades that could save trustees the most amount of time were streamlined valuation data processes, projects and key monitoring statistic assessment and gathering.

Strange concluded: “This analysis shows that, for a lot of schemes, there are clear ways they can minimise wasted efforts on data and governance processes. But each individual and the scheme as a whole needs to find the best ways of working to suit them and, in the end, their members.”

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