Nest Insight has partnered with financial wellbeing provider Wagestream on a new workplace savings research pilot, which will look to explore the impact of different nudges to encourage employees to get started with saving.

Working with members of Wagestream’s existing employer base, the trial will explore two approaches designed to support employees to start saving on payday.

The first approach, ‘active choice’, involves an in-app prompt asking employees whether or not they want to save, while the second is an ‘autosave’ approach, whereby employees automatically start saving at a default rate if they don’t opt out.

Participation rates, savings behaviours and the impact on employee financial wellbeing of each nudge will be judged over the course of the next two years.

The new trial is expected to build on Nest Insight's ongoing workplace savings research programme, with ongoing research lookin at the role that saving via payroll can play in supporting employee financial resilience and wellbeing.

The trial is partially funded by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) and BlackRock Foundation’s Emergency Savings Initiative, with BlackRock having renewed its commitment to supporting emergency savings research via a three-year strategic partnership with Nest Insight earlier this year.

Commenting on the launch of the trial, Nest Insight research trials manager, Emma Stockdale, stated: “We’re really excited to be working with Wagestream to expand our workplace savings research programme.

"We’ve already seen the positive benefits that saving can have for financial wellbeing, and that autosave is a powerful mechanism for supporting people with getting started.

“This new collaboration with Wagestream will see us address important outstanding research questions, such as how autosave works in different employer settings and with a different touchpoint, in the form of a financial wellbeing platform. We’ll also be able to look at another joining mechanism, known as ‘active choice’.

“The Nest Insight team is grateful to Wagestream and to the programme’s funding partners, the BlackRock Foundation and the Money and Pensions Service, for making this innovative research possible. We’re looking forward to reporting on our findings as the trial progresses.”

Adding to this, Wagestream head of impact & inclusion, Emily Trant, stated: "Savings goals and behaviours are core to financial wellbeing.

"Around a third of workers saving with Wagestream are building up savings for the first time in their life - but we know there's still more we can do.

"By collaborating with researchers at Nest Insight and Harvard, we're proud to be building evidence around what works to support employees and giving leading UK employers a new way to build out the savings pillar of their financial wellbeing programmes - making work more rewarding for their people in the process."

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