Member Article

Tomorrow’s Retirees Physically Repulsed By The Idea Of ‘Waiting For God’

In a first-of-its-kind experiment, Skipton Building Society has hooked up the nation’s pre-retirees to scientific probes, revealing their conscious and sub-conscious reactions to images of life after work.

The most stark finding was their dramatic physical and emotional rejection of traditional views of retirement. This included increased perspiration and goosebumps when shown key words and images associated with it, ranging from it being ‘the end of a chapter’ to the start of their ‘golden years’. The study also found that today’s pre-retirees are bored by traditional ‘pipe and slippers’ images of life beyond work.

Dr Jack Lewis, a published neuroscience consultant and author of Sort Your Brain Out, said: “Skipton has broken new ground by using physiological and sensory research, together with traditional methods.

“By applying this cutting edge new technology, the Society has been able to dig deep into its respondents’ true feelings and combine this with qualitative and quantitative findings, to give the most comprehensive insight yet into what really makes individual people tick when it comes to retirement.

“For too long, retirement has been about clichéd images, but not anymore. Skipton has shown that, like the modern world, life-after-work is becoming hyper-personalised.” The key to these findings was combining conventional qualitative and quantitative fact-finding techniques with a scientific twist.

Portable skin sensors provided by research technology firm Sensum were used in focus group and interview settings to track latent responses alongside people’s mindful, verbal reactions. A 1,500 person online survey carried out by Carat Media then helped quantify and refine the retirement personas that emerged from the study.

Skipton, the UK’s fourth largest building society, is keen to gain a true understanding of people’s retirement wishes, in order to be able to help them realise their goals, in line with its new Retirement Service, with the strapline For Life Ahead. Skipton is currently offering a free will for anyone who has a free Retirement Review in any of its branches. In what is believed to be a first for UK financial services, the Society commissioned a three-stage research process, involving tried and tested methods with physiological and sensory responses bolted on, to give genuine 360 degree insight. This revealed five distinctive retirement ‘personas’, of Activity Seeker, Adventurer, Comfort Seeker , Knowledge Seeker, and Worker .

However, no one conforms to just one persona. Further investigation showed that all of those taking part had a unique ‘retirement DNA’ profile, made up of elements of each, with areas of dominance. This showed that, as with a fingerprint, no two retirees are the same. Armed with this research, Skipton, and its customers, can better understand their specific individual preferences and retirement ambitions.

The research also showed that people physically balked at suggestions of retirement being synonymous with old age, with a 23% uplift in sub-conscious responses observed (goosebumps and increased perspiration!). Their bodies also responded positively to the idea of retirement being the start of a new chapter, and wanting to remain productive despite giving up work (showing a 26% and 23% increase in physical reactions respectively). At the same time, the respondents’ lack of reaction to images such as cosy pubs and nights at the dogs indicated they were bored by the idea of a laid-back retirement.

Most people described clear and inspired plans, from wing walking to starting new businesses. But in 64% of people, their physiological responses contradicted this to some extent – highlighting a degree of confusion about their vision of their futures. A worrying 22% said they had no or incomplete plans in place for retirement. And of those who did, 30% said they have no idea how much money they have put by to achieve them. Overall, anxiety was evident as nearly two thirds of retirees lacked the confidence that they are financially prepared for their retirement.

While over half (51%) of retirees have dreams for spending their retired years, 28% are indifferent about the idea, 12% don’t want to retire and 9% really are not looking forward to it.

Following this research, Skipton is developing a new retirement DNA profiling tool to be available as an app in its branches, to help customers identify their own retirement persona and fingerprint. “Introducing this app in our branches will help our customers to understand their aspirations for the future and get them thinking about how they plan to achieve them,” said Skipton’s Group Chief Executive David Cutter. “This innovative research demonstrates how committed we are to really understanding and meeting the needs of the UK’s current and future retirees. “But it has revealed some worrying trends - we cannot have a country bursting with aspiration, whose hopes are then struck down by apathy or aversion to financial planning.

“As a mutual, we were established 161 years ago to help tackle the prevalent social issue of the time – helping ordinary people to build their own homes. Through our new retirement service, we’re bringing this ethos bang up to date by tackling THE financial issue of today.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gabriella Smith .