Employer retirement plans has emerged as the top source of income for retirement for many employees, according to a survey conducted by global professional services company, Towers Watson.

Minimal social security benefits and inadequate awareness about suitable retirement savings vehicles have resulted in employees becoming over dependent on retirement plans provided by employers, said the company in a release issued on Tuesday.

This trend is accentuated amongst employees approaching retirement, with 78 per cent (of those with a retirement plan) saying their retirement plan is the primary way they save for retirement.

Interestingly, only 12 per cent of Indian employees who agree their retirement plan meets their needs plan to leave their organisation in the next 2 years compared to 39 per cent of those who disagree the plan meets their needs, signalling a noteworthy co-relation between the two and a likely confirmation that retirement benefits are emerging as an important retention driver.

Anuradha Sriram, Director – Benefits, Towers Watson, India said, “Traditionally, retirement planning has never been an important financial priority owing to the Indian family structure and elders dependence on their children. However, the breakdown of traditional support systems, increased longevity, rising inflation and rapid urbanisation now require a large proportion of the current working population to build their own retirement corpus.”

Towers Watson’s Global Benefits Attitudes Survey examines employees’ attitudes toward their health and retirement benefits. Conducted in 12 countries, the survey was completed by 22,347 employees working in large non-governmental organizations, including 2,006 employees in India, of whom 1,669 are members of a retirement savings plan.

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