No superannuation fund has developed an employer app and there has been little investment in delivering digital services to employers, according to an IQ Group report.
The report on superannuation digital and mobile services found beyond employers being able to discharge their super guarantee capabilities there was very little in the way of servicing employers digitally.
IQ Group director of business development, Ron Mullins, told Super Review employers are an important distribution channel for super funds to obtain, retain, and grow their membership.
“To date there has been little investment in delivering employer services. Anecdotally as we do talk to funds there are a number of funds that recognise the value of employers that are building compelling digital services for employers,” Mullins said.
At the same time only 56 per cent of funds had the capability to let members join online.
“It’s quite puzzling as to why there is no online solution. I think it will be an area of focus over the next year or two,” he said.
“There is nothing really clear that isolated or identified to having a common view of not offering these services.”
Mullins suggest that funds may have been focused on large legislative programs like SuperStream and were in the process of wanting to develop and design more digital services.
The report found that super funds were not substantially engaged with members and employers through social media.
“We are surprised on how little growth there has been on social media activity. It’s been a common theme that they haven’t been able to leverage and use to effectively communicate to their members and the broader group of people,” Mullins said.
The report found the most popular social media platform funds were using was YouTube. However, Mullins noted that many funds just had an account and had some sort of communications but were not very active.
“The ones that do use social media more tend to use twitter and Facebook more than YouTube,” he said.
However, since last year’s report super funds improved their mobile website optimisation capability with a 46 per cent jump to 82 per cent of the top 50 funds.
