May marks the one-year anniversary of the Standard Life and Plain Numbers Partnership.

May marks the one-year anniversary of the Standard Life and Plain Numbers Partnership.

Standard Life, part of the Phoenix Group, were one of the leading firms in the sector to join Plain Numbers as a Partner. This Partnership reflects an ongoing commitment on Standard Life’s part to improve their communications for their customers.

Around half of UK adults have the numeracy levels expected of a primary school child. This vulnerability is largely unknown, and most communications are not written with these people in mind. Through Plain Numbers training people can learn how to communicate numbers and data in a way that will significantly increase understanding on the reader's part.

Standard Life have a number of trained Practitioners, all of whom have completed the comprehensive training course.  With support from the Plain Numbers team, these Practitioners have used the tools and strategies they’ve been taught to implement improvements to the way the company communicates financial information to its customers. For example, it has been applied to a workplace pensions presentation and a section of their annual pension statement with positive feedback.

Claire Sinclair, Information Designer at Standard Life and a Plain Numbers Practitioner:

“As a Graphic Designer I would focus on how the communication looked. As an Information Designer I care about how the communication looks and sounds. Now, as a Plain Numbers Practitioner, I care about the numbers too. Applying the Plain Numbers methodology allows me to create communications that are truly inclusive.”

An important part of the Partnership is supporting organisations in embedding the Plain Numbers Approach into their company culture. As part of this, awareness-raising sessions run by Ben Perkins, our Plain Numbers Partnership Manager, have reached over 300 people in the organisation. There is a clear enthusiasm to learn more and engage the training further.

Bryan Mackay, Senior Financial Promotions Reviewer at Standard Life and a Plain Numbers Practitioner:

“When working with other colleagues on their communications and showing them the Plain Numbers Approach they’ve seen the difference it can make and decided to become Practitioners themselves. Plain Numbers were able to provide support and feedback on improvements we had planned, and this feedback took the communication to a different level.”

We are excited that Phoenix Life, part of the Phoenix Group, have signed up members of their staff for training too. In reaching even more customers in the sector with the Plain Numbers Approach, Phoenix Group continue to ensure that numbers are communicated clearly and fairly.

Standard Life will continue to support its staff with Plain Numbers’ training over the next two years. The Practitioners themselves meet regularly to discuss their current projects and are enthusiastically planning on creating drop-in clinics for the wider marketing team to spread awareness of the Plain Numbers Approach and how they can use it in all their communications. It’s clear there’s a real desire to continue to promote good customer choices and outcomes.  

Ben Perkins, Head of Partnership at Plain Numbers:

“It’s been a fantastic first year working with Standard Life. Their wider team work hard to put the customer at the heart of what they do and with the training of Plain Numbers Practitioners they’ve added an additional skill to help them continue to achieve this. I’m excited to see what we can achieve together in the next few years and what further steps we can take to help their customers understand important information about their pensions and savings.”