Nationwide Pension Fund

Democratic Project:

The Nationwide Pension Fund is managed by a Trustee Company (the Trustee) which ensures that the Fund is run in line with its rules, legislation and best practice requirements. In 2021, the Trustee of the Fund sought nominations for two Member Nominated Trustee vacancies from its diverse membership. Following the close of the nominations period, applications for the positions  were shortlisted by the Trustee’s panel. The four remaining candidates were shortlisted for election. Circa 26,400 eligible members of the Fund were invited to vote for the two candidates best  laced to fill the Member Nominated Trustee Director positions.

To run this process to the standards required, the Nationwide Pension team appointed leading election services provider, PIN Communications, to run the nominations, voting, and counting of the votes for the election.

Solution:

​The Nationwide Pension team chose a multichannel solution for the election, comprising of postal and online nomination and voting elements.

Nominations:

To encourage members of the scheme to put themselves forward for nomination, PIN Communications developed an online nomination website where members could upload their application via a secure online form. The site was built with Nationwide Pension Fund’s brand identity in mind and allowed applicants to submit their statements (to a pre-defined word count), upload their photograph and save their application for completion later, if required. PIN Communications directed members of the Fund to the nomination site via an email and a postcard, which went to members through the post.

Election:

Once the Trustee’s panel had shortlisted the candidates, development began on the voting solutions for the election. PIN Communications built an electronic voting site and paper ballot pack for Nationwide Pension Fund members or Fund members, in line with their brand identity and democratic requirements. Voting credentials were sent to members by email (where email addresses were known)  and post to the remaining members. Members were allocated a security code unique to them which provided access to the electronic voting site.