How a Board Portal Can Improve Governance Practices

This white paper sets out the background to how good governance practices enable UK pension trustee boards to meet pension scheme management challenges and considers the application of a board portal as a digital solution that can improve board meeting effectiveness and the experience of trustees. Passageways (the company behind OnBoard) commissioned Kaushik Shah (Chair of Trustee and OnBoard user) to join Robert Barham-Brown to author this white paper.

The UK landscape of retirement provisions (‘pensions’) has changed and evolved significantly. The pace has accelerated in the last 5 years in policy, legislation and regulatory requirements. For pension schemes, effective pensions trusteeship in managing and governing existing pension plans has come into sharp focus. Trustees challenges create pressure on their commitment. Trustees are faced with getting the right balance between having technical and professional competence whilst making timely but good quality decisions.

The biggest challenge is the multi-channel forms of communication
available. Pension plans are typically not geared up for this.
However, when it comes to improving board governance using
technology solutions, most trustees do not seem to have addressed this
or know how to go about it. This white paper considers some common
problems, questions for chair of trustees to consider, how to think
about improving the non-digital meetings process, factors to consider
in selecting and changing to a digital board portal and the expected
successful outcomes.