Truverus’s technology helps The CAAT Pension Plan drive a breakthrough by locating gaps in communication and closing them.

Company Profile

The CAAT Pension Plan provides defined pension benefits to more than 36,000 members who work for or have retired from the 24 colleges and related employers in the province of Ontario.

The Plan stands secure, fully funded, and well managed. The Plan’s last fi led actuarial valuation shows a surplus of $347 million, assets of $6.3 billion and is 103% funded on a going-concern basis, as of January 1, 2013.

The three sponsors of the Plan – Colleges Ontario on behalf of the college boards of governors, the Ontario College Administrative Staff Association (OCASA), and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) – appoint members to both of the Plan’s governance bodies: the Board of Trustees and the Sponsors’ Committee. The Plan is jointly governed – members and employers participate equally on both bodies.

Business Situation

The CAAT Plan had never conducted any kind of stakeholder engagement program with the objective of identifying key issues, understanding current perceptions and driving improvement programs to better engage their stakeholders.

The CAAT Plan had a number of desired outcomes that they wanted to achieve as a result of working with Truverus:

• To develop a better understanding of the CAAT Pension Plan among all of its stakeholders.
• To distinguish the CAAT Pension Plan among other Ontario public sector pension plans andprivate sector pension plans. Promote the CAAT Plan brand. Ensure that its specific characteristics and achievements are recognized as being distinct in any broader pension reform policy discussions.
• To ensure that the CAAT Plan members (both active and retired) have the information they need to promote the Plan as a well-managed, sustainable, “model” public sector defined benefit pension plan.
• To enhance both the profile and reputation of the CAAT Plan, and thereby promoting its growth ambitions for the Ontario university sector.
• To generate broad based opinion research to support the CAAT Plan in its discussions with key stakeholders, particularly policy makers. Provide information that could be used to either refute or mitigate published and private opinions on the sustainability of public sector pension plans.
• To provide early indicators of potential, opportunities, issues, conflicts and benefits. Creating Lasting Change
• Once the CAAT Plan was able to analyze the feedback they collected, they found a communication disconnect between presidents and VPs regarding the value to the college of the pension plan. To address this, the CAAT Plan developed a communications strategy that introduced regular briefings to senior level college staff. These briefings are helping to create a common understanding among the senior executives and are creating alignment around their views and understandings.
• When they went out to members, there was a noticeable gap between what support staff and academic staff understood about their pension benefits, which indicated to the CAAT Plan that messaging was not resonating equally with different audiences. To address this, the CAAT is developing a strategy to use various media, such as video and webinars as well as the traditional print newsletters, to explain member benefits and related issues.
• The results from the Stakeholder Engagement Program validated many the activities that the CAAT Plan was already undertaking, which helped their team grow in confidence that they were effectively engaging their stakeholders. These results can be seen here in this infographic outlining some of the results

“The Stakeholder Engagement survey was a valuable exercise for us because we were able to refine our understanding of the various stakeholder groups, gain useful insights and enhance our reputation as a well-managed, well governed, sustainable pension plan.”

John Cappelletti, Manager, Stakeholder Relations, CAAT Pension Plan