Pension Management Fundamentals Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Foundation to Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Compensation and Benefits Managers, HR Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CB-035

Before you join: Participants should have basic workplace experience in HR, payroll, finance, employee benefits or administration.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Pension arrangements are a material part of employee reward, workforce retention and long-term financial wellbeing. HR and benefits teams must explain pension choices clearly, administer enrolment and contributions accurately, work effectively with trustees and providers, and identify when plan design or governance creates cost, risk or fairness concerns. Errors can affect employee confidence, regulatory compliance, payroll accuracy and the employer’s financial commitments.

This course provides a practical foundation in occupational pension management, covering defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid arrangements. Participants examine pension plan design, eligibility, vesting, contributions, investment governance, benefit calculations, retirement options, communications, funding and accounting concepts. They learn to read key pension documents, assess provider and administrator performance, interpret actuarial and investment reports, and support sound governance decisions.

Instructor-led sessions combine focused briefings with pension cases, calculations, document reviews, group discussions, simulations and application planning. Participants work progressively on a pension management file from the first week, applying plan rules, contribution data, governance controls and member communications. They leave with a practical pension management pack containing governance, administration, communication and risk-management materials that can be adapted for their own organisation.

The course is suited to HR, compensation and benefits professionals, payroll staff, pension administrators, trustees and managers who need a structured working knowledge of workplace pension arrangements. It is particularly useful for professionals moving into benefits responsibilities or supporting a pension plan without having previously worked in specialist pensions roles.

What you will be able to do

  • Explain defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid pension arrangements using clear employee and employer terminology
  • Classify pension plan costs, risks and obligations across sponsors, members, trustees and providers
  • Calculate basic pension contributions, vesting outcomes, retirement benefits and transfer values from plan rules
  • Interpret pension plan documents, actuarial reports, investment reports and administrator service data
  • Draft pension governance documents, member communications and administration control checklists
  • Assess pension plan design choices against workforce needs, cost constraints and risk appetite
  • Build a pension management plan covering enrolment, contributions, governance, communications and reporting
  • Present a complete pension management pack with recommendations for senior stakeholders

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Explain pension options and member benefits with greater accuracy and confidence
  • Review plan rules, provider reports and pension communications more effectively
  • Identify pension administration errors before they affect payroll or member records
  • Contribute informed questions to trustee, provider and pension committee meetings
  • Build a reusable pension management portfolio for current or future benefits roles

For your organisation

  • More accurate pension enrolment, contribution processing and member record administration
  • Clearer employee pension communications that reduce avoidable queries and complaints
  • Stronger governance records, decision trails and provider oversight arrangements
  • Earlier identification of pension cost, funding, data and compliance risks
  • Better coordination between HR, payroll, finance, trustees and external providers

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can explain how workplace pensions fit within wider retirement income systems.

  • Retirement income objectives, adequacy, sustainability and intergenerational fairness
  • Three-pillar pension models: public, occupational and personal provision
  • Defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid promise structures
  • Stakeholder roles: sponsor, trustee, administrator, custodian and actuary
  • Pension lifecycle from enrolment through retirement, death and transfers
  • Jurisdictional variation in tax, labour, social-security and pension law

Participants can distinguish pension plan structures and the obligations created by each.

  • Defined benefit formulas based on salary, service and accrual rates
  • Defined contribution accounts funded through employee and employer contributions
  • Career-average and final-salary pension promise comparison methods
  • Cash-balance arrangements and interest-crediting pension benefit structures
  • Hybrid plan features combining guaranteed and account-based retirement benefits
  • Risk allocation between members, employers, trustees and pension providers

Participants can locate and interpret operational requirements within core pension documents.

  • Plan rules defining eligibility, contributions, vesting and benefit entitlement
  • Trust deeds, governing documents and formal amendment procedures
  • Summary plan descriptions translated into clear member-facing language
  • Reading definitions, eligibility clauses, exclusions and discretionary powers
  • Document hierarchy when plan rules conflict with administrative procedures
  • Version control for pension policies, forms and member communications

Participants can establish controlled processes for pension eligibility and enrolment.

  • Eligibility criteria using age, service, employment status and location
  • Automatic enrolment, opt-in and opt-out process design
  • New-hire pension data requirements and enrolment workflow controls
  • Employee elections for contribution rates, beneficiaries and investment choices
  • Late enrolment corrections, missed contributions and retrospective adjustments
  • Membership record fields supporting audit trails and benefit calculations

Participants can calculate pension contributions and reconcile payroll-related pension data.

  • Contribution definitions based on pensionable pay and eligible earnings
  • Fixed-rate, matched and tiered contribution formula calculations
  • Payroll deduction timing, remittance schedules and settlement evidence
  • Reconciling payroll files, pension records, bank payments and provider reports
  • Treatment of bonuses, overtime, commissions and unpaid leave
  • Exception reporting for missing deductions, contribution caps and retroactive changes

Participants can apply vesting and preservation rules to common employment events.

  • Vesting schedules using cliff, graded and immediate entitlement approaches
  • Forfeiture treatment following resignation before full benefit vesting
  • Preservation requirements for deferred members and accrued benefits
  • Portability options through transfers, rollovers and preserved accounts
  • Employment termination checklists for pension benefit administration
  • Tracking deferred members, address changes and unclaimed pension benefits

Participants can perform and check basic defined benefit pension calculations.

  • Accrual-rate calculations using pensionable salary and credited service
  • Final-average salary periods, salary definitions and service breaks
  • Early retirement reductions and late-retirement benefit adjustments
  • Normal retirement age, deferred retirement and commencement options
  • Survivor pensions, disability benefits and death-before-retirement provisions
  • Benefit calculation audit trail using plan rules and payroll history

Participants can explain defined contribution account operations and member investment decisions.

  • Individual account balances, contribution allocations and unit-price mechanics
  • Default investment strategies and target-date fund design principles
  • Investment option menus, risk profiles and member choice architecture
  • Fees, charges and net-return disclosures for defined contribution members
  • Fund switches, transaction cut-offs and unit-allocation controls
  • Decumulation choices including annuities, drawdown and lump sums

Participants can support investment governance discussions using appropriate pension concepts.

  • Investment policy statements defining objectives, constraints and governance responsibilities
  • Strategic asset allocation across equities, bonds, property and alternatives
  • Risk-return trade-offs, diversification and long-term investment horizons
  • Benchmark selection, manager mandates and performance measurement methods
  • Environmental, social and governance factors within investment oversight
  • Investment committee reporting, meeting packs and decision records

Participants can interpret the main information used to assess pension funding and cost.

  • Funding objectives for defined benefit plans and long-term obligations
  • Actuarial valuation inputs: mortality, salary growth, discount rates
  • Funding deficits, surpluses and recovery plan concepts
  • Employer contribution requirements and cash-flow planning considerations
  • Sensitivity analysis for interest-rate, longevity and investment-return assumptions
  • Actuary reports translated into management questions and actions

Participants can identify pension accounting concepts relevant to HR and finance coordination.

  • IAS 19 employee-benefit categories and pension obligation terminology
  • Service cost, net interest and remeasurement component distinctions
  • Defined contribution expense recognition and employer contribution timing
  • Defined benefit obligation, plan assets and funded-status reporting
  • Finance, HR and actuarial data required for reporting cycles
  • Management explanations for pension movements and assumption changes

Participants can establish governance structures and records for pension decision-making.

  • Governance charters defining authority, delegation and reserved decisions
  • Trustee fiduciary duties, conflicts of interest and member interests
  • Pension committee terms of reference and meeting calendar design
  • Decision registers documenting rationale, approvals and follow-up actions
  • Fit-and-proper criteria, induction and continuing trustee education
  • Escalation routes for breaches, complaints and material service failures

Participants can evaluate pension service providers and monitor their performance.

  • Provider operating models for administration, investment, custody and actuarial services
  • Request-for-proposal criteria covering capability, fees, controls and reporting
  • Service-level agreements with measurable pension administration performance indicators
  • Due diligence on provider resilience, data security and continuity arrangements
  • Quarterly scorecards for service accuracy, timeliness and member satisfaction
  • Provider review meetings structured around incidents, trends and action owners

Participants can identify pension data risks and specify effective administration controls.

  • Core member data: identity, service, salary, elections and beneficiaries
  • Data-quality checks for completeness, validity, consistency and timeliness
  • Reconciliation controls between HRIS, payroll, administrator and trustee records
  • Access controls, segregation of duties and pension data confidentiality
  • Incident logs for erroneous payments, missing records and processing delays
  • Root-cause analysis using five whys and corrective-action tracking

Participants can produce clear pension communications for key member decisions.

  • Audience segmentation by career stage, pension status and decision needs
  • Plain-language explanations of contributions, investment risk and retirement income
  • Enrolment notices, annual statements and retirement option communications
  • Communication testing for readability, accuracy and behavioural response
  • Financial education boundaries between information, guidance and regulated advice
  • Complaint-handling communications with evidence, timelines and escalation routes

Participants can manage core retirement and survivor benefit administration steps.

  • Retirement case workflow from notice, verification and benefit quotation
  • Identity checks, beneficiary validation and anti-fraud payment controls
  • Lump-sum, annuity and drawdown option processing requirements
  • Death-in-service benefits, survivor pensions and dependent eligibility reviews
  • Tax withholding, payment instructions and benefit commencement records
  • Post-retirement payroll controls, certificates and periodic member verification

Participants can assess pension risks and create proportionate monitoring controls.

  • Pension risk register covering governance, funding, investment and administration
  • Risk assessment using likelihood, impact, control effectiveness and ownership
  • Compliance calendars for filings, disclosures, audits and trustee meetings
  • Key risk indicators for late contributions, data errors and complaints
  • Business continuity planning for pension payroll and member service disruption
  • Internal audit evidence for pension controls, exceptions and remediation

Participants can assess pension plan design options against workforce and employer requirements.

  • Workforce segmentation using tenure, age, income and retirement readiness
  • Benchmarking contribution design against reward philosophy and affordability
  • Participation, opt-out and contribution-escalation behaviour analysis
  • Equity analysis for part-time, contingent and lower-paid workers
  • Plan change impact assessment covering cost, risk and member outcomes
  • Stakeholder consultation plans for employees, unions, trustees and leadership

Participants can create management reporting that supports pension oversight and improvement.

  • Pension dashboard metrics for membership, contributions, service and risk
  • Trend analysis for enrolment, opt-outs, arrears and retirement transactions
  • Management information packs tailored for HR, finance and trustees
  • Action plans assigning priorities, owners, deadlines and success measures
  • Annual pension administration calendar with control and reporting milestones
  • Continuous improvement methods using incident trends and member feedback

Participants can build, review and present a complete pension management pack for a workplace pension arrangement.

  • Pension plan profile defining structure, membership, benefits and governance
  • Eligibility and contribution workflow with payroll reconciliation control points
  • Governance calendar, committee terms and provider performance scorecard
  • Pension risk register with controls, owners and escalation thresholds
  • Member communication plan covering enrolment, statements and retirement decisions
  • Management dashboard presenting cost, service, risk and participation indicators

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Pension plan governance charter template
  2. Pension enrolment and contribution control checklist
  3. Pension provider performance scorecard
  4. Pension risk register template
  5. Member pension communication plan
  6. Pension management dashboard model

Who should attend

  • Compensation and Benefits Managers — responsible for pension design, provider oversight and employee reward decisions
  • HR Managers — need to administer pension commitments and answer employee questions accurately
  • Pension Administrators — manage enrolment, contributions, records, retirements and member transactions
  • Payroll Managers — require reliable pension deduction, contribution and reconciliation controls
  • Trustees and Pension Committee Members — oversee member interests, governance duties and service providers
  • Finance and Reward Analysts — assess pension cost, funding information and accounting implications

Skills and tools covered

Pension plan designBenefits administration controlsPension governanceContribution calculationsMember communicationsPension risk assessment

Tools and standards

IAS 19 Employee Benefits, OECD Core Principles of Private Pension Regulation, Pension risk register, Investment policy statement

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish pension concepts, followed by worked cases, document reviews, group exercises and facilitated discussions. Participants analyse plan rules, contribution schedules, actuarial summaries, investment reports and member communications. Simulations address enrolment decisions, trustee meetings, retirement cases and provider performance reviews. Application planning is built through the programme: participants develop a pension management file, receive structured feedback, and refine their materials for use in their own workplace.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic workplace experience in HR, payroll, finance, employee benefits or administration. Familiarity with payroll deductions, employee records or reward policies is helpful but not essential. Participants should be comfortable reading business documents and performing straightforward percentage calculations. No actuarial qualification, investment qualification, legal training or prior pension administration experience is required. The course explains core pension terminology before moving into plan design, governance, funding and benefit calculations. Participants should bring examples of their organisation’s pension arrangements where confidentiality rules permit.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Basic experience in HR, payroll, finance, benefits or administration is useful. No actuarial, investment or legal qualification is required, and the course begins with pension terminology and plan structures.

Participants should bring a laptop and, where permitted, non-confidential examples of pension policies, contribution schedules, provider reports or member communications. These materials can be used to shape the application planning work.

The course is designed for HR and benefits professionals, payroll managers, pension administrators, trustees, reward analysts and managers supporting a workplace pension plan. It also suits professionals moving into pension responsibilities for the first time.

This course focuses on managing workplace pension arrangements from an HR, governance and administration perspective. It explains investment and actuarial reports sufficiently for informed oversight, but does not train participants to act as investment managers or actuaries.

Participants develop reusable materials for enrolment, contribution reconciliation, governance, risk reporting, provider oversight and member communication. The final pension management pack can be adapted to the participant’s own plan rules and local requirements.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes pension structures, administration and calculations; the second week focuses on governance, funding, risk, communications, reporting and the capstone presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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