Aviva has seen 127 employees opt out of its pension scheme following its auto-enrolment staging date on 1 February.
The provider already had 17,542 (99%) of its employees in a defined contribution (DC) money purchase trust-based scheme. An additional 332 were auto-enrolled on 1 February, 38% of whom chose to opt out.
Aviva started its auto-enrolment planning about 16 months before its staging date.
Andy Thompson, HR reward manager (pensions) at Aviva UK, said: “Auto-enrolment is not really about pensions, it is about the processes. As a large employer and provider, we had to get it right.”
In February 2012, the firm formed a working group, which comprised representatives from HR, payroll, recruitment, IT and legal.
In October 2012, it started communicating with staff sending paper messages to pension scheme members and emails to all employees. Additional communications were sent to all staff in December and January 2013. On 1 February, all staff who were to be auto-enrolled then received an email to let them know they were not in a qualifying pension scheme.
Thompson added: “It is a catalyst to thinking about pensions and the communications you use. It’s a stepping point for everyone.”
