Informa has developed a methodical step-by-step approach to auto-enrolment, as it moves up its staging date from July 2013 to January 2013.
Thomas Humphris, head office HR and UK reward director at Informa, shared the publishing and events organisation’s journey towards auto-enrolment in a session called ‘Preparing for the cost of auto-enrolment’ at the Employee Benefits Pensions and Workplace Savings Summit 2012 on 9 March.
“Auto-enrolment for us started with an enterprise architecture review, a bit like a cost benefit analysis,” he said.
The approach has included a governance committee for auto-enrolment, which is made up of people from HR, finance, the pension provider and employee representatives.
The next step was to consider the options, such as scheme design, using salary sacrifice, consolidating the pension with the flexible benefits scheme, and reviewing the current terms with the pension provider.
Humphris added: “We do not want to move pension providers, the upheaval will be significant to the business, but I have to make sure we are offering the best options to our employees.”
Informa offers a group personal pension (GPP) scheme for all staff, but is considering an alternative scheme to comply with auto-enrolment. The second scheme will be either another GPP or the National employment savings trust (Nest). “It does not sit right with me to offer two different schemes with different annual management charges,” said Humphris.
The firm is also underpinning its auto-enrolment communications with financial education, which is in place already. “We are going to be in control of the information we are giving employees,” said Humphris. “If it does not fit into employees’ lifestyles, they should have other options to choose from.”
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