Employee Benefits Connect: Expert advice on pension reforms

Reward professionals from McDonald's, IBM, NetApp, Telefonica and Microsoft shared their concerns and strategies for auto-enrolment, which begins for the UK's largest employers this year, during a panel debate at the event.

Louise Phillips, HR benefits leader at IBM, said: "Something that is simple has become incredibly complex. It will not happen the way the government wants it to."

Neal Blackshire, benefits and compensation manager at McDonald's, said: "It is about making sure we can get an arrangement that will not be seen as effectively an extra tax."

James Kirkland, Telefonica Europe's head of pensions, benefits and recognition, said he was aware of the perceived inequity of running a DB pension scheme alongside a DC scheme for auto-enrolment.

Read more about auto-enrolment and the pension reform