A survey conducted by Johnson Fleming at the Pension & Benefits Show 2014 highlighted the key challenges faced within organisations post auto-enrolment. The results showed that communicating the changes and the value of them to staff, and receiving timely data from the payroll provider proved to still be the most challenging aspects of managing an auto-enrolment scheme.
Around 19.1 per cent had struggled to communicate changes throughout their organisation and were now looking at how to make their employees see the value of joining a pension scheme. This builds upon market research completed by Johnson Fleming in 2013, as 22.6 per cent of respondents stated then that they envisaged communicating information on auto-enrolment would be their biggest challenge before staging.
Respondents in this year’s survey also felt that they were not receiving data from their payroll providers in a timely fashion (19.1 per cent), which was then having a major knock-on effect to wider auto-enrolment and business critical processes.
Commenting on the results, Greg Broomer, senior consultant at Johnson Fleming, said: ‘Communicating information about auto-enrolment is essential as it allows employees to make informed decisions about retirement, but businesses have struggled to get information from providers in a timely manner to help them do this effectively. Businesses are now focusing on ensuring their employees understand the value of the pension scheme and what it can do for them. Coupling auto-enrolment with the changes in the recent budget means communication will be a huge focus for employers this year.
‘The results also highlighted the difficulties businesses have had with their administration processes and the receiving of timely information from their payroll provider. Getting these processes working effectively is critical for successful auto-enrolment and it still looks like there is work to do to make auto-enrolment business as usual within the nation’s HR, pensions, payroll and finance departments.’
Survey results
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced post your staging date?
- Communicating the changes to your staff: 19.1 per cent
- Getting support from your provider/adviser: 4.3 per cent
- Receiving data on time from your payroll provider: 19.1 per cent
- Managing the ongoing administration: 10.6 per cent
- Dealing with employee queries: 8.5 per cent
- Assessing the performance of your scheme: 10.6 per cent
- Keeping up to date with the required record keeping: 12.8 per cent
- Other: 14.9 per cent