Member Article

Taking the work out of Auto Enrolment

Following the recent research findings which state SME’s still don’t understand Auto Enrolment and 90% haven’t planned for it, communication is clearly failing when it comes to Auto Enrolment.

The new rules regarding workplace pension schemes came into force on the 1st October 2012. Over the next few years all employers will need to comply with the rules or face penalties ranging from £50 to £10,000 per day.

As an employer you are faced with in excess of 200 duties in relation to the planning, implementation and ongoing maintenance of your chosen workplace pension scheme. One of your first duties is explaining auto enrolment to employees – but what’s the best approach?

There is a lot to consider during the build up to Auto Enrolment but first and foremost you have to communicate. You are required by law to write to all workers (except those aged under 16 or 75 and over) about what automatic enrolment into a workplace pension means for them. There are a number of useful resources available, which can be customised to use when communicating with your workers about automatic enrolment, including a set of letter templates, including those produced by The Pensions Regulator (employer letter template tool).

Getting the right message across to workers about this complex subject can have a real impact and there are lots of things you can do in addition to sending the written communication required by law.

Here are some hints and tips for getting the Auto Enrolment message across – keeping it short and simple is key.

The DWP’s guide on automatic enrolment and pensions language will help you provide simple and consistent language about a very complex subject area.

Top five tips for communicating with workers

1. Make sure employees are getting the right message. Making it clear exactly why saving for retirement is important can help engage workers with the subject of workplace pensions.

2. Explain the process and try to cut out the jargon. Workers will appreciate an explanation of what automatic enrolment means for them. For example, information about how much they’ll contribute and when. If possible, provide a diagram or table as a working example.

3. Create a newsletter and update your intranet – keep the message short and simple and again use diagrams to explain the process. Download the links for suggestions of what to put in your newsletter in brief (RTF) or newsletter article (RTF).

4. Text or email – this is a quick way of keeping your team up to date so they know when auto enrolment is happening in your organisation and helps you to keep the team up to date!

5. Posters – putting posters around the workplace is a great way to help raise awareness. The Department of Work and Pensions has some online templates available which can be customised to include your company’s information. Read how to customise and print the posters (PDF) before downloading the poster templates (Word).

Ian Marsh is an employee benefits consultant at Tait Walker Wealth Management, a trading style of Tait Walker Financial Services Ltd who is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority..

For further information visit www.taitwalker.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ian Marsh .