NEST is launching new online help for both employers and advisers to navigate their way through automatic enrolment. The website will go live on 6 May 2013.
The new online help includes:
- High-level information on employer duties, including employer guides
- Onboarding guidance to help with employer preparation and online set-up of NEST
- Information on the key tasks of assessment, enrolment, contributions and opt-outs
- Launch of workplace communications materials
- Help and guidance from the employer document library
- Delegated access guidance
NEST has developed the new offering after working with hundreds of employers who are automatically enrolling staff in the first stages of the duties becoming law, and their advisers. As automatic enrolment progresses the number of organisations affected will increase while the size of their workforce will decrease. NEST has adapted their online guides to accommodate this shift, designed to help businesses of all sizes and their advisers.
At a NEST conference today, Tim Jones, NEST's chief executive, said:
‘We’ve learnt a lot about the needs of employers both large and small. We’ve learnt that getting ready to adjust to the new duties takes a lot of time – at least six months and up to 18 months for the largest employers. Some of our employers have reported project times of two years.
‘Employers of all sizes have told us that they worry about extra administration. But it’s the employers who’ve actually been through the process that have given us the clearest view of where the challenges of automatic enrolment really lie.’
The key challenges employers have identified so far are:
- integrating automatic enrolment with payroll
- identifying which workers are eligible for automatic enrolment
- dealing with enrolment issues where there’s a high turnover of staff
- explaining what’s happening to their workers.
Along with the process of enrolling workers, these are the top five challenges faced by employers. Other concerns include managing opt-outs and payroll. Many employers want help with some or all of these aspects.
‘Automatic enrolment is bringing big changes. We want to help make it straightforward wherever we can, and also to work closely with third parties’ said Tim.
‘NEST has been designed specifically for automatic enrolment and is setting standards, for example in investment, communication and governance. We believe we understand the needs not only of the new workers being enrolled, but also their employers.
‘We are ready for the variety and number of businesses we think are headed our way, and will continue to develop our tools and services to reflect employers’ needs and the needs of those that they turn to for help.’
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