Pensions and benefits consultancy Punter Southall says companies with between 250 and 2,000 employees need to prepare now for auto-enrolment for staging dates staggered over the next six months.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics show there are 7,300 companies and enterprises of this size across the UK with a combined total of 4.35m employees.
Punter Southall’s Head of Defined Contribution Consulting, Alan Morahan, warned that some companies are not acting quickly enough, despite a barrage of publicity as larger companies auto-enrolled earlier this year.
Launching an auto-enrolment toolkit to help small and medium-sized employers, Alan said: “Payroll, finance and HR managers know this is coming but, in our experience, some still don’t appreciate how much work is needed and the time it takes. We are worried that smaller companies are not ready and will be caught out.
“Six months might seem like plenty of time but you need to be in action now to ensure you are able to auto-enrol your employees into a qualifying pension scheme. This is a legal obligation and there are serious consequences in terms of reputation and fines if you don’t comply.
“We take a practical view. We offer a guide and associated checklists if employers want to go through the required steps by themselves. We can also offer follow-up workshops and tailored consultancy to help them take the right path through what can be an unfamiliar and bewildering process.”
Alan added that his team had helped a range of employers, from manufacturers to retailers and service companies, navigate auto-enrolment.
Slough Community Leisure’s HR Director, Jennifer Blackburn, said: “Punter Southall’s auto-enrolment guide resolved a number of the burning issues and questions that we had and the checklists will enable us to plan more effectively for our staging date.”
Jennifer added that her organisation is one of 36 not-for-profit sport and leisure trusts which have banded together to set up a single auto-enrolment scheme. They are all part of The Sports and Recreation Trust Association which appointed Punter Southall to advise them on the scheme to benefit from economies of scale.
In addition to the toolkit, Punter Southall recently announced a partnership with Standard Life which enables small and medium-sized companies to benefit from an exclusive, packaged solution for auto-enrolment.
“We recognise that SME’s face a considerable challenge in complying with auto-enrolment legislation and we now have a range of solutions designed to help them.” said Alan.
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