Describing the payroll industry as the ‘fuel in the engine that gets us there', NEST chief executive Tim Jones has called on pension providers, advisers, payroll professionals and government bodies to work together to help employers navigate their automatic enrolment journeys.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals Annual Conference in Wales today (Thursday) he said:
‘NEST has been working closely with large employers for some time now. We know what NEST needs to do, and we are ready. We are also developing our knowledge and understanding of the challenges employers face, and that differs from employer to employer.
‘Over the next 5 years, 1.2 million employers are going to enrol their eligible workers into pension schemes, accounting for 11 million people, and at some stages they will be literally tens of thousands of employers coming into the duties within a period of a few months.
‘At NEST, we're lightening the load by producing a wide range of decision trees, tools and explanatory guides to help employers navigate the complexities of operating an automatic enrolment pension scheme and offering them the guidance to understand what they need to do before they start. We are also reaching out to the advisory and professional communities - there's a big opportunity for professionals to offer support to those employers that want it and to work closely with pension providers.
‘Employers need to understand how much time they need to prepare, what they need to do and what support is available. They need to make sure they are ready to tackle tasks such as their workforce assessments and making regular pension contributions in line with the new requirements. They'll want help, and working with their payroll providers to get their payroll data in good order is an essential part of the solution.
‘We all need to work together to smooth out the inevitable bumps in the road as an implementation of this magnitude moves forward.'
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