Plan the dive, dive the plan.

This is a little bit leftfield for an article about pensions & auto-enrolment, but I want to talk about scuba diving today.

I’ve had an odd career path, but I started out years ago as a maritime archaeologist and consequently spent a lot of time diving in the UK and the Baltic. Before you ever get near the water for a project, you plan as thoroughly as possible, because once you’re underwater you only have a limited period of time in which to get a lot done. Plus, if you get it wrong there’s a good chance of damaging yourself.

Obviously there are some parallels to auto-enrolment planning. Most employers don’t leave themselves enough time. We recommend six months planning in the lead up to implementing auto-enrolment. We’ve just completed a project for a 700 employee company that staged on 1 November. They were a straightforward client, but the auto-enrolment planning that we did in the first three weeks was crucial. It seemed time consuming and it’s not as exciting as the actions of getting everything done, but it is hugely important to understand how much auto-enrolment will impact on your day to day processes.

There will be a huge amount of work to be done to get ready for auto-enrolment, but take the time to plan what needs to be done and do it properly. Incidentally, the client has said that this was the “smoothest project we’ve ever put in” – it’s all in the planning.

Rob Barksfield

Auto-enrolment Consultant

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7893 3456

Email:  contactus@broadstoneltd.co.uk

Auto-enrolment Isn’t Just For Christmas.

A short one to tide you over until New Year.

Do you know your Staging Date? Great, now you can (almost) forget it again!

In my opinion, Staging dates should be renamed as ‘Starting Dates’.  

So many of the employers that we meet seem to think once they reach their Staging Date and go through the initial auto-enrolment, then that’s the end of it!

If this was the case then things would be simple but unfortunately this is not the case as it kicks off a whole new way of thinking when looking at your internal procedures.

Auto-enrolment and in particular your Staging Date signifies the beginning of changes to each and every one of your company’s future payroll processes and MUST become part of the everyday business as usual process for payroll, HR & finance.  

You  therefore need to appreciate this and in turn have a full understanding of the long term impact of what will be required going forward ensuring you have put in place robust processes to help you manage the correct outcomes to meet the legislative requirements.

Rob Barksfield

Auto-enrolment Consultant

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7893 3456

Email:  contactus@broadstoneltd.co.uk