Jones said: “Some major employers have found it has taken them two years to respond to their duties, so we need to get people on board as soon as possible. In summer 2014, 25,000 employers are due to start auto enrolling employees via 30,000 PAYE schemes, of which Nest expects to capture 5,000-10,000.”
He said feedback from 60 major early stage employers was that the Nest product was good, they liked its online opt-out feature, its facility allowing employers to assign duties and its 24-hour, 364 day a year UK-based call centre. Nest was also keen to attract the self employed and from January 2013, they would be able to join via the Nest website.
Morrisons’ HR manager, Wendy Taylor, told delegates that the supermarket chain had experienced a trebling in pension uptake since the introduction of auto enrolment .
To encourage greater interest in pensions, the firm introduced a communications programme with the help of TV personality, Alvin Hall, a “saveyourdough” website and a “Top 50 Tips for Money Saving” booklet.
Taylor said the firm had invested heavily in employee engagement in order to prevent a large number of employees having to work past age 65 out of necessity, rather than choice.
