British SME decision-makers seek to take control of auto-enrolment process
On the second anniversary of the launch of auto-enrolment, new research from Barclays Corporate and Employer Solutions reveals that Britain’s small and medium sized business leaders are assured in their preparation for auto enrolment.
According to the results, three quarters of SME leaders (75%) prefer to control the implementation of new business processes such as auto enrolment, or research it themselves, drawing on professional support where required.
This hands-on approach to auto-enrolment, with expert input where needed, appears to be serving small and medium businesses well. Of those companies that have already been through auto-enrolment, almost one-in-three (29%) respondents sought the advice of a professional, leading to almost two fifths (37%) being completely prepared for the process with everything in place ahead of their staging date.
The results reflect recent findings from the Pensions Regulator and offer a marked contrast to the predictions of widespread failure amongst SMEs to auto enrol. Despite having fewer resources than larger companies, the research suggests that SME decision-makers are confident in their ability to understand their requirements and make the right decisions, albeit with appropriate expert support in the necessary areas.
Furthermore, SME decision-makers approaching their staging date are confident about managing the process, with only 4% of respondents feeling that their business is definitely not ready to stage.
However, while SME decision-makers collectively show a responsible approach to auto-enrolment, there is some concern that a minority may be overly complacent about meeting the requirements. Almost three-in-ten (29%) SMEs who have not yet staged still do not know when their staging date is, and almost a quarter (23%) do not know anything about the auto enrolment staging process.
Grant Hughes, head of SME at Barclays Corporate and Employer Solutions, said: “At Barclays we work extensively with entrepreneurs and business owners and regularly observe that confident decision-making, sound judgment and financial acumen are behind their success. The same is true of auto-enrolment – nobody understands the business’ needs better than those who work within it. That said, we have also seen how easy it is for businesses to underestimate the complexity of auto-enrolment and the time it requires and have often found that they need certain support during the process.
“As small and medium companies approach their staging date our research suggests that almost one in 105 are struggling to find the appropriate support, advice and information that they need. This is why we have strived to offer a broad range of modular solutions and services enabling small businesses to select the desired expert support in the right areas, helping them to manage the process effectively and get quickly back to the day job. They don’t have to go it alone.”
Behind the national picture sits a more nuanced story. At a sector level, SME leaders in it and telecoms and finance and accounting appear the most proactive amongst the industries that were surveyed, with eight-in-10 of those SME leaders (82% respectively) preferring to take control of the implementation or research of new business processes themselves. Furthermore, business leaders in retail are twice as likely as those in manufacturing not to have thought about auto enrolment, with a third (32%) of respondents from the retail industry yet to turn their attention to their staging dates compared to just one in six (15%) of manufacturing-based decision-makers.
Meanwhile, considerable regional variation exists in levels of preparation for auto enrolment. Almost one in three business leaders in Scotland (31%) have not thought about auto-enrolment, compared to just one-in-five in London (19%). Also, the East Midlands (81%) appears the most assertive in its approach to auto enrolment, with eight-in-10 decision-makers (81%) opting to research or implement new business processes themselves.
