Automatic enrolment: the needs of the SME employer

After automatic enrolment was announced, we wanted to find out about how small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) would be approaching automatic enrolment.

Plus, we thought it was important to understand the level of support they would need to comply with their duties.

The research

Research Works Ltd conducted qualitative research, on behalf of B&CE – the provider of The People’s Pension.

Participants

This study involved 50 face-to-face interviews and four focus group discussions between April and May 2015. The sample included:

• SME employers
• business advisers (accountants, payroll professionals and bookkeepers)
• Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs)
• representatives from building federations.

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative research was to understand how SMEs would be approaching automatic enrolment and the level of support they would need to comply with their duties. We used qualitative techniques to explore the full range of views on these issues, and to understand how and why these views were expressed by respondents.

Outcome

The research findings suggested that, as a collective, SMEs don’t have a clear understanding of what automatic enrolment involves. And they want a high level of support.

For SMEs, support was top of their wish list. In fact, support (at sign-up and ongoing) was seen as much more important than cost. Simplicity, a helping hand, and just being there.

Learn more

Download the full ‘Automatic enrolment’ report .pdf »

Read our news article about the ‘Automatic enrolment’ research »