Over the last couple of years on this blog I’ve covered a wide range of issues.  I’ve talked about some of the personal and business financial challenges you might face, shared with you some of the challenges I’ve faced within my business and tried to tell you about some helpful stories about my clients, my friends and my family.

However what I’ve realised in the past couple of months I’ve been talking about one subject far more than anything else. Auto enrolment!

If you’re involved in the senior management, HR function, payroll or pensions department in any business you’re probably aware of the impact auto enrolment will have on your business.

However if you’re not (and we’re having some surprising conversations about individuals in a number of business functions not being aware) you can find some useful information about the potential impact to your business here.

Whilst we’re finding that increasing numbers of key individuals within businesses are now aware of the rules we are finding that many employers (and their accountants, lawyers and existing financial planners) are leaving preparations far too late.

A lot of key individuals in medium sized businesses still believe there’s plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming changes.  However consider this..

I’m writing this on the 22nd July 2013.  The pensions regulator considers a preparation period of 18 months to be sufficient time to prepare and comply with auto enrolment rules.

Based on this amount of preparation time any business who employs more than 58 people should be starting to gear up for the changes now.

Firms who employ more than 62 who have got less than a year to prepare. 

and

Firms who employ more than 90 and less than 160 have 8 months to go.

Based on this you can clearly see on thing. Whilst the impact of auto enrolment up to this stage has been squarely a concern for large employers the impact is quickly shifting towards the SME market.

However during our conversations with fellow fellow financial planners, HR professionals, solicitors, accountants and employers we’re finding that actually employers are not taking the 18 months suggested to prepare.

Instead of doing this (and preparing in plenty of time) we’re seeing employers not even close to being ready even when their auto enrolment staging date is within the next 6 months.

Considering  the penalties (page 17 of this document shows the financial penalties) and the potential damage non compliance can have on a businesses brand and reputation this seems to be a pretty dangerous game to play for any business.

Also, and it’s an issue I talk about in our recently written white paper, there will be increasing amounts of pressure on the key external players involved in auto enrolment compliance including financial planners, pension providers and the outsourced technology solutions who are there to help.

This will mean (and we’re seeing examples of this already) that employers who decide to prepare later during their process will mean that the access they have to the range of support currently available could be more limited.

I’d suggest that employers shouldn’t even consider waiting for that to occur….