More than half (70%) of respondents have set up a project team for auto-enrolment, up from the 50% that had done so in 2012, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals.
Its second Research paper to understand business readiness for automatic enrolment, published this week, had 95 respondents comprising employers, pension providers and payroll software developers.
The research found that 35% of respondents said their HR department would take the lead on auto-enrolment, while 32% said it would be their payroll department, and 11% said it would be a joint effort between payroll and HR.
It also found that two-thirds (67%) of respondents looked to their HR department to provide the required employee communications.
Nearly half (49%) of respondents said they intend to use specific pension campaigns to increase employee participation in their organisation’s pension scheme.
Karen Thomson, associate director of policy, research and strategic visibility at the CIPP (pictured), said: “It comes as no surprise that organisations are looking at both their HR and payroll departments to take the lead in executing pensions auto-enrolment. But it is reassuring to see that the majority of employers are setting up specific project teams to handle its implementation in which payroll plays a significant role.
“We hope to conduct further research to understand what the first 12 months have brought in respect of lessons learned. But in the meantime, we will continue to work with the government in trying to make auto-enrolment easier for all employers.”