Communicating with the Workforce

All employers must write to each employee explaining exactly how automatic enrolment will affect them, employers will do this around the time that they must start automatically enrolling employees (staging date). In many cases this will be done by letter, but some employers may use other methods, such as email.

The precise timing of telling employees about automatic enrolment depends on the size of the business. The largest employers have already started automatic enrolment. The smallest employers are starting between 2014 and 2017.

Employers also have to provide this written information to:

• any new workers who start after automatic enrolment has begun
• any existing workers who weren’t initially eligible for automatic enrolment, but who subsequently meet all the conditions listed in the section above

Employers must inform employees of;

• when they are being enrolled
• who operates the pension they are being enrolled into
• what type of pension it is
• the level of contributions the employee and the employer will pay into the pension
• how to opt out if the employee does not want to join the scheme

If a workplace pension scheme already exists, which meets the necessary criteria of automatic enrolment, employers must notify employees that automatic enrolment does not affect them.

If there is not a pre-existing workplace pension scheme, and employees don’t meet all the criteria to be automatically enrolled, then employers must notify these employees that;

• the employee has the right to join
• whether or not your employer will make contributions on behalf of this employee