Early birds lead the way as NEST hits 100K milestone

In life we all love to celebrate those milestone moments. Whether that’s an age milestone such as the big 3-0, celebrating getting on the property ladder, or welcoming a new baby into the world.  At NEST we have hit one of those milestones. We now have 100,000 employers who’re using our pension scheme to comply with their auto enrolment duties.

 This is a fantastic achievement which deserves recognition to all those that have helped us along the way. This extends way beyond the team at NEST and our scheme administrator TCS. Advisers, accountants, independent financial advisers and payroll providers have all played a vital role.

However, without meaning to sound like a party pooper, it’s important to remember that auto enrolment still has quite a way to go. Over the next couple of years a staggering 1.8 million employers are set to meet their duties. To date, just under 6 per cent of employers have set up their auto enrolment workplace pension scheme. 

 Let’s put this into context. Imagine we’ve hired Manchester Arena to hold an auto enrolment ‘party’ for all those that have staged so far. There are 21,000 seats in the arena, 1,235 seats are filled but 19,765 are currently empty.

 Now let’s take a look at who’s here. Interestingly, as with all parties, we’ve found at NEST that there are different types of auto enrolment ‘party goer’. There’s the early bird, who’s first on the scene, they’ve been planning for this party for months. And, they’re not leaving anything to chance. They’ve worked out how they’re going to get there, they’ve brought a spare stool in case things don’t go as planned during ‘musical chairs’, and they’ve brought a gift that’s been wrapped with care and attention. Then there are the people who arrive pretty much on time, their present may not be quite so beautifully wrapped (or may even still be in the bag it came in) but it’s still a great gift. Then there are the late comers. We all have friends like this. You know the ones. The ones that arrive as the party’s finishing, because they turned up at the wrong address or missed the train.

 In the auto enrolment ‘party’ so far, the good news is that we’ve got a lot of early birds. This is a great sign that employers are engaging with their auto enrolment obligations and preparing in advance, well ahead of their staging date.

And, as with all good hosts, we’ve been playing a key role too working hard behind the scenes to make sure our ‘party goers’ are happy. For auto enrolment, this means making the process as easy and straightforward as possible, even for those that leave things to the last minute.

Innovations such as NEST Connect and NEST web services, along with support from third parties, are key to helping us safe guard the continued success of auto enrolment and ensure that NEST continues to provide a high quality service when volumes ramp up. So far a typical busy day sees around 850 employers signing up to NEST and we estimate that this number will rise.

A key part of our role is also about ensuring accessibility. NEST was put in place to ensure that all employers had access to a quality scheme. That’s why we have a public service obligation to accept any employer that chooses to use us to meet their auto enrolment duties. Being free for employers to use is vital. This ensures there aren’t barriers to entry or extra costs that many smaller employers wouldn’t be able to afford.

Along with other auto enrolment providers and organisations helping employers, we’re proud of what’s been achieved so far. Working together, I’m confident that auto enrolment will continue to be implemented successfully. NEST will continue to work hard to ensure everyone can join in the auto enrolment ‘party’, without bouncers or entry fees.