On the second anniversary of the launch of auto enrolment, new research from Barclays Corporate and Employer Solutions reveals that Britain’s small and medium sized business leaders are assured in their preparation for auto enrolment.

According to the results, three quarters of SME leaders (75 percent ) prefer to control the implementation of new business processes such as auto enrolment, or research it themselves, drawing on professional support where required. This hands-on approach to auto enrolment, with expert input where needed, appears to be serving small and medium businesses well. Of those companies that have already been through auto enrolment, almost one in three (29 percent ) respondents1 sought the advice of a professional, leading to almost two fifths (37 percent ) being ‘completely prepared’ for the process with everything in place ahead of their staging date.

The results reflect recent findings from the Pensions Regulator2 and offer a marked contrast to the predictions of widespread failure amongst SMEs to auto enrol. Despite having fewer resources than larger companies, the research suggests that SME decision-makers are confident in their ability to understand their requirements and make the right decisions, albeit with appropriate expert support in the necessary areas. Furthermore, SME decision-makers approaching their staging date are confident about managing the process, with only 4 percent  of respondents3 feeling that their business is “definitely not ready to stage”.

However, while SME decision-makers collectively show a responsible approach to auto enrolment, there is some concern that a minority may be overly complacent about meeting the requirements. Almost three in ten (29 percent ) SMEs who have not yet staged4 still do not know when their staging date is, and almost a quarter (23 percent ) do “not know anything about the auto enrolment staging process”. Grant Hughes, Head of SME at Barclays Corporate & Employer Solutions, said: “At Barclays we work extensively with entrepreneurs and business owners and regularlyobserve that confident decision-making, sound judgment and financial acumen are behind their success. The same is true of auto enrolment – nobody understands the business’ needs better than those who work within it. That said, we have also seen how easy it is for businesses to underestimate the complexity of auto enrolment and the time it requires and have often found that they need certain support during the process.

“As small and medium companies approach their staging date our research suggests that almost 1 in 105 are struggling to find the appropriate support, advice and information that they need. This is why we have strived to offer a broad range of modular solutions and services enabling small businesses to select the desired expert support in the right areas, helping them to manage the process effectively and get quickly back to the day job. They don’t have to go it alone.” Behind the national picture sits a more nuanced story. At a sector level, SME leaders in ‘IT and Telecoms’ and ‘Finance and Accounting’ appear the most proactive amongst the industries that were surveyed, with eight in ten of those SME leaders (82 percent  respectively) preferring to take control of the implementation or research of new business processes themselves. Furthermore, business leaders in retail are twice as likely as those in manufacturing not to have thought about auto enrolment, with a third (32 percent ) of respondents from the retail industry yet to turn their attention to their staging dates compared to just one in six (15 percent ) of manufacturing-based decision-makers.

Meanwhile, considerable regional variation exists in levels of preparation for auto enrolment. Almost one in three business leaders in Scotland (31 percent )6 have not thought about auto enrolment, compared to just one in five in London (19 percent ). Also, the East Midlands (81 percent ) appears the most assertive in its approach to auto enrolment, with eight in ten decision-makers (81 percent ) opting to research or implement new business processes themselves.

A summary table of sector and regional results: