New evidence on employers’ preparations for auto-enrolment, collected alongside the NAPF’s Annual Survey 2011, shows that:

•  Preparedness for auto-enrolment tends to be polarised: employers either felt prepared across a number of different areas, or unprepared for all of them. Few employers felt prepared in some regards but not in others.
• The vast majority of employers, and particularly the larger ones, know when they have to begin auto-enrolment: 86% of employers with more than 1,000 employees already knew their staging date. 
• The area where employers are currently least prepared is around employee communications: only 13% of employers felt they were prepared in this regard
• 55% of respondents don’t currently auto-enrol any of their staff so would have to start in order to comply.
• 45% of respondents said they would use their current scheme for auto-enrolment compared to 52% last year.
• There was an increase from 4% in 2010 to 11% in 2011 of those who said they would use their current scheme and NEST or another new scheme. There is evidence that, as staging dates approach, employers who previously thought they would use their current scheme for auto-enrolment now plan to use a new scheme instead.