Over half, 54 per cent, of small and medium enterprise employers see it as their duty to ensure staff can manage financially in their retirement.

Research conducted Ipsos Mori on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions on small employers (five to 29 employees) and micro employers (one to four workers), which enrolled staff between September 2016 and March 2017, found that employers were typically supportive of having workplace pensions for their staff.

The research found that the positive attitudes of the employers partially contributed to workers staying in their pension scheme when they were automatically enrolled. Eighty-one per cent of employers agree that workplace pensions are a good thing for their workers, and 71 per cent think auto-enrolment is a good thing.

Three-quarters (74 per cent) also viewed workplace pension provision as a social norm, agreeing that it was normal for their staff to have a workplace pension. Two-thirds of employers (65 per cent) agreed it was their responsibility to encourage their staff not to opt out, but a lower proportion (54 per cent) viewed it as their duty to ensure that their staff could manage financially in their retirement.

Hargreaves Lansdown head of policy Tom McPhail said: “Auto-enrolment is working well. Even among the most challenging sector of the employer community, the very small businesses, there’s good support for the policy, the administration isn’t too much of a burden and the employees are staying in their pensions. So far so good.

“There are two big challenges to face next. Firstly we have to put employees in control of their own retirement savings, rather than forcing them to switch to a new pension every time they change jobs. This aspect of the system is madness and runs against the grain of the way people manage their finances. Secondly we have to promote better engagement on the part of employees, encouraging them to take an active interest in their savings; in particular we need to encourage them to think about how much they are saving and where their money is invested.”

In addition, the survey found that The Pensions Regulator was the most commonly cited source of information on compliance (recalled by 35 per cent), followed by accountants or finance firms (33 per cent) and pension providers (15 per cent). Accountants or finance firms were also the most common source of guidance (used by 49 per cent) when choosing a pension scheme. Three in ten employers each approached TPR (27 per cent) or pension providers (also 27 per cent) for such guidance. The vast majority of small and micro employers complied with the requirement to write to their workers informing them of automatic enrolment – just one in five (18 per cent) said they did not send any form of written communication (emails or letters) to staff.

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