Workplace pensions - make a positive impression

The current advertising campaign by the government suggests that many employers are still ignoring the Workplace Pension. With the majority of salon businesses having a staging date or go live sometime in 2016 salon management consultant, Ryan Fox, recommends taking a proactive approach and using it as opportunity to reward and motivate your team. We are now entering the busiest time ever for the setting up of Workplace Pensions. At its peak there will be 100,000 small companies a month going through the process, many of whom will need help and assistance to ensure they get it done on time. Because of all the publicity, workers will be asking what’s happening and how it affect them so you need to know what to tell them and how you are going to deal with your employer Auto Enrolment duties which are a legal requirement. Take Action Leaving it to the last minute is an option but there is a lot to think about and with so many small companies going through the process at the same time, you may find it difficult to get help when you need it as advisors will be extremely busy. If you do leave it, it will be like trying to get an appointment on the last Saturday before Christmas in your salon! Where to start Most salon owners will have already been written to by The Pensions Regulator asking them to nominate a contact and advising them of their staging date; this is a date specific to your business by which you need to have everything in place so you can start enrolling your workers. If you don’t know yours yet, you can find this out by entering your PAYE reference number into The Pensions Regulator site. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions You need to decide which pension product you are going to use first. You could pay for advice, which can be costly or you could do it yourself using one of the free workplace pension products on offer such as NEST (National Employment Savings Trust) for example, which is a not for profit pension scheme set up by the Government and is specifically designed for employers to use to comply with automatic enrolment. What’s involved? You will still need someone to do much of the work to set up and administer your scheme on an ongoing basis, however. An initial assessment of your workforce needs to be carried out and choices need to be made about which method you will use to calculate contributions. Contributions then have to be built into your payroll and calculated every pay cycle. You will also need to communicate what you are doing to your workers, which is a legal requirement and must be done in a certain way. All this can be done either by someone in your company or can be outsourced to an advisor or consultant. Staff Loyalty  We all know how difficult it can be attract and retain good salon staff. Presenting your Workplace Pension as a great benefit can help you attract the right team members and is an ideal opportunity to reward existing staff loyalty, show you care about their long term future and remind them they are in the right job. Make it a Positive Experience  You have to communicate what you are doing to your team by law but why not turn it into an opportunity to look at the bigger picture of staff performance, motivation, rewards and benefits. For most salon staff it will be a highly positive thing for them to have a Workplace Pension as, until now, having a pension that your boss pays into has been way out of their reach. If you focus on the positive aspects that the additional benefits will bring then it is sure to motivate and encourage good performance, which will in turn help to grow the overall salon income. Timing With Christmas almost upon us, now is probably not the time to start this (unless you are staging early next year!) but January will be. So put a note in your diary now to look at this first thing in the New Year, as this will be an ideal time to give the team a well-needed boost! Ryan Fox is a hair and beauty salon consultant who improves salon performance through training and innovation.www.umbrellaconsulting.co.uk