Get ready for auto enrolment

Your employer duties will begin as you employ your workers, although you can put off automatically enrolling your staff by up to three months if you need to. You will have to write to them to let them know.

Now is also the time to talk to your payroll supplier, accountant or financial adviser and see if they can help.

You’ll need to make some decisions about how you want to manage your scheme, such as:

• what you’ll pay into your workers’ pots – see more about contributions
• if you want to use a waiting or postponement period
• how you’re going to set up and use your account, and if you want someone to do this for you

You may want to ask your payroll supplier, accountant, financial adviser or bookkeeper if they can:

• assess your workers for you
• use Nest’s web services to seamlessly send data to Nest
• create statutory communications
• help you set up your scheme or run the account for you

You may also want to think about making any necessary changes to your in-house business processes or systems to meet the new duties. Check to make sure you have:

• a process in place to assess your workforce
• communications ready to give to your workers
• a way to collect accurate information about your workers, including their National Insurance number and full home address
• payroll and data processes that are compatible with Nest’s data formats
• training for the people who’ll manage Nest for you
• a way to keep records of certain events from your pension scheme

You’re required by law to let your workers know about their pension rights. You also need to tell them if you plan on using a waiting period before you start auto enrolment.

We’ve prepared communications guidelines to help you with this. It includes template letters with all the information you have to give your workers. There are also decision trees to help you work out which information you need to give each worker.

Check Nest’s communication guidelines and templates

Our handy form Information you need to set up Nest (PDF) helps you gather everything together in one place before you get started.

You can start setting up Nest online at any time.

Remember, you haven’t completed the online set-up process until you’ve clicked ‘Done’. We’ll send you a confirmation email when you’re up and running.

Check you’ve got everything you need and test your systems to see if they’re working properly. It’s important to be ready to send contributions before your duties apply and avoid late payments. For more information on making contributions visit our help centre.

If you're sending files directly to Nest and not through your payroll software you can save time by using the Nest file tester to make sure your files are compatible before you send them to us.