Here are some pointers for you to take to your clients, depending on the profile of their schemes.

All your schemes

One of the first decisions employers will have to make is to decide between providing a private pension scheme or using the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST). Although the details of the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) haven't been finalised, we know what the basic outline will be. Read our Private pension schemes versus NEST sales aid to get up to speed with the main differences.

Employers will want to know if their current scheme is a qualifying scheme and/or an automatic enrolment scheme. You can use our Qualifying scheme and auto-enrolment scheme tool to check the criteria, but here's a quick summary of an auto-enrolment scheme. The scheme must:

• be a registered occupational or a registered personal pension scheme (this includes a stakeholder pension scheme)
• have employers' agreed contributions of at least 3% of the jobholders' qualifying earnings
• have total employers' and jobholders' agreed contributions of 8% of the jobholders' qualifying earnings (including tax relief)
• not require members to have to do anything to join or make any decisions (for example, choosing an investment fund) or provide any information to remain active in the scheme
• allow enrolment, auto enrolment and auto re-enrolment

Schemes with low take-up rates

You're likely to have many clients whose pension scheme membership will need to increase significantly. Some employers have different schemes with different take-up rates and/or in different locations. Review these and determine the potential number of eligible employees for each scheme. Here are a number of things you can do to support employers to increase their take-up:

• Review their induction process for new employees, placing greater emphasis on the value of saving for retirement.
• Review their joining approach.
• Initiate discussions around how employers can have a greater ongoing involvement in the running of their pension scheme.
• Run a pension awareness campaign.
• Change contracts of employment for new employees.
• For contract-based schemes*, you can propose hosting pension seminars for members and potential members to give them more information about their plan, and get them to sign a register stating that they agree to be enrolled into the pension scheme.

A good communication programme will reinforce the importance of retirement planning and encourage employees to join the scheme and/or increase their personal contributions. We have a wide range of material you can mix and match to raise awareness and knowledge, as well as sample communication plans to help your clients promote their scheme. Order the support online.

*Currently, trust-based occupational pension schemes can introduce auto-enrolment. However, this isn't an option for contract-based plans because current legislation prevents it. Once the auto-enrolement legislation is introduced, contract-based plans can be used for auto-enrolement.

Multiple schemes

You could review the entire pension package of those employers with several pension plans in place. Think about:

• who the plans are aimed at
• what their objectives are
• the contribution rates and structure
• what the benefits are
• the take-up rate
• the turnover rate

These employers are likely to have different types of workers with varying levels of employee turnover, contributions and commitment to the pension scheme. You should help them identify the criteria for segmenting their workforce and encourage them to start work on improving employee records.

You will be allowed to have a waiting period of up to three months. So you can implement a waiting period rather than having to automatically enrol jobholders on the day they become eligible - say when they join employment or turn 22.

Implementing waiting periods means you don't have to auto-enrol workers in- if they have very short contracts or have a high turnover rate, only to have to refund contributions if individuals have left employment during the opt-out period.

Jobholders, however, can opt-in during the waiting period. If they opt-in, the minimum contribution has to be paid.