Small and medium employers should find our when their new workplace pensions duties begin, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has said.

The regulator's advice came after research showed that many have yet to check when auto-enrolment will affect their business.

Thousands of medium sized employers that are due to stage before August should have in place a suitable pension provider and payroll software, and if not then they are urged to act now to avoid the possibility of enforcement action if they miss the deadline to comply.

According to research into employer awareness and understanding of auto-enrolment, while 82% of small employers are aware of the changes, 47% still don't know when they will need to act.

Just one in four micro employers know their staging date compared with half of small employers and four out of five mediums.

Charles Counsell, TPR executive director of auto-enrolment, said that even though many employers are due to auto-enrol, many still haven't considered what they need to do and by when.

He said: "It really is time to act. Too many employers still think they can leave it as late as possible and don't understand the actions they need to take."

TPR's research also revealed that only 19% of medium employers, 11% of small and 9% of micro-employers think that the process will take more than six months.

Also a majority of medium, small and micro-employers were aware that they needed to provide a pension scheme for auto-enrolment, but the number knowing their staging date remained largely unchanged since the last round of research in the spring of 2013.

First published 11.03.2014

monique_simpson@wilmington.co.uk