A five-step guide for small businesses that miss their auto-enrolment deadline has been launched by workplace pensions provider Now: Pensions.

The guide, which also encourages companies to contact The Pensions Regulator for support, is available online and provides a checklist to help them set up a pension scheme.

Now: Pensions said around a third of companies signed up with them for assistance in the first quarter of 2015 did so more than six months ahead of their staging date.

However, a quarter did so very close to the staging date or after the deadline had passed.

Of these employers, 18 per cent contacted NOW: Pensions in the month of their staging date while 8 per cent left it until after their staging date had passed.

Nearly a fifth (16 per cent) took action between one and two months ahead of their staging date, while 12 per cent took action two to three months ahead of staging.

A further 14 per cent signed up with NOW: Pensions between three and six months in advance of their auto enrolment deadline.

"An encouraging proportion of employers are listening to advice and planning ahead to auto-enrolment, but there's no room for complacency as a significant number are still coming on board late or missing the deadline," said Now: Pensions CEO Morten Nilsson.

Further research by Now: Pensions into companies that have yet to stage, revealed that more than a quarter (27 per cent) haven't yet considered how they will find a pension provider, down from 44 per cent in 2014.

Nilsson continued: "As smaller and smaller companies reach their staging dates, the number making provider decisions without advice is inevitably going to grow.

"The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has a duty to support these employers, guiding them to a range of high quality, low cost providers that are happy to accept their business."

First published 16.04.2015

Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com