First Manchester Friends of Auto Enrolment Meeting

On Thursday 5th February the first ever Manchester Friends of Auto Enrolment meeting took place. The event was hosted by Avensure's Ronnie Wainwright and IRIS' Zoe Colver in the centre of Manchester at City Tower. The event was a fantastic success with an attendance of 19 members, spanning various industries such as payroll software companies, business advice and business law consultants.

Speaking at the event were different professionals giving an insight into their take on auto enrolment, how it was affecting their business and the ways in which they had overcome these issues.

These insights were especially useful for those in the room that were part of companies that had yet to stage and were using the opportunity to attend as a way to gain vital information from those who had "been there, done that".

One of the elements that was found to be extremely important was that attending the group automatically meant that you were enrolled as a member of the Friends of Auto Enrolment. The benefits of becoming a member of the Friends of Auto Enrolment group is that you can gain advice and guidance on a number of issues surrounding the workplace pension reform, receive regular update emails from industry professionals and have access to insights from likeminded individuals.

Those that attended were extremely welcoming of the idea that this would be one of many of Friends of Auto Enrolment meetings in Manchester with further dates being scheduled for the first Thursday of every month. This will give future members a great opportunity to become speakers or even hosts of events, contributing to the information sharing and the "collaboration catalyst" element of the setup.

Topics that were discussed at the meeting were varying from the ways that companies should deal with the business and contract law surrounding the topic of auto enrolment to the opportunities that can be created by it.

A clouded Manchester skyline with distant snow dusted hills was the backdrop for the first Manchester Friends of Auto Enrolment meeting.

Frank Dixon, Managing Director of the Workplace Advice Group kicked us off with a talk around how his business helps others deal with auto enrolment. 

Hosted by Avensure, Ronnie Wainwright gave a talk on the implications of auto enrolment on employment law implications.

Andy Agathangelou, Founding Chair of the Friends of Auto Enrolment & Chair of the Pensions BIB from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals came to talk about the developments of the PAPDIS (Pensions and Payroll Data Interface Standard).

Finally, Rebecca Woodley, Industry Liaison Manager came in from The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to talk to us about the latest updates and information from TPR. Watch this space!

The meeting was a great success and the hope now is that the word will spread, leading to bigger (and better) Manchester Friends of Auto Enrolment events in the future!

If you would like to become a part of the Manchester Friends of Auto Enrolment group, visit our LinkedIn page to find out about future events.