Speaking to delegates at the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition, Martin Ferber, recently retired HR director at Pfizer, said: "Pensions were an attractive perk and the state pension was good - but this has collapsed over the past two years."
The panel of experts including Ferber, Sandy Wilsonhead of the performance and reward team at Co-Operative Financial Services, Steve Rumbles, head of UK defined contribution pensions at BlackRock, and the CIPD's reward specialist Charles Cotton discussed the issues arising from new pensions legislation coming into effect in 2012.
The changes mean employers will have to either auto-enrol staff into an existing pension scheme or into a new personal account provision, where they must contribute 3% of staff salary.
But Ferber said: "This Government has been avoiding the issue but the next Government will need to have an overarching interest in occupational pensions. We have had 15 years of interference in pensions with unintended consequences and layers of legislation. Auto-enrolment is a good idea but it needs to be simple."
Rumbles added: "The Government must launch a massive campaign to promote auto-enrolment as big as ‘Don't drink and drive' or it will appear to employees as just another tax coming out of their salary."
But Wilson believes the new legislation will give HR an opportunity to make its mark on pension strategy. He said: "There is a big opportunity for us to admit we are not pensions experts - but HR can get involved with pension consultants and experts and take part in a huge educational piece."
