Today is Groundhog Day.
If you come from North America you might relate the title to the foretelling of the weather, but for most others the name is synonymous only with the, very funny, Bill Murray film of the same name. And in the film bad-history keeps repeating itself.
It strikes me that this is a rather apt analogy for two different, but related, topics that I have been thinking about recently.
My first topic is the national media focus when it comes to the world of employee benefits. When I entered the industry in the mid-1980’s, it was not uncommon for weeks to pass without company sponsored employee benefits featuring on the national media radar. When they did appear, the most likely topic would be group pension provision.
So what has changed in the almost 30 years since then? Well, rather like Groundhog Day, not much. Pensions remain a staple of media comment, but the vast and important range of other employee benefits are very much the poor relation and receive little attention. This is a sad oversight, and something the industry needs to work hard to change in the next few years.
My other topic? In light of my comments above I feel almost ashamed to admit it’s pensions related - or Auto Enrolment (AE) to be more precise. This week represents the 7th anniversary of my first detailed presentation on the subject of AE. In 2007 I gave a presentation which focused on some of the certainties in the forthcoming legislation, and hedged around those areas which were yet to be clarified.
Roll forward to 2014, and sadly the situation is very similar. Frankly, it never occurred to me that key issues within the legislation would remain in flux even after many employers had undertaken AE compliance. Yet this is very much the case.
So it appears Groundhog Day continues to be a feature of the employee benefits landscape. We can only hope that the 2014 Groundhog will provide a more positive forecast for both topics later today.
Best regards
Steve
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