Speaking at the Pensions Management Institute’s Administration Summit, Wake  told delegates auto-enrolment designs should incorporate a “business as usual”  ethos.

“It is not about staging dates, it is about day in, day out; forever into the  future. You will be doing continual assessment, monitoring, postponement and  continual auto-enrolment coupled with opt-in and opt-out processes,” she  said.

“If you focus on what you are going to be doing long into the future, your  staging date becomes a one-off snapshot of your normal processes. So make sure  you get it right for the future.”

Tesco operates a defined benefit career average revalued earnings scheme for  its 300,000 strong workforce, and became one of the first companies to  auto-enrol workers earlier this year, after using postponement from its 1  October 2012 staging date.

Wake, who is responsible for the company’s auto-enrolment structure, said  schemes should also determine payroll capabilities and its change processes as  well as a clear design and delivery process for communications.

She advised schemes to read the Pensions Regulator‘s guidance first when  trying to break down issues, as well as paying a heavy focus to data.

On data, she added: “Do as much as you can clean up your data in advance of  staging, but remember the business as usual. It is all very well cleaning up in  advance, but what you want is clean data going in every time.”

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