Nest (National Employment Savings Trust) questioned over 700 firms for the research which took place in February and March. Pension providers and advisers were expected to provide significant help to firms during the auto-enrolment process, especially for smaller firms who may not have large in-house departments to handle the changes.

Over half of employers with less than 5,000 staff expected ‘lots of help’ from their provider while this figure fell to 34 per cent for the largest firms.

Tim Jones, chief executive of Nest, said: “Providers and advisers obviously have a critical role to play in helping employers to understand what roles different schemes can play and how to implement auto-enrolment to suit the needs of their workers.”

The key factors for firms when considering their providers were ease of day-to-day administration and clear communications.

The survey also found over half of the UK’s largest employers, those with over 5,00 staff, had confirmed their providers for auto-enrolment and a further 34 per cent of the largest employers had a ‘good idea’ of what they will do.

Many large employers said they expected Nest to be used alongside their existing pension provision.

Mr Jones said: “That’s one of the roles Nest is intended to play- complementing existing schemes. We are already working closely alongside many of the existing private pension providers and expect that to continue.”

This group was also most aware of the upcoming changes with 97 per cent aware of Nest and recognised several benefits of the scheme.

This awareness was particularly positive as this group of firms will have their staging dates within the first six months of auto-enrolment.