Aviva partners with tech start-up on workplace pensions

Aviva, the UK’s largest insurer, has teamed up with HR and insurance tech start-up hibob to help small and medium-sized companies set up their workplace pension schemes.

The hibob platform, which launched in June 2015, simplifies the auto-enrolment process by enabling companies to automatically use their employee information, assess eligibility, plan costs and then feed directly into Aviva’s online system.

From there, a small business owner or their business adviser can complete the auto-enrolment journey, with the whole process taking 15 minutes. hibob clients will also be eligible for a discount on the employer charge with Aviva’s Workplace Pension.

Under auto-enrolment legislation all companies with at least one employee must now offer their staff a pension. More than 500,000 businesses will go through the process in 2017, with the majority of those being smaller companies who are not finding auto-enrolment easy. In Aviva’s 2016 Working Lives report only 24% of small businesses said they found the process straightforward.

Andy Beswick, managing director of business solutions at Aviva, said: "We have integrated our systems to make it as easy as possible for SMEs to set up and manage their workplace pension online. Aviva is committed to being a more digital company and we have already made a huge amount of progress in that area. Working with hibob is a natural step for us. They have a great team with huge ambition, are well funded and are already doing incredibly innovative things to help smaller businesses deal with their HR and People Management responsibilities.

"We will set up a workplace pension for companies of all sizes, including those with just one employee, and we have created a simple online application process. hibob clients will be able to send their data to us and set up their workplace pension in just 15 minutes.

"I'm delighted to be working with a really exciting tech start-up which is changing the way small businesses manage their employees. Aviva and hibob share a vision to reduce the complexity of administration so business owners have more time to actually do business. I’m looking forward to continuing this collaboration so we can build systems that really work for SMEs."

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