Business leaders must make sure all employees have a workplace pension, urges Theo Paphitis.

Back in 2012, I helped launch the Government’s workplace pension scheme.

Five years on, we’ve come a long way. More than 8.7 million people across the UK have been enrolled into the scheme while they work.

Before this, having a workplace pension used to just be for those earning high salaries or fortunate enough to work for a firm that offered them.

“The system behind this success story, called automatic enrolment, is a no-brainer. When you pay in, your boss pays in”

But the system behind this success story, called automatic enrolment, is a no-brainer. When you pay in, your boss pays in.

Staff who work for Ryman, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue stores across the country all have the ability to receive contributions from us when they save into this scheme.

They know that having a workplace pension on top of the state pension can help to build savings for their retirement. Just putting a little away now when you are young means you will have more in your retirement.

No-one should get left behind

I know people across the country are already doing this, but it’s important that no-one gets left behind. We need to get even more people into the habit of saving early for retirement.

That’s why I’m backing the Government’s new campaign which is encouraging more people to save and explains the responsibilities that businesses have.

In the past few months, thousands of smaller business owners have started to offer a workplace pension for the first time. A further 400,000 newly formed and existing employers will enrol their staff between now and March next year.

I urge any business owners who are not already providing a workplace pension to check out www.gov.uk/workplace-pensions for more details, so that they can join and help their staff benefit.

After all, a happy staff is a motivated staff. Together, we can help to get even more of the UK saving.