Case Study: Gibraltar Employers - Don’t delay establishing your employees’ pension plans

January 17, 2024

Providing a Pension Scheme in Gibraltar

The Private Sector Pensions Act signalled a significant change to the employee benefits landscape in Gibraltar when it introduced the concept of Auto Enrolment back in 2021. While ‘Enterprise’ (251 or more employees) and ‘Large’ (101-250 employees) sized companies in Gibraltar are now legally obliged to offer a pension scheme to their employees, those with 100 or less employees have a little longer to get organised.

The next deadline on the horizon, for ‘Medium’ employers (51-100 employees) is July 2025. This category accounts for a significant chunk of businesses in Gibraltar.

'In that case, we don't need to worry about it just yet...do we?'

While you may consider the 2025 deadline to be a long way off, it is important to act sooner rather than later. Failing to offer a strong benefits package may put you at risk of losing your competitive edge as an employer, potentially impacting on both recruitment and retention.

The misconception of many business owners and HR Managers is that the process of introducing an employee pension scheme for their local and / or cross-frontier workers will be costly and time consuming. Let me assure you that it doesn’t need to be that way!

To illustrate this, here is a brief case study on a Gibraltar business. If this makes you think, please do get in touch for a no obligation chat about the options available to you.

Background

Olivia is responsible for Human Resources and Employee Benefits, among other things, at a Gibraltarian company. Originally established ten years ago with just three employees, the company has grown steadily and now employs 50, with further predicated growth in the next 12 months.

Dilemma

The anticipated growth of the business means that the company will be subject to the Gibraltar auto-enrolment program effective July 2025. It therefore must ensure it is able to offer its employees the option to join a pension scheme from this date. Given the anticipated administrative burden associated with establishing a pension scheme and with the deadline over a year away, the company does not plan to allocate resources to this until later this year.

In the meantime, Olivia is busy recruiting for several newly created roles to support the continued growth of the company; one of which is a Team Leader role. She recently made a job offer to an excellent candidate for the role. However, the competitive salary, attractive working environment and hours offered to the candidate were turned down.

Why? While the candidate was interested in the role and happy with the salary, another employer had offered additional benefits…including a pension plan.

Oliva raises this with her Director. She proposes to look into introducing a pension scheme to prevent this scenario from reoccurring with other prospective candidates – and importantly to ensure retain of their current workforce.

Solution

Olivia speaks to Boal & Co about its Gateway pension plans and is pleasantly surprised by the straightforward process and cost-effective solutions offered.

The team at Boal & Co guide her through the set-up and administration of the scheme which is surprisingly seamless from start to finish and requires very little admin from Olivia’s side.

Boal & Co deliver a presentation to the employees to explain the plan, outline its benefits and even provide pre-filled application forms to make the application process easy as possible for each employee. The investment options and range of risk-rated funds managed by BlackRock (a leading global asset manager), are explained in a way that is simple to understand.

Olivia is pleasantly surprised that her ongoing administrative requirements for the pension scheme will be easily manageable, amounting to a monthly deduction from payroll (which can be automated) a monthly report of the amount paid for each employee and a notification of any new joiners and leavers.

Conclusion

The process is so quick and easy that the pension plan can be set up in time for the following month’s payroll and the employees (including several cross-frontier workers) are delighted. Olivia and her colleagues are pleasantly surprised to learn that their pensions from previous employment may also be moved into the scheme, resulting in a consolidated, inexpensive, modern and flexible pension plan – ultimately making life easier and cheaper for the pension scheme members (employees).

When the next candidate interviewed for a vacancy asks, ‘I assume there is a pension plan?’, Olivia is pleased to share the attractive plan which results in the acceptance of an offer.

By setting up a Gateway pension plan for the employees, Olivia has ensured that the company is fully compliant with the auto-enrolment program well in advance of the deadline.

Gateway

While this case study is (somewhat) fictional, it is a genuine illustration of the process. If you are a Gibraltar business wishing to offer a quality, cost efficient plan to your local and / or cross frontier employees with little administrative burden, we can certainly help.

Boal & Co’s Gateway pension schemes offer various options for Gibraltar employers looking to provide pension benefits to their employees to comply with the Gibraltar Private Sector Pension Act 2019.

Learm more about Gateway for Gibraltar employers

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This case study is based on Gateway (a pension plan specific to Gibrlatar). However, we have options for employers anywhere in the world – explore our website or get in touch to find out more.