For the larger firms who have already met their staging dates, the opt-out levels have been minimal - most people want to be signed up to a company pension scheme and are happy to be putting money aside for their old age.

But in reality, the first year has been the easy stage. Most big firms have some sort of provision already, or at least have the wherewithal to put money aside, and staff are relatively stable. Many have become accustomed to putting money into a pension, and for them, they will see little difference.

The harder part is what happens next year, when the next group of companies reach their staging dates. The process starts to move down the roll call of smaller firms, many of whom do not have the infrastructure of a pensions department, and for whom putting aside money into a pensions scheme is a novelty.

For them, auto-enrolment presents a real challenge, and is a legal requirement, but despite this there are plenty of examples of these firms being in denial. The impact on financial advisers is already being felt – those who have corporate clients are being snowed under with demands on their time from clients who are in a minor state of panic.

Many fear that there will be a huge bottleneck next year as employers queue up to get their scheme in place, while the providers are showing signs of wanting to cherry pick the best business.

On the upside, advisers expert in the pensions arena could be facing plenty of new business in the coming months - so long as they can manage the workload.

Melanie Tringham is features editor of Financial Adviser

This special report is sponsored by Creative Auto-Enrolment. All editorial is independent.