How Penfold makes pensions hassle-free for JMK Group

“Penfold's API has really helped our payroll management process, saving hours of manual work every week. The support and flexibility Penfold offers is unmatched.”

- Charlotte Barker, Payroll Manager at Jmk Group

Meet JMK Group

Founded over 20 years ago, JMK Group is a payroll provider that offers accountancy and umbrella payroll services. They’ve worked with over 900 recruitment agencies and supported more than 50,000 contractors across industries, including engineering, education, and healthcare.

When JMK hit a technical wall trying to introduce Nest’s API to manage payroll that the pension provider’s support agents couldn’t resolve, the team turned to Penfold for automated pension payroll management. We spoke to Charlotte Barker, Payroll Manager at JMK Group, about her experience.

The issue

JMK’s payroll team was spending a few hours each week manually importing and exporting records. Charlotte recognised that managing payroll through an API would give her team back that time, however, both attempts to set up the Nest API ran into blockers. With little support from Nest, Charlotte put the project on hold:

“With Nest, it was difficult to get hold of someone who could solve your issue.”

However, she and the team were determined to make payroll less manual, so began to speak with other pension providers.

Enter Penfold

After scoping out how the API should work with Penfold’s account management and technical teams, JMK decided to make the switch. Within two weeks the API was up and running, and Charlotte’s team haven’t manually uploaded pension payroll records since. Charlotte says JMK found the Penfold portal:

“much more interactive – with support much quicker if there’s an issue. If we send our account manager, Maria, an email about an issue, she's on it, even if it involves setting up Zoom meetings directly with employees, and if there's something she can’t deal with? She's got a teammate who can help out.”

“There’s a constant flow of conversation with the team,” Charlotte added.

Benefits

“We want to give contractors the best service and pride ourselves on being hassle-free,” says Charlotte. “Now, Penfold is an important part of that: we’ve only received positive feedback so far.”

With Penfold’s app, the contractors that work with JMK can be flexible about how much they want to invest in their pension – and can choose whether to invest in a range of funds, including sustainable and Sharia options. Charlotte has also noticed that more contractors are paying attention to their pension:

“Judging by the number of engaged questions coming my way, this has sparked a new way of thinking about the future. It feels like we're not just ticking a box with pensions.”

Results

As soon as Charlotte’s team switched to Penfold, they saved hours of manual work each week.

Shortly after the initial enrolments, 1,670 workers joined the pension scheme. Now, there are 1,900 people on the scheme, with an additional 700 individuals scheduled to join soon. Charlotte couldn't be more pleased with the response:

“The enthusiasm and uptake have been fantastic and the opt-out rate is very low.”