Bonfe’s Plumbing, Heating & Air Service, Inc.

When serving an employee base of field technicians who are often working on residential plumbing, electrical and HVAC jobs—not sitting at a desk or computer all day—to communicate about retirement and financial wellness is no easy task.

But for Bonfe Plumbing, Heating & Air, in South St. Paul, Minnesota, creating a solid retirement plan that automatically enrolls participants at 10% and devising an effective communications strategy have encouraged employees to get more engaged with their retirement saving.

Andy Nelson, human resources manager at Bonfe, says the plan did not start out at a 10% default rate, but grew to that percentage over time.

“At first we had [employees auto-enrolled at 6%], and we thought, ‘Are people going to like this?’” Nelson says. “We didn’t hear a single thing except for positive feedback. When we raised it to 10%, we heard the same stuff: ‘Thank you for doing that. That makes it a lot easier for me.”

Nelson says the HR team communicates with the employees to explain the high deferral, before they are enrolled and also allows participants time to adjust their contributions as needed.

“Overall, our employees really liked the ease of it and not really having to think about it too much,” Nelson says. “If we left it in their hands entirely, they might … forget about it for two months, and they’d miss out on all the money they should have been receiving.”

Matt Voecks, a retirement plan adviser at Pensionmark who works closely with Bonfe, agrees that a 3% deferral rate will not help employees retire and “achieve the retirement they want.” Voecks says the technicians at Bonfe are also compensated well for their job, so a 10% deferral rate is very doable.“There has been a dynamic shift in both the plan and the [company] culture, and, correspondingly, there’s been a positive shift in deferral rates as a result,” Voecks says.

To help keep employees engaged with the plan, Voecks says, Bonfe offers a well-rounded financial wellness program where employees receive monthly articles on various financial topics, as well as an invitation to a monthly webinar where subjects vary from budgeting to Social Security planning.

In addition, employees have access to a mobile app, called the Personal Financial Portal, which allows them to link all of their retirement, investment and savings accounts together. The tracking is not just with the participant’s current 401(k) provider but all their accounts as well, including previous employer 401(k)s or 403(b)s. Voecks says, when participants can see all of their accounts lined up together, it gives them a clearer sense of how much they need to save. Employees can also link their savings, checking and credit card accounts to track spending.

“Because many people aren’t budgeting appropriately, the PFP allows people to automatically track their spending habits,” Voecks says. “Although this is especially important for folks considering retirement, it can be helpful for literally everyone.”

Voecks also periodically meets with employees to discuss specific questions they have about the plan or to help them get enrolled if they are not already.

Looking to the future, Voecks says, Bonfe is considering entering a multiple employer plan. He says the team is evaluating this option as an opportunity to further minimize plan expenses and reduce demands on the company to handle some of the more menial tasks associated with plan operations.

“We have a phenomenal culture, phenomenal trust with our employees[, and there’s a] phenomenal amount of love that the owners and the leadership team give to all the employees,” Nelson says. “The past eight years that I’ve worked with [Voecks] and Pensionmark [have been] amazing, and it’s unbelievable how he’s able to be so involved with us.”

—Remy Samuels