Dawn Food Products

NOMINATOR COMMENTS

Dawn Foods continually implements innovative solutions to help its team members address the risks and challenges they face. Dawn was a pioneer in providing an in-plan lifetime income solution in 2010. Today, approximately, 55% of participants older than age 55 benefit from it. Besides the 401(k), the company offers a range of supplementary benefits such as an online service that prepares estate planning documents, a personal financial coach assigned to each team member, and monthly and other educational communications on various platforms.

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PLANSPONSOR: Please cite any noteworthy initiatives you have taken in the past 24 to 36 months that have produced results to improve your plan, and describe the results.

Dawn Foods: Here are a few of our efforts:

• Student loan matching: We are in the process of implementing a match on student loan payments with a contribution to the 401(k) plan, as was provided for in the SECURE [Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement] 2.0 Act;
• Student loan repayment: We implemented a solution that helps people plan, borrow, repay and save. The average user will save $15,000 in lifetime interest;
• Increased company match: We raised our match to 5% from 4%, effective this January 1.; and
• Re-enrollment: We undertook a plan re-enrollment in 2024, raising the participation rate to 96% from 86%.

To reach all team members—most have no access to a computer at work—with Empower, we did a big campaign last June. Empower started by targeting those not meeting the new match with an email theme of “Not leaving free money on the table.” We followed it up with digital messaging on TV monitors at Dawn locations. The message included a QR code for easy access to their account. We used the same theme in our monthly newsletter. The response rate was 11%, with an average increase of 4.5% from the email. Through internal promotions, 80 other team members increased their contribution rate an average of 1.9%. The program won a MarCom Gold Award in Strategic Communications – Marketing/Promotion Campaign.

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PLANSPONSOR: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Dawn Foods: We follow a rigorous governance process. This addresses the delegation of duties in managing the plan, plus documentation and oversight among all parties involved in managing and maintaining it. We retained UBS Retirement Plan Consulting as a 3(21) nondiscretionary fiduciary adviser to assist the investment committee. Besides aiding in investment and plan reviews, updating and educating newly appointed investment committee members, and benchmarking the plan’s fees and services, UBS periodically conducts a governance audit; this measures the investment process, documents administrative compliance and evaluates participant outcomes.

To foster financial wellness, we partnered with Salary Finance (now FinFit) to enable team members to borrow at affordable rates—instead of cannibalizing their retirement account—and repay through payroll deduction. Since launching FinFit, Dawn has seen the 401(k) loan volume decrease by 40%. With both FinFit and the United Way, we help team members with credit and financial crises. We partner with both Wellthy and Telus to assist with elder care, health care, financial issues, family issues and other challenges.

We support a YouTube channel to provide specialized communications and videos about benefits. Our financial education series teaches children—toddlers to teenagers—about financial literacy, budgeting and personal finance. The channel has had more than 3,000 views and more than 250 subscribers.

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This year, for our Plan Sponsor of the Year profiles, we are publishing Q&As based on the finalists’ applications and nominator comments. Responses are edited and may be paraphrased. In cases where the finalist self-nominated or, on its application, referred judges to the nomination for the answer, we have attributed those nominator answers to the plan sponsor.