PLANSPONSOR - August/September 2020 - 32

2020 PLAN SPONSOR OF THE YEAR WINNERS
Corporate 401(k) >$1b
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Waltham, Massachusetts
A
s a fast-growing manufacturer of scientific
equipment, Thermo Fisher Scientific
makes products for industries such as life sciences
research and patient diagnostics.
With 92.2% participation, 8.3% average
deferrals and 75% of participants invested in
target-date funds (TDFs), the plan has some
strong data. But the company has embarked
on a targeted communications campaign
aimed at improving that data-and participant
outcomes. " At Thermo Fisher, they're always
asking, 'Is this plan working for everyone?' " says
Francisco Negron, head of client services at the
plan's recordkeeper, T. Rowe Price Retirement
Plan Services in Owings Mills, Maryland.
That question is indeed significant because
much of the company's growth trajectory is due
to acquisitions. How best to integrate these
companies into Thermo Fisher's 401(k) plan
has been a topic of continuing discussion.
" Even in a great-looking plan, if you look
deeper, you can always identify places where
there's room for improvements, " Negron says.
Model for Integrations
Vice President, Total Rewards, Timothy
Coughlin has been at Thermo Fisher for four
years. Over time, he has warmed to the idea of
integrating benefits after making an acquisition.
Thermo Fisher filled about 22,000 jobs
last year, and an integrated benefits approach
makes it easier for employees to transfer from
one area of the company to another, Coughlin
says. " We don't want to turn every transfer into
a business-integration issue, " he says.
So the company has developed an " M&A
[mergers and aquisitions] tool kit " for plan integrations.
The kit includes helpful items such as
a fiduciary checklist, compliance protocol and
benchmarking guidelines. " When I joined the
company, more than two years ago, I wanted
to make sure we have a repeatable model for
integrations and that we leverage the experience
we have, " says Vice President, Global
32 PLANSPONSOR.COM August - September 2020
Benefits, Pascale Thomas. " If you look over the
past 15 years, we've done 45 integrations into our
401(k) plan. "
Thermo Fisher put the tool kit together
between 2018 and 2019, Thomas says. " We
worked very closely with T. Rowe Price to develop
it, so that we're focusing on a key set of considerations
in doing an integration, " she says.
A Strategy 'Grounded in Data'
Thermo Fisher has an overall employee wellbeing
strategy, and this includes a financial pillar
" that we were very keen to pursue, " Thomas says.
So the company decided to work with T. Rowe
Price to closely examine 401(k) plan analytics,
focused on employee engagement with the plan.
Because the Thermo Fisher plan has strong
overall metrics, " it was only through a deep
dive that we've been able to identify pockets of
employees who need additional help, " Negron
says of his company's analysis. The study
pinpointed several groups of employees who
could benefit from targeted education, such
as a percentage who had been automatically
enrolled at 3% and remained there; a pocket of
individuals doing their own, suboptimal investment
allocations; and certain hourly employees
in the 0% to 3% deferral range who needed
motivation to contribute at 6% so they could
maximize the 100% of 6% match.
So last year, Thermo Fisher started rolling
out its communications strategy, targeting
these employee groups. Many of them had
something in common, Negron says. " Usually,
the individuals are the participants who are the
least digitally engaged, so it's more challenging
to communicate with them. We realized we'd
have to do targeted on-site meetings, " he says.
T. Rowe Price uses email to reach out to
these workers. Asked for the most motivational
way to approach hesitant employees, Negron
says, " Provide them with a targeted, personalized
message at the time they're ready to receive
that message. " -JW
Finalists
Bechtel Global Corp.
Glendale, Arizona
Booz Allen Hamilton
McLean, Virginia
Lenovo
Morrisville, North Carolina
More on PLANSPONSOR.com/
awards/2020-plan-sponsor-year
Pascale Thomas, vice president,
global benefits, Thermo Fisher
Scientific
" At Thermo
Fisher, they're
always asking,
'Is this plan
working for
everyone?' "
http://www.PLANSPONSOR.com/awards/2020-plan-sponsor-year http://www.PLANSPONSOR.com/awards/2020-plan-sponsor-year http://www.PLANSPONSOR.COM
PLANSPONSOR - August/September 2020

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