PLANSPONSOR - June/July 2021 - 15

2021 PLAN SPONSOR OF THE YEAR WINNERS | BEST PRACTICES
Corporate 401(k) >$150mm - $300mm
Crate and Barrel Holdings
Northbrook, Illinois
S
ome consumer goods retailers feel it is
enough to provide an average retirement
planning program for employees who stay and
perhaps move into management roles.
Not so at Crate and Barrel Holdings, the
international housewares and decor retailer,
headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. According
to Jeremy Yonan, director of total rewards, Crate
and Barrel has fully embraced its responsibility
to provide substantial and responsive retirement
benefits curated for the retail workforce.
As Yonan explains it, the plan has implemented
all of the progressive design features seen
at the biggest, most sophisticated employers. The
company automatically enrolls all full-time and
part-time associates and automatically increases
everyone's allocation by 1% per year if they save
below 15%. Each year, it re-enrolls participants
deferring 0% back actively into the plan.
Jane Ravey, senior relationship manager
with Empower Retirement, says Crate and
Barrel hired her firm as recordkeeper in July
2019, at which time many of the aforementioned
plan features were added. She says, by this past
December, assets in the plan had increased
from $210 million to $250 million, while the
average participant deferral rate increased from
7.8% to 8.7%. At the same time, the percentage
of participating associates receiving the full
company match increased from 59% to 83%.
According to Ravey, it is clear that Crate
and Barrel aims to support its entire workforce.
" Much of the committee's focus is on helping
those who are underserved and addressing the
needs of the diverse worker population, " she
says. " [This sponsor's] taking care of everyone,
not just one certain segment of higher-compensated
employees. This plays out through its
embrace of education programs, the offering of
financial wellness support and the close tracking
of participant outcomes. "
Crate and Barrel also at the time re-evaluated
its default investment offering, she says.
Defaulted associates now utilize target-date
funds (TDFs) if they are under age 45, while those
older will transition to Empower's Dynamic
Retirement Manager (DRM), which sweeps
the participant into a custom-managed account
program, myFinancial Future, offered through
the plan's adviser, Mesirow Financial. Between
June 2019 and the end of last year, the number
of associates using the plan's various advisory
services had increased from 136 to 3,249.
Reflecting on the experience of operating
a retirement plan through a pandemic and a
global recession, Yonan says it was stressful but
also rewarding. He says the company made it a
priority to communicate clearly all of its benefits
and employment decisions, including a temporary
employer match suspension.
" Early in the pandemic, as the lockdowns
happened and things looked pretty dark, we had
to pivot and ensure that we had the cash flow
[we'd need] to keep our operations going and to
keep people employed, " Yonan recalls. " We told
everyone clearly that we fully intended to reinstitute
the match as soon as possible and that we
would make everyone whole with retroactive,
true-up matching. That was a powerful commitment
and message from our CEO at that time. "
Later in the spring, thanks to the company's
e-commerce business, the cash flow picture
looked much more stable, and Crate and Barrel
soon reinstated its match. In Yonan's view, this
experience actually strengthened his associates'
perception of the retirement program and the
company's commitment to their financial future.
" This level of commitment is special to
see in the retail industry, " says Chris Pohlman,
senior managing director and relationship
manager with Mesirow. The tailored communication
campaigns that Empower supplies are a
big part of the plan's success, he adds.
The plan also recently reduced plan loans
from three to one, but implemented what Yonan
calls an associate support fund: an emergency
hardship loan program for associates, funded by
fellow associates' donations. -John Manganaro
Finalist
Fugro (USA) Holdings
Inc.
Houston, Texas
More on PLANSPONSOR.com/
awards/2021-plan-sponsor-year
Jeremy Yonan,
Director of Total Rewards
" Much of the
committee's
focus is on
helping those
who are underserved
and
addressing the
needs of the
diverse worker
population.
[This sponsor's]
taking care of
everyone, not
just one certain
segment
of highercompensated
employees. "
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June - July 2021 15
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PLANSPONSOR - June/July 2021

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