McDonald’s Recognized for its Strong Benefits Programs and “Compelling” 401(k)

HR Policy Vice Chair Rich Floersch, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at McDonald’s, spoke at the White House Summit on Financial Capability and Empowerment last week on a panel of business leaders who described their trend-setting initiatives in promoting financial literacy.  Floersch was joined on the panel by Mike Coffey, Senior Vice President for Compensation & Benefits at AT&T, and Victoria Dinges, Vice President of Corporate Relations at Allstate, and each panelist discussed how their company strives to empower their employees and reach them in unique ways.  Floersch explained how McDonald’s has achieved a wildly successful 401(k) plan, with 98 percent participation for restaurant managers and above.  This broad coverage is the result of several initiatives:

• Automatic enrollment;
• A unique and generous, front-end loaded match, which provides for an employer contribution of 3 percent for the first 1 percent contributed by the employee and increases to a 11 percent employer contribution for employee contributions of 5 percent;
• Multi-layered communication approaches to targeted affinity groups;
• Educational seminars on topics ranging from retirement to investment advice; and
• Permitting only one loan at a time from the plan. 

Floersch is advocating a more active role for HR in helping employees plan for the future and providing employees access to the right kinds of information.