NACCO Natural Resources

NACCO Natural Resources, whose origins were in coal but that, through the years, evolved to include mineral management and small appliance manufacturing, has a history of working with returning seasonal employees. This is why it only seemed right to expand its 401(k) eligibility to those dedicated workers, according to Sarah Fry, vice president, associate general counsel, and assistant secretary at the company.

“We have seasonal employees who’ve been working for us year after year, but they weren’t eligible to participate in our plan; that did not seem to fit with our culture,” Fry says. “We really want people to be able to save for a secure retirement.”

Some seasonal and part-time employees had specifically requested these retirement benefits, as they already received other full-time benefits from the company, Fry says.

In 2019, NACCO expanded eligibility to its part-timers, which make up 0.5% of the employee base. And, in 2020, it widened it further to include seasonal and temporary employees. Two years ago, that latter group joined the rest of NAACO’s employees in receiving the matching contribution—100% of the first 5% of eligible employee contributions—which is immediately vested. 

Although these changes coincide with the SECURE [Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement] 2.0 Act providing for part-time workers to access retirement plans, NACCO has “gone above and beyond to support employees’ retirement readiness by eliminating the ‘500-hour minimum’ and ‘consecutive years’ conditions required under [the law],” explains Matt Brancato, chief client officer for Vanguard’s institutional investor group.

NACCO also offers a mandatory profit-sharing contribution each year of 6%, given to both full- and part-time employees. This contribution vests over five years. Moreover, NACCO pays all the plan’s administrative fees to avoid burdening employees with the cost.

To further help with the achieving of retirement goals, NACCO has implemented several changes this year including re-enrollment sweeps and automatic escalation, following its rollout of automatic enrollment several years ago. 

The company ran three re-enrollment sweeps for participants in the first quarter of this year, propelling hundreds into the automatic annual increase, raising the savings rate for those who were deferring less than the company match, and re-enrolling eligible participants, Brancato says. The automatic annual increase was added this year as the sponsor’s default option for all new participants.

Fry notes that, with the recent re-enrollments, participation climbed to 99%, up from 98% at year-end 2023.

Now the challenge is to get the remaining employees onboard the plan. Luckily, Fry says, long-tenured employees at NACCO are some of the plan’s best spokespeople and they encourage new hires to enroll. “It’s a good type of peer pressure,” she jokes.

For NACCO’s part, the company works with Vanguard and Oswald Financial to educate participants about the plan’s offerings. NACCO distributes a weekly newsletter to all staff members, which includes wellness information and links to Vanguard’s webinars on financial health. 

Last year, Vanguard sent more than 12,000 personalized messages to NACCO employees, on topics including investing and saving, account maintenance and total financial well-being. 

In the past 12 months, 84% of employees who are active in the plan took steps to improve their retirement readiness. “Most of these were savings-related actions,” Brancato observes.

In fact, nearly 40% of active plan participants have increased their payroll deduction over the past 12 months, he says, adding, “NACCO’s high-touch approach makes a difference.”

—Corie Hengst