Avangrid

Brian Williamson (left), Amy Resnick (right); Photo by Matt Kalinowski

Last year, renewable energy company Avangrid, Inc., consolidated its union and nonunion retirement plans into one 401(k) plan, laid the groundwork for the BlackRock LifePath Paycheck fund to become the plan’s default investment and instituted mandatory financial training for nonunion employees. It also implemented a student loan repayment benefit. All were part of the company’s ongoing effort to improve the financial well-being of its workforce.

To address student debt, Avangrid, headquartered in Orange, Connecticut, enlisted the help of its plan recordkeeper, Fidelity Investments, and data analytics/consumer credit reporting firm Experian PLC to gauge interest in a debt repayment program.

A survey revealed that nearly 25% of the employees held student debt—a total of $65.6 million across the group; each individual owed an average of $36,100, says the 2022 analysis.

Avangrid’s survey also found that 63% of respondents were paying off debt for themselves or someone else. Importantly, 57% were interested in employer support for repaying the debt, and over 90% who said they would enroll in an employer student loan repayment program also said they would then up their 401(k) deferrals.

Paul Visconti, senior director of total health and retirement programs at Avangrid, says adding the debt repayment program had multiple goals. Besides to give its nonunion workers some financial help, the sponsor sought to increase saving rates in the 401(k) plan; boost employee attraction and retention; support the company culture of employee advocacy and inclusion; and strengthen employees’ financial security, engagement, motivation and productivity.

Using the debt repayment program can “free up capital for people to pay bills and other necessities, or [build up] emergency savings,” says Brian Williamson, senior director, total health and retirement programs at Avangrid.

In the program Avangrid chose, for each eligible, enrolled employee, the company pays $250 a month via Fidelity’s Student Debt Direct service to the student loan servicer, up to a $9,000 lifetime maximum. A separate Fidelity service, Student Debt Retirement, enables matching, in employees’ retirement account, a percentage of money they pay toward their loan.

The benefit launched a year ago February. As of this February, Avangrid had paid $1,506,750 toward employee loans, and the 700 participating employees had saved approximately $1,781,609 in principal and interest payments.

Last year, Avangrid also started providing mandatory personal finance training for nonunion employees. By year’s end, 5,512 employees had completed it, and 734 more are in the process, Williamson says.

Additionally, Avangrid worked with Fidelity to assess the company’s benefit programs and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for equitability with peer companies. “We’re trying to have benefits that lower-income workers can take advantage of, as well as workers who get paid well,” Visconti says.

—Noah Zuss