Press Release

Brakebush Brothers, Inc & Francis LLC Win First-Place Eddy Award for July Wellness Challenge

Issued by Francis LLC

May 2, 2024

In March of 2024, representatives of Brakebush Brothers, Inc., a Wisconsin-based processor of chicken products, and Francis LLC traveled down to Orlando, FL to receive an Eddy Award at the Pension & Investments annual Defined Contribution East Conference.

Brakebush’s July Wellness Challenge brought home a First-Place award in the Financial Wellness category for employers between 1,000 and 5,000 employees, recognizing their excellence in participant financial wellness education.

The keys to success? Integration with other wellness efforts and customization for individual employees.

What was the July Wellness Challenge?

The goal of the challenge was to encourage employees to take steps towards better health in a variety of areas, such as: mental health, physical health, nutrition, retirement plans and financial health. Employees completed specific tasks all designed to provide opportunities to initiate, practice, and adopt healthy lifestyle choices, and were in turn rewarded with a prize at the end of the month for completing the tasks. 

Brakebush offered Francis LLC financial wellness programs to their employees as a part of this challenge, requiring participants to complete three tasks:

1. Participate in a financial planning session with a Francis financial planner.
2. Update 401(k) beneficiary elections.
3. Update life insurance beneficiary elections.

In what ways were employees positively impacted by the initiative?

In response to the promotion, all registrants met with a Francis financial planner or scheduled a session to meet with a planner in the future. They were able to access a confidential, sales-free space where they could discuss all money questions, concerns, and wins with their financial planner.

For the 12-month period ending 8/31/23, there was an incredible 34% increase in the number of employees who met with a Francis financial planner.

Additionally, the campaign was highly successful in encouraging sign-ups for virtual financial planning sessions.

Alex Allen, Corporate Manager of Wellness at Brakebush remarked, “We often have employees who are intimidated by technology so they haven’t taken advantage of virtual financial planning sessions, but…I think this challenge helped employees understand they could meet with [a Francis planner] even when they aren’t onsite.”

What made the July Wellness Challenge initiative successful?

To put it shortly, integration and customization. Financial wellness is not a standalone employee benefit, but rather an integral piece of the larger employee benefit puzzle.

The July Wellness Challenge tasks included a variety of wellness areas and integrated with the existing wellness benefits where improvement was needed. This created a seamless and holistic program, supporting and addressing all aspects of employee wellness. It wasn’t just about money and finances, but it was also about everything that money touches.  

Customization of the initiative was key to its success. Allen mentioned, “We knew that everyone had different interests when it came to health, which is why we offered 25 different tasks for participants to better their health, while also aligning with corporate initiatives, such as: getting more people to meet for financial planning sessions and getting beneficiaries added to the 401k and Life Insurance accounts.”

Lastly, serving Spanish-speaking employees was a priority for Brakebush as a large portion of their workforce is made up of Spanish-speaking individuals. Challenge materials were translated into Spanish and financial planning sessions were offered in both Spanish and English. This customization ensured all employees had access to the wellness resources available.

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