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Benefits

Our goal is to be a company where people aspire to work and never want to leave. To that end, we offer fair compensation and a benefits program that attracts and retains top talent. Full-time employees are eligible for disability coverage, life insurance, health care programs and retirement provisions. We highlight some of our benefits below.

Compensation

The goal of our pay programs is to attract, retain, motivate and reward highly qualified employees. We aim to maintain internal equity while remaining competitive with the external labor markets. This design ensures consistent and nonbiased pay programs.

Under our merit-based process, managers assign individual performance ratings to employees in conjunction with our formal performance-management process. This involves annual written performance appraisals requiring multiple levels of approval. An employee’s individual performance and relative position to the market determines their merit increase.

Health Care Program

Hormel Foods is proud of the health care benefits we provide full-time employees. Affordable and comprehensive, our health care program offers medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage.

Incentive-based Wellness Program

We reward our employees for maintaining a healthy lifestyle through a wellness-incentive program. At our corporate offices, we offer free workout facilities and activities to promote employee wellness, such as health fairs, healthy dining options and group walks.

Resource Service

Employees and their family members are offered access to a free, confidential counseling service. Employees can contact the service for information related to work, home and life issues related to grief and loss, midlife transitions, staying fit after age 50, budgeting, “empty nest” syndrome and retirement planning. The service provides information in many ways — online, via the telephone, through printed materials (tip sheets, booklets, kits) and digital materials (CDs and videos).

Profit Sharing

Hormel Foods established our profit sharing plan in 1938 as a method to return a portion of the company’s profit back to employees either as a payment in cash or as a contribution to the Joint Earning Profit Trust Plan. In fiscal years 2007 and 2008, we shared more than $29 million with our employees.

Flexibility

The company offers flexible work arrangements, which includes flex-time schedules, alternative work schedules, partial work arrangement, telecommuting and a summer hours program. In addition, a phase-back option allows employees to return to gradually working full-time after the birth, adoption or placement of a child in foster care.

Retirement Savings Plans

Hormel Foods employees are eligible for a retirement plan with company contributions. In fiscal year 2008, the company contributed $26 million to its defined contribution plans and maintained its plans on a fully funded basis.

Educational Assistance

Our educational assistance program reimburses eligible employees for undergraduate, graduate and preparatory course fees, books and lab fees.

Adoption Assistance

To assist employees at Hormel Foods who are building a family, the company offers adoption benefits that include financial reimbursement, leave of absence and resource and referral services for up to three adoptions per household during the employee’s tenure with the company.