Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

12. Employee Benefit Plans

401(k) Savings Plans

The Firm maintains various qualified defined contribution 401(k) retirement savings plans for eligible employees. Assets of these plans are held in trust for the sole benefit of employees and/or their beneficiaries. Employer matching contributions are discretionary and are funded annually as approved by the Board. Kforce accrued matching 401(k) contributions for continuing operations of $2.1 million and $1.9 million as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Kforce’s employee stock purchase plan allows all eligible employees to enroll each quarter to purchase Kforce’s common stock at a 5% discount from its market price on the last day of the quarter. Kforce issued 17 thousand, 15 thousand, and 19 thousand shares of common stock at an average purchase price of $63.37, $51.10 and $29.43 per share during the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. All shares purchased under the employee stock purchase plan were settled using Kforce’s treasury stock.

Deferred Compensation Plans

The Firm maintains various non-qualified deferred compensation plans, pursuant to which eligible management and highly compensated key employees, as defined by IRS regulations, may elect to defer all or part of their compensation to later years. These amounts are classified in Accounts payable and other accrued liabilities if payable within the next year or in Other long-term liabilities if payable after the next year, upon retirement or termination of employment, in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. At December 31, 2022 and 2021, amounts related to the deferred compensation plans included in Accounts payable and other accrued liabilities were $4.1 million and $4.1 million, respectively, and $36.4 million and $42.6 million was included in Other long-term liabilities at December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. For the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we recognized compensation expense for the plans of $0.5 million, $1.1 million and $1.0 million, respectively.

Kforce maintains a Rabbi Trust and holds life insurance policies on certain individuals to assist in the funding of the deferred compensation liability. If necessary, employee distributions are funded through proceeds from the sale of assets held within the Rabbi Trust. The balance of the assets held within the Rabbi Trust, including the cash surrender value of the Company-owned life insurance policies, was $32.0 million and $41.6 million as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, and is recorded in Other assets, net in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. As of December 31, 2022, the life insurance policies had a net death benefit of $168.3 million.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

Prior to April 30, 2021, Kforce maintained the SERP, which benefited two executives. The SERP was a non-qualified benefit plan and did not include elective deferrals of covered executive officers’ compensation. The related net periodic benefit costs were comprised of service cost and interest cost. The service cost amounted to $199 thousand and $345 thousand for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, and were recorded in SG&A. The interest cost amounted to $138 thousand and $497 thousand for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, and were recorded in Other expense, net in the accompanying Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.

Effective April 30, 2021, Kforce’s Board of Directors irrevocably terminated the SERP. As a result of the termination of the SERP, Kforce recognized a net loss of $1.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, which was recorded in Other expense, net in the accompanying Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.

The SERP benefits owed to the two participants at December 31, 2021 was approximately $20.0 million in the aggregate, which represented the fair value at the date of termination, and was recorded in Accounts payable and accrued liabilities in the Consolidated Balance Sheet. During the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company paid the SERP benefit obligation in full.