RoyOMartin

Also a finalist in 2020 for Plan Sponsor of the Year in the Total Retirement Offering category, RoyOMartin has a 99% participation rate, even though approximately 80% of its employees are hourly.

This wood products company was born 100 years ago in Alexandria, Louisiana—where its headquarters are today—when founder Roy O. Martin Sr. purchased a sawmill there. Today, one of a group of Martin-family-owned businesses, it puts a special emphasis on sustainable forest-product manufacturing and forestry, for which it has earned a sustainability certification from the Forest Stewardship Council.

“We’re in a manufacturing business and forestry, but we’re also in the people business,” notes company Chairman, CEO and Chief Financial Officer Roy O. Martin III. “We make sure our benefits are world class, just like our manufacturing facilities are world class and safe.”

One of its most important benefits is its defined contribution retirement plan. Martin credits the organization’s entrepreneurial culture and family ownership as drivers behind the plan’s growth.

The addition of some key features has also played a part. Among these are a guaranteed 100% of 4% match and a discretionary profit-sharing contribution; the latter has averaged 7% for the past 20 years and over 15% for the past five, says the company’s senior benefits accountant, Stephanie Ulrich. “Sharing profits with our employees is a fundamental part of our company vision, to be an employer of choice.”

To get employees saving, the sponsor automatically enrolls them, at 5%, leading to a 5.8% average deferral rate. Additionally, it contributes company tax savings that result from offering flexible spending accounts, to the eligible employees’ retirement accounts. “That equates to 7.65% of what the holder sets aside in an FSA for medical needs and/or dependent care,” Ulrich observes.

The sponsor realizes, too, that retirement planning is more than saving money. And personal finance is more than retirement planning. So, “financial wellness is a big thing we do at RoyOMartin,” Ulrich says. “We want to take care of the whole employee. We also want to help our employees not just get to retirement, but through retirement and mitigate financial stress along the way.”

The company has taken several steps to mitigate its employees’ financial stress. One is to offer a generous and affordable health plan, which includes access to the company’s clinic and pharmacy. “This keeps costs extremely low for employees,” Ulrich says. Worksite visits by the clinic’s doctors and nurses are free for employees, and visits to the clinic are a flat $15 for any covered person, she says.

Beginning this year, RoyOMartin added another valuable medical benefit—this one for retirees. The company now fully covers the premiums for a Medicare Advantage plan for its retirees who are age 65.

—Judy Faust Hartnett