Employee-Owned

What Ownership Means to Our Employees

In 1994, Joe Nolt, Chairman, and Dennis Dvorchak, President, established an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) as a method of succession planning and to ensure longevity of Murray to the benefit of its employees and clients.

As an ESOP, Murray employees became owners of the company, and today, own approximately fifty percent of the company’s stock. So how do our employee-owners benefit from the ESOP? Equity comes on top of, not in place of, other compensation. Employee ownership is also associated with considerably greater employment stability, and, in Murray’s participatory decision making culture, the result is increased job satisfaction, organizational commitment, identification, motivation and workplace participation.

How Does Employee Ownership Benefit Our Clients?

Study after study has shown that ESOPs improve the productivity, longevity and profitability of the firms which sponsor them. In the year 2000, Douglas Kruse and Joseph Blasi, of Rutgers University, published the most significant study to date on the performance of ESOPs in closely held companies.

The study shows ESOPs increase sales, employment and sales per employee by about 2.3% to 2.4% per year, over what would have been expected absent an ESOP. ESOP companies are also more likely to still be in business several years later.

In addition, ESOP companies are substantially more likely than comparable companies to offer other retirement benefit plans along with their ESOP. So it is this high level of employee satisfaction and a sense of ownership pride that drives our employees to deliver superior client service to you.

In addition, our stability ensures our ongoing commitment to you and your company’s ever-evolving risk management and insurance needs.