Natixis is one of a handful of companies beginning to step forward to address the education debt burden of younger, and sometimes not so young employees.

Flaherty explained that Natixis, which owns or has a stake in more than 20 asset managers across the globe with nearly $900 billion in assets under management, was motivated to the move by its own research.

The firm's 2015 Retirement Plan Participant Study found about one in four Americans who don't participate in workplace retirement plans cite student loans as a factor deterring participation.

Moreover, millennials said student debt is the third most common reason for not participating in a 401(k), behind needing the money for day-to-day needs and the perceived frugality of company matches.

The data was convincing enough to Flaherty and her team, and ultimately to the C-suite at Natixis.

"There's no changing the fact that people need to take more responsibility for their own retirement, but it's difficult to do when you're facing a mountain of student debt," said Flaherty.

"It is so critical that younger employees—and all employees—take advantage of the company match in a 401(k). When those years are lost, older savers can never catch up—that's what we're worried about," she added.

Read: Student loan help as valuable to employees as a 401(k) plan

In the program designed at Natixis, the company will contribute up to $10,000 to every full-time employee who has been at Natixis for at least five years and has outstanding Federal Stafford or Perkins Loans.

A one-time $5,000 payment will be made upon a worker's fifth anniversary. Annual payments of $1,000 will be made over each of the ensuing five years.

Natixis has about 525 employees in the U.S. A company spokesperson was unaware of how many of those employees will be eligible for debt relief. Both undergraduate and graduate school debt will qualify, and all employees with debt, regardless of their salary, will qualify, according to the spokesperson.

Clearly, addressing retirement savings inertia by partially relieving workers' student debt comes at some cost for sponsors.

But Flaherty is of the growing mindset among retirement experts who believes more sponsors have a genuine willingness to invest in retirement outcomes.

"Sponsors see that the cost of a workforce unprepared for retirement is greater than investing in the right benefits upfront," said Flaherty. "They are looking at retirement benefit solutions more creatively. It's not about piling on costs, but more about cost shifting, and addressing all the expenses of an older workforce that can't retire."

Addressing student loan debt will become more central to sponsors' retirement plan strategy going forward, thinks Flaherty.

"We think companies need to be doing more to help people save enough. Addressing college debt is one way to do that," she said.

She definitely hopes Natixis can move the needle with other sponsors, and says it is in a unique position to do so.

After all, many of the managers under the Natixis umbrella have a significant presence in 401(k) plans and with plan advisors. Flaherty cited Oakmark Funds, which are run by Harris Associates, a Natixis company, as an example.

"We're definitely going to try to influence other sponsors to consider this option, but we felt like we needed to start with our own employees if we were going to be an effective advocate," she said.

In considering the option of offering debt relief, Flaherty said all sponsors, large or small, have to make an assessment of whether such a benefit is in line with a company's values.

"We're a medium to large size company with a great corporate culture," said Flaherty.

"It was clear to us that adding this benefit was inline with our values," she added.