Banker’s Cooperative Group, Inc. (BCG) is an insurance brokerage firm that specializes in providing banking industry clients in New Jersey with employee benefit programs and liability insurance. BCG is unique among brokers, in that its clients are eligible to receive annual patronage dividends. Since 1998, the cooperative has paid out over $3 million to shareholders. Providing value to its clients is BCG’s top priority and to maximize that value, the organization includes Mineral® as part of its client solutions.

Value from the start.

BCG had previously included the online HR resource service HR360 from Zywave but found that clients weren’t using it. “We started looking for a more robust offering — and one that was easier for our client to use and access,” says Matthew Cooney, President and CEO of BCG. “That’s when we found Mineral.”

Many of BCG’s clients are financial institutions with robust HR needs that are continually evolving. “With Mineral, we’re able to fill that gap for them,” explains Cooney. “The catalyst behind including Mineral in our offering was our goal to extend our value beyond insurance services, providing a valuable business resource that also differentiates us.”

Mineral provides BCG’s clients with a trusted place to turn for their HR and compliance challenges, including robust resources, technology tools, and live advisors. Cooney says implementing Mineral was swift and easy.

“They walked us through loading our client information into the database. Once that was complete, the system sent our clients an email inviting them to join, with easy instructions on logging in.”

BCG promoted Mineral to its clients with a formal rollout in the form of a well-attended live webinar. “We explained the range of services and resources available through the Mineral Platform, and how easily our clients can access it,” recalls Cooney. “The feedback was instant and positive. Our clients didn’t realize that such a tool existed, and they immediately could see the value.”

“To win and retain clients’ business, you have to offer more than a commodity — you have to offer value. Mineral provides that value proposition for us, helping BCG to stand out among our competitors and serve as a valued partner to our clients.”

— Matthew Cooney

President and CEO, Banker’s Cooperative Group

Winning new clients.

Today’s HR leaders feel like they are expected to know everything, but the HR landscape is so complex and volatile that it’s impossible for an individual or small department to keep up. Mineral provides an up-to-date content library, compliance and training tools, a benefits document creator, and even a live advisor service to supplement clients’ in-house resources.

“We have won new business by including Mineral as part of our offering,” says Cooney. “It’s that powerful and that valuable for our clients. They tell us that Mineral has become a part of their workday — a resource they use to supplement their knowledge and experience.”

“We have won new business by including Mineral as part of our offering. It’s that powerful and that valuable for our clients.”

— Matthew Cooney

President and CEO, Banker’s Cooperative Group

A cost-saving differentiator.

One Mineral resource that BCG clients find particularly valuable is the Smart Employee Handbook. “We’ve had clients tell us that they’d been quoted thousands of dollars to have an outside firm create an employee handbook,” says Cooney. “With the Smart Employee Handbook, clients can access handbooks for free, customizing them with their unique company policies.”

In addition, BCG clients can create compliance documents and benefit forms from Mineral at no cost to them. Other vendors supply the forms, but typically at a cost of several hundred dollars. “The Mineral Platform is that single source of everything HR,” says Cooney. “Advice, tools, and technology.”

Cooney recalls an instance when a client called with an urgent question, and Mineral Experts saved the day. “The client was looking to make a mid-year change to an existing employee benefits strategy,” he recalls. “It was a complicated question with significant ramifications — one that required an accurate answer. We used Mineral Experts to speak to a real HR professional over the phone. They listened, understood the challenge, and walked us through the answer. We were able to get back to our client in just a short time with information that we were all confident with. That’s invaluable.”

Mineral Experts, Cooney believes, saves BCG clients thousands of dollars annually. “They can get answers directly from an HR professional as part of Mineral Experts when they otherwise might have to bring in expensive legal counsel,” he says.

Mineral is more than a client-facing tool — BCG uses it internally as well. “We’re an employer, so we also need HR help from time to time,” says Cooney. “On more than one occasion, we’ve used the HR Compliance Library to research a complex question and quickly found answers. Before, we might have simply Googled the question — and who knows how accurate the answers might have been. We might have spent an hour or two researching to be sure we were getting the correct information. With HR Compliance Library, we don’t have to worry about accuracy — we know we’re getting the right answers.”

“We’ve had clients tell us that they’d been quoted thousands of dollars to have an outside firm create an employee handbook. With the Smart Employee Handbook, clients can access handbooks for free, customizing them with their unique company policies.”

— Matthew Cooney

President and CEO, Banker’s Cooperative Group

Mineral Experts, Cooney believes, saves BCG clients thousands of dollars annually. “They can get answers directly from an HR professional as part of Mineral Experts when they otherwise might have to bring in expensive legal counsel,” he says. Mineral is more than a client-facing tool — BCG uses it internally as well. “We’re an employer, so we also need HR help from time to time,” says Cooney.

“On more than one occasion, we’ve used the HR Compliance Library to research a complex question and quickly found answers. Before, we might have simply Googled the question — and who knows how accurate the answers might have been. We might have spent an hour or two researching to be sure we were getting the correct information. With HR Compliance Library, we don’t have to worry about accuracy — we know we’re getting the right answers.”

A valued partner.

“Ultimately, insurance is a commodity — there are thousands of licensed insurance agents in the state o New Jersey,” concludes Cooney. “To win and retain clients’ business, you have to offer more than a commodity — you have to offer value. Mineral provides that value proposition for us, helping BCG to stand out among our competitors and serve as a valued partner to our clients.”