The Longchamp name has long been synonymous with luxury. Founded in 1948, the French leather goods brand, famously known for its La Pliage bags, has branded boutiques along with shelf space in upscale department stores around the globe. Longchamp employs 3,500—220 of whom work in the US and Canada for Longchamp USA.

Even with over 75 years of market success, Longchamp understands that it must continually innovate to remain relevant with its customers—and its workforce. That commitment to innovation led Longchamp USA to partner with Mineral.

Mineral is an ideal HR toolkit.

When Stacie Gibson joined Longchamp USA four years ago as the Vice President of Human Resources, the company did not have a formal human resources department. “There were two hard-working HR generalists, but not a ton of direction,” she recalls. “I was hired to help build the HR department and its team. The company’s benefits broker introduced me to Mineral. I instantly understood the value of the Mineral offering—both in helping us get started and in the ongoing maintenance of a modern, compliant HR department.”

Gibson came from a large enterprise where the HR department had multiple resources providing services such as learning and development curriculum, safety training, and compliance tools. “To simplify things for us, I wanted to bring as much as possible under one umbrella—and that’s precisely what Mineral provides—an umbrella of valuable resources,” she says.

During the pandemic, for example, Gibson had to pull together work-from-home and paid-time-off policies quickly. She tapped into the Mineral Platform and found policy and procedure templates she could quickly take and adapt. “They’ve got a framework for almost any situation,” she notes. “Saves a ton of time.”

Gibson says Mineral provides more than valuable information. For example, her team can download printable posters for display in its retail stores. “Mineral is our first stop, our go-to destination for anything and everything regarding HR,” she adds.

It’s like having an employment attorney on staff.

An in-house HR department must work hard to remain in front of changing workforce rules and regulations—particularly when multiple jurisdictions are involved. “Without Mineral, we’d have to have someone on our staff continually monitoring for changes and using Google to research employment questions—and so much of the information on the internet is incorrect or outdated. More likely, we’d need the help of an employment attorney,” Gibson says. “Mineral Experts is like having an employment attorney on staff. Mineral saves us that cost and gives us much more confidence than Google.”

Longchamp USA receives most of the Mineral services it relies on through its insurance agency at no additional cost. When asked to put a value on what the company gains with Mineral, Gibson is quick to say, “Mineral saves us staff time and resources—and helps Longchamp USA preserve its good reputation. If I didn’t have access to the Mineral Experts, we’d need to run most of our questions through an employment attorney, and they easily charge $300 an hour.”

“No HR professional has all the answers,” Gibson says. “And honestly, our job shouldn’t be to know all the answers. Our role should be developing meaningful policies and procedures that promote employee engagement and help each employee reach their potential. The Mineral Experts offering lets us focus on reaching those goals because we know the answers to our questions are just a phone call or an email away.”

Employee retention rates up by 5%.

Longchamp USA invests in employee professional development initiatives designed to improve retention rates and increase engagement. Mineral plays a vital role in these initiatives. “One goal is to promote from within to grow the next generation of leaders,” explains Gibson. “To help them succeed in their new roles, we give them access to leadership training courses through Learn. We’re also developing comprehensive learning plans for every employee, using Mineral’s employee training content, so they can map their future with Longchamp USA.”

The efforts are already having a significant impact, Gibson says. “Our retention rates are up 5%, increasing from the previous year.”

Folding in multi-state compliance, harassment training, and more.

With operations across nine states, Longchamp USA faces a complex compliance landscape. “We need to be certain we maintain compliance, and that can be challenging when multiple jurisdictions are involved,” Gibson says. “The HR Compliance Library is a tremendous asset for us. I can quickly research each state’s requirements to ensure we’re meeting, or exceeding, those requirements.”

Smart Employee Handbook Plus, a premium solution available through Mineral, allows Longchamp USA to produce handbooks for each state in which it has a presence. “I’ve previously assembled a handbook without a tool like Mineral,” notes Gibson. “It was arduous—and expensive. We had to hire an attorney to help with the process, costing the company tens of thousands of dollars. And that doesn’t even include the cost of keeping it updated. Using Mineral’s tool, handbook development is fast, accurate, and cost-effective.”

Similarly, workplace harassment training requirements vary by state. “With all the variability, it would be too easy to make an error without a resource like Mineral,” adds Gibson. Longchamp takes advantage of the premium Workplace Harassment Prevention offering to gain access to courses, tools, and other resources, ensuring its continuing compliance with harassment prevention mandates across states.

In addition, Longchamp USA leverages Anonymous Reporting by Mineral to help the company manage and take action on reported incidents in a secure and timely manner. Providing employees with an easy, anonymous way to make a report creates more transparency, instills greater confidence in the company, and keeps it ahead of costly legal challenges.

Fashioning the future.

Thanks to its partnership with Mineral, Longchamp USA is well-prepared for the growth and challenges that may lie ahead. Indeed, Gibson says that the most significant benefit Longchamp USA realizes from the Mineral Platform is confidence. “Human resource management is complicated, challenging, and crucial to get right. With Mineral, I feel like we can address any issues that come our way. We are confident in our compliance and proud of the opportunities and protections we provide our workforce.”

Submittable is in the business of making good things happen — its tagline is “Get to the Good Work.”

At its core, Submittable is a social impact platform — a place that helps nonprofits, government agencies, organizations, businesses, and individuals through the busywork of launching, managing and reporting on social impact programs (scholarships, employee volunteering, grants, corporate giving, etc.). In one shining example, the State of Minnesota leveraged the Submittable platform to distribute a one-time payment to frontline workers during the pandemic.

Founded in 2010, the company has grown to over 200 team members and has employees in 27 states. It shouldn’t be surprising that a company built around sharing good things would also want to share some good with its employees. Mineral® is one key way Submittable is paying it forward.

“It’s the reason I have my job.”

Mineral provides a comprehensive library of resources, including legal updates, industry insights, and HR best practices. This invaluable knowledge repository empowers HR professionals to proactively address compliance issues and adapt to shifts in the regulatory landscape. But for Jacki Odgren, HR Generalist for Submittable, it offers something additional — entry into a new career.

“I initially applied for two different jobs at Submittable, one being this position in HR. I wasn’t hired because I didn’t have HR experience with multi-state compliance, but they did offer me the other position. Within a few months, though, the HR position opened up again, and I was invited to apply for the HR role. The manager knew we had Mineral through our company’s HRIS, Rippling. She said she felt that I didn’t need to necessarily have the experience, just the resourcefulness and the right tool — which is Mineral. So, you could say that Mineral is the reason I have my job.”

Smart Employee Handbook builds confidence.

When Odgren joined the department one year ago, her first task was to update the employee handbook. “I was brand new to HR and was honestly a bit nervous at the start,” she recalls. But the Smart Employee Handbook builder made it easy for her to confidently dive into her new position. “The Mineral Platform is super user-friendly,” Odgren adds. “We had expanded our operations to additional states, and the handbook builder walked me through all the steps I needed to update our handbook for compliance.”

As the company continues expanding to additional states, Odgren frequently revisits Submittable’s Smart Employee Handbook to ensure it remains current. “When I add a new state, Mineral offers up all the local laws and policies,” she says. “I could simply accept them all and be done, but I always compare our corporate policies to see if ours are already compliant. Another thing I appreciate is that whenever a rule or law changes, the handbook references an alert number that links to text showing us the differences between the old and the new. I can simply click to accept the changes. It gives us confidence that our handbook is always accurate and compliant.”

Mineral Experts add the personalized touch.

For more complex or nuanced issues, Odgren often turns to the Mineral Experts, certified HR experts who provide personalized guidance. “I reach out to the Mineral Experts a couple of times a month,” Odgren says. “Most recently, they helped me with a parental leave question and some changes we were considering to our corporate travel policy. It is super helpful to talk to a real person, explain our situation, and get professional advice specific to our circumstances.”

Tapping into a library of resources.

The complexities of HR compliance can be overwhelming, even for large, experienced HR teams. Mineral simplifies this process for Submittable by providing a comprehensive library of resources, including legal updates, industry insights, and best practices. “The HR Compliance Library is my first stop with any questions I have or to help answer our management team’s questions,” explains Odgren. “From issues like relocation assistance to separation laws, I turn to Mineral first because I know I’ll get the correct answers with minimal effort.”

For example, Odgren recently tapped Mineral to learn about anti-harassment training rules for the states it operates in. “The Mineral Platform has resources that broke compliance down by state,” she says. “Right there, I got my answers.”

As Odgren embraces her new role, she’s enjoying another offering from Mineral — weekly communications that Mineral sends to users who opt-in, covering common HR questions and providing platform links to answers and related resources. “I learn a lot from these email alerts and newsletters,” she says. “And I feel like it keeps me more in touch with the HR industry overall.”

Growing with confidence.

Submittable is growing quickly, and the growth places additional demands on Odgren. “I feel confident,” she says. “Having Mineral is like having additional team members in our HR department, simplifying and streamlining the tasks involved when a company is in growth mode. Without Mineral, for example, ensuring state compliance and maintaining our employee handbook could be a full-time job in itself. Without Mineral, I’m sure we would need to hire additional HR staff.”

Odgren says she would definitely recommend Mineral to other HR professionals and frequently sees her peers making the same recommendation. “I was recently in a LinkedIn meetup where someone asked about HR resources to help a multi-state employer, and someone recommended Mineral. And I completely agree – it’s a powerful tool, and I can’t imagine doing my job without it.”

Spectrum Insurance Group is a full-service independent insurance agency serving thousands of businesses and individuals throughout Wisconsin. As one of the largest agencies in the state, Spectrum offers commercial insurance, employee benefits, health insurance, and personal insurance. Spectrum Insurance has access to over 30 carriers, ensuring it can find the right coverage for its customers’ needs. But Spectrum doesn’t stop at writing policies—the agency provides a range of value-added services designed to empower its clients. Mineral® is the flagship in that value-added services lineup.

Unlocking the spectrum.

Kristeanna Crick is Spectrum’s Client Experience Specialist. Her role is to help clients take full advantage of the agency’s ancillary offerings, including Mineral. “There are so many resources available to our clients, primarily through Mineral, but those resources were a bit of a hidden treasure. My job is to put them front and center and help our clients find value in that treasure.”

Mineral is the offering that gets the most traction among Spectrum’s clients. “Everyone prefers Mineral’s modern user interface, how easy it is to use, and how much the platform has to offer,” Crick says. “While we have other resources, like Zywave, available to clients, Mineral is the one that gets used.”

Spectrum Insurance Group includes the Mineral Platform at no cost as part of its offering to commercial and employee benefit clients. “Our clients don’t just get Mineral—they get me too!” adds Crick. “Many of our clients are small businesses without an HR department. I can be a resource for them by asking the right questions and directing them to where they can get answers.”

Clients recognize the value.

Among Mineral’s spectrum of benefits, Crick has one favorite – Mineral Intelligence, the “compliance watchdog” portion of the Mineral Platform that continually monitors thousands of state and federal legislation changes and keeps Spectrum and its clients informed of the changes that impact their businesses. “It’s a great way to keep our clients informed and position Spectrum as an expert.”

The Mineral Experts are one of the most utilized products within the Mineral Platform. “Our clients can speak to a real HR and compliance expert to help them navigate a complex employment landscape,” Crick says. “To a small company without internal HR resources, this is priceless. There’s so much risk in getting HR wrong, and we’re in the business of helping our clients mitigate risk. Mineral plays a big part in that.”

Another popular feature among Spectrum clients is Mineral’s vast content library. “It’s very easy to search for precisely what you want,” explains Crick. “You can filter the search by form or by state, for example.”

Competitive advantage.

As Spectrum works to grow its client base, Mineral is playing an increasingly important role. For example, newer agents with the agency are revisiting their previous clients after their non-compete has ended to let them know about the Spectrum Value Added Services, including Mineral’s outstanding features. Spectrum agents now promote Mineral during their conversations with clients and prospects. “Often, we’ll even set up a meeting where I’ll demonstrate some of the amazing features allowing the client to see a sneak peek of the value-added service we can provide,” adds Crick.

Through the Partner Enablement feature within the platform, Mineral even provides Spectrum templates for promotional flyers the agency can brand with their logo and contact information and share with clients and prospects. The flyers highlight specific industries, allowing Spectrum’s agents to showcase the agency’s value to construction companies, manufacturers, or nonprofits.

“We see Mineral as a competitive advantage for the agency,” says Crick. “Once our clients begin using the Mineral Platform, the value they derive from it keeps them with us. They don’t want to lose the benefits they’ve been enjoying.”

Driving client engagement.

Spectrum estimates that 90% of the agency’s commercial clients have signed up for the Mineral offering, an impressive statistic. “One of the most popular features among our clients is the Smart Employee Handbook builder,” Crick says. “Not only can they quickly build a compliant handbook, but Mineral also helps maintain employee handbooks. Mineral is efficient and proactive on the updates by notifying our clients in an email or on their Mineral dashboard. The client will then review the law or regulation in their handbook. If they want to accept the change, it’s a click of a button for the client to comply with the most current laws and regulations. That’s a huge time and money savings for busy businesses. It can cost thousands for a company to create and maintain an employee handbook, but this is free to our clients.”

And Mineral boasts a modern, intuitive user interface that Spectrum’s clients frequently praise. “Clients tell us they like Mineral because it’s simple to navigate and find what they’re looking for,” notes Crick. “They log in to Mineral right from our website, and the platform is branded with our information for consistency.”

Crick has begun monitoring Mineral’s utilization reports and is watching the rates climb higher. “We see an increase in the numbers each month,” she says. “In the last 18-month period, our clients have completed 44% more courses through Mineral and have created 99% more benefits documents. Clearly, they’re finding value in Mineral.”

Spectrum includes other tools in its value-added services lineup, but Mineral is the solution that receives the most attention and praise from clients. “There’s so much to Mineral,” Crick says. “Nothing else out there has the extent of HR features, from employee handbooks, compliance assessments, access to forms and a document library, to live support from HR experts.”

Advantages run across the spectrum.

While Spectrum provides the Mineral Platform to clients at no charge, clients exploring the platform may see additional premium offerings, such as Guided HR Compliance or Anonymous Reporting. “It’s great to see clients exploring all they can do with the platform, and we have clients that elect to add on various pieces to augment what we provide,” adds Crick.

Mineral directly rewards partners when clients subscribe to one of the premium services through the Mineral Advantage Program, making it a win for everyone.

Service that goes beyond.

While Spectrum considers the Mineral offering primarily a client benefit, Crick says she also spends significant time on the platform, advancing her skills and knowledge set. “I especially like many of the informational videos—they’re short, right-on point, and they hold my attention,” she says. “Also, I love that the chat option is always on screen, and when you click it, you get a live expert, not a chatbot. I’ll often get the same agent I’ve spoken with previously, and they remember me and our agency. To me, that’s impressive.”

Spectrum has nothing but praise for the support they receive through Mineral. “Mineral has top-notch customer service—it’s clear they want to help us succeed,” concludes Crick. “Just a couple of weeks ago, for example, I contacted them with a question from a prospective client. They didn’t have to help me with that, but they did—providing great advice that helped us win the sale. That shows they care, and that matters to us.”

When you’ve been doing something for nearly 140 years, you tend to get really good at it. That’s especially true of Morris & Garritano, which has been protecting what matters most to the people of California’s Central Coast since 1885. Specializing in commercial, employee benefits and personal coverage, Morris & Garritano is one of the state’s largest independently owned insurance agencies. While the people have changed over time, the agency’s unwavering commitment to educating, advocating for, and insuring its client’s businesses has not. This commitment led Morris & Garritano to include Mineral in its offerings to serve clients and protect their most valuable asset – their business.

An essential element

As a complement to its insurance offerings, Morris & Garritano provides human resources consulting services, which includes direct access to an in-house human resource consultant who can address complex and specific HR issues. The agency acts as an extension of its clients’ HR departments and believes in a balanced, relationship-driven approach, advising mandated standards to ensure client’s compliance while narrowing in on practical solutions that make the most sense for their business. The combination of Morris & Garritano’s professional service team, extensive client services, and advanced technology is foundational to its balanced approach to benefits administration. The Mineral Platform is an essential element in that technology enhancement.

Morris & Garritano offers Mineral to all its business clients at no additional cost. “It fits squarely within our business model,” says Kely Blackburn, HR Business Consultant with the company. “We’re unlike our competitors by offering full-cycle HR Services and have been doing so for over two decades, with our clients finding tremendous value in it. To ensure our scalability, we partnered with Mineral to support our various HR functions which allows us to narrow in on what we do best.”

Blackburn sees Mineral as a natural fit within the insurance sector. “We see a large overlap between many HR functions and insurance, in workers compensation, leaves of absence, and accommodation, for example. By offering resources and guidance in these areas, clients reduce their exposure to risk, and some of our clients have reduced their liability insurance costs as well.”

Building collaborative relationships

One of the agency’s core values is building collaborative relationships with clients. Blackburn believes Mineral is helping Morris & Garritano achieve that goal. “We’re more than an insurance broker for our clients,” Blackburn explains. “We understand small business and know how challenging it can be to get human resources activities done right. Many of our clients don’t have an internal HR department, so we take on much of that function for them — and back them up with resources and expertise to help them stay on track.”

But Mineral is not just a resource for smaller organizations, large businesses also find the platform valuable. Running a large-scale operation has its pain points, especially when it comes to training and development. Several large clients have over 150 active users, and some have utilized over $35K in Learn training courses, while total client usage of Learn is nearing $300K in value in 2022.

Blackburn has developed a formal onboarding process to introduce new clients to the Mineral Platform. From a welcome email with login instructions, a quick start infographic, to a comprehensive user guide and personalized demonstrations, clients learn of the tools and resources available through Morris & Garritano and the Mineral Platform. It’s a customized one-on-one approach with clients to ensure their success with the platform.

Thousands of dollars in value added

And the service does get used — by over 900 of the agency’s clients. To date, over 170 employee handbooks have been created by Morris & Garritano clients using the Mineral Platform. “And as of 2022, our clients have utilized over $100K in value with Mineral handbook features alone,” Blackburn says.

Employee handbooks are not just nice-to-have assets; they are essential business documents. Yet, for clients of Morris & Garritano, creating a handbook is time-consuming, complex, and expensive. “In my experience, it costs a company about $5,000+ to create an employee handbook, and easily 40+ hours of staff time on a good day,” notes Blackburn. “Using Smart Employee Handbook, our customers can create their own employee handbooks at no cost with the necessary compliance language already there, which helps to streamline the policy development process.”

But not only that, Mineral continue to offer the firm’s clients peace of mind by continually monitoring client policies to ensure their compliance when new laws come into play. “No more going down the Google rabbit hole to find what changes have been made,” says Blackburn. “Instead, Mineral offers policy alerts to overcome these challenges and has policy language ready to go.

The Benefits Document Creator is another tool Blackburn says is popular among clients. “There are literally hundreds of standard forms applicable to HR. Unfortunately, finding or creating them is time consuming, and you have to be sure you’re working with the most current version, or the version that applies to your jurisdiction. With the Mineral Platform, all the forms are within easy reach and always up to date.”

Increase ROI and conversion rates

The agency sees the Mineral Platform as a competitive advantage. “We’re able to clearly demonstrate our value to clients and prospects, and our HR Consulting Services, partnered with Mineral, adds to the value our clients see and experience,” Blackburn says. “In HR, the goal is to stay relevant and current – that’s key to your success. You need to be a relevant resource to the employees and employers, while staying current on what employment laws are at play. Both contribute to our client’s success in decreasing risks associated with managing people in business.”

Mineral also allows Morris & Garritano to increase engagement with existing clients. “Because our services are combined with the Mineral Platform, we have more interactions with our clients than a typical agency might,” says Blackburn. “And we see the benefits of those interactions in our retention rates, with many clients continuing with us for decades.”

The increased engagement rates factor into the 28x return on investment Morris & Garritano is realizing with Mineral. In fact, the company’s return outperforms average partner standards, many who typically see an already generous 8x ROI with the solution. It speaks both to the power of the Platform and Morris & Garritano’s commitment to its clients.

Solving the tough challenges

As the employment landscape becomes more complex, Morris & Garritano’s comprehensive approach provides clients with direct access to tools and one-on-one expertise to help them solve tough challenges surrounding compliance, human resources, employee education and advocacy, and claims management.

“I’d recommend the Mineral Platform to other agencies wanting to increase the client value proposition. There are hundreds of resources available to help me — and our clients — solve the real challenges and streamline manual tasks,” Blackburn concludes. “Mineral allows users to focus on making an impact, allowing them more time to think strategically about how to succeed rather than simply putting out fires. Honestly, Mineral makes my job so much easier, and I know it does the same for our clients.”

Based in California, ProSciento Inc. is a leading specialty clinical research organization dedicated to finding better treatments for metabolic diseases. For over 17 years, ProSciento has provided clinical research services to support research programs and trials, all while keeping pace with the rapidly changing landscape of metabolic drug and device development.

Quality employee training without the cost

Navigating and complying with complex state training and harassment prevention laws is no small matter for ProSciento. Because they are headquartered in California, the organization needs to meet the demands of laws that cover a wide range of workplace requirements, including wage and hour, safe working environments, anti-discrimination, and more.

For Shannon Kirkman, Director of Human Resources at ProSciento, it was critical that her organization proactively complied with training requirements – minimizing the danger of non-compliance. However, creating training courses, distributing content, and tracking completion for over 200 employees require significant effort. Shannon needed quality employee training courses but didn’t have time dedicated to creating content on her own.

Comprehensive training through Learn

Through their insurance broker, ProSciento has access to Learn, an extensive library of training courses and content, used to keep their organization compliant. With Learn, Shannon can train their workforce on the most up-to-date state-specific training requirements.

In addition to compliance training, ProSciento also provides valuable professional development opportunities for employees using Learn. With Learn, Shannon and her team has minimized the learning curve for new managers and supervisors with engaging content that’s easy to access, resulting in increased engagement and enhanced productivity.

“Because we place a strong emphasis on promoting from within, we often have new supervisors that may not have previously engaged with leadership training,” explains Shannon. “With Learn, we’ve been able to stay in compliance, and offer additional learning opportunities for employees. Having professional development content that is readily available has been essential for us.”

Addressing workplace harassment risks

Because California requires detailed harassment and discrimination prevention training, Shannon also needs to ensure that each employee is trained on anti-harassment measures and how to report any improper conduct. ProSciento uses Workplace Harassment Prevention training courses from Mineral to provide updated and regular training to their employees since changes occur frequently.

“The workplace harassment training modules through Mineral have been a critical way for our organization to minimize the risks of non-compliance,” recalled Shannon. “We’re able to quickly and comprehensively train not only our supervisors and managers, but employees at the staff level as well.”

After implementing the training available from Mineral, Shannon and her team are rapidly able to put processes in place that ensure that all employees, new and current, are trained to meet California’s mandated training requirements. In addition, Shannon can trust that Mineral’s training courses will be updated for any upcoming regulatory changes.

Moving ahead with confidence

Since adopting Mineral, Shannon and her team have removed the guesswork of navigating changes to state laws. This helps ensure that the organization is protected against the risks of non-compliance, such as fines, lawsuits, and more.

In addition, Shannon has saved significant time and effort by leveraging content from Mineral, which is ready to be implemented immediately. “Mineral saves me countless hours on creating and delivering training content to our employees,” Shannon says. “Without the extensive library of training courses and templates, I’d have to develop the content myself, which would strain my bandwidth.”

More importantly, Mineral has empowered Shannon and her team to confidently train their entire workforce, knowing that the information they rely on is accurate, timely, and trustworthy.

Stephanie Rosenberger is a client advisor for Kuzneski Insurance Group, an advisory firm specializing in insurance, employee benefits, and HR solutions. She describes the value she and her clients get out of Mineral’s products.

The human problem.

Stephanie saw that many of her clients needed solutions for their HR and compliance needs. “Clients struggle with finding reliable information that they can trust.” Particularly, employers needed accurate and credible HR information, to feel more confident in personnel and business decisions.

Many of Stephanie’s clients also wanted compliance training options. For example, they needed to train employees located in multiple states with a consistent message about how to prevent harassment and discrimination. However, it was difficult to find a vendor they could trust and engage with.

The technology solution.

Stephanie’s clients found a solution with Learn, an employee training platform that offered sexual harassment training compliant with specific state mandates. The course catalog also contained many other topics, prompting one client to build a leadership training program. They found the Learn Management System that administered the courses “easy to use.”

Clients also found value in other Mineral solutions. For instance, HR Compliance Library offered accurate information on laws, processes, templates, and state regulation requirements. “I love Mineral and feel more confident managing HR issues when using it,” one client told Stephanie.

In both cases, credible information and training resources from a trusted provider addressed the needs of Stephanie’s clients.

The agency benefits.

Offering credible HR and compliance services benefited Stephanie in a couple of ways. One was prospecting. Stephanie identified the need for trusted compliance guidance in the market, allowing her to lead with it. “Mineral was a great door opener for us to capture the attention of prospects.”

Mineral also enhanced the other offerings of her firm, including insurance and benefits programs designed for employers. “It streamlines the support we provide to our clients,” Stephanie concluded.

Why Mineral worked better.

At one point, Stephanie had access to both Mineral and HR360, a compliance platform, and had to choose. “Overall, HR360 did not compare to Mineral.”

Primarily, HR360 did not offer several tools that Stephanie believed were important for clients. Mineral Experts, who are HR and compliance experts that answer just-in-time questions from employers, a program that builds compliant handbooks, salary tools, and industry data were all valuable resources offered by Mineral.

Ultimately, “I wanted a company that could act as an HR department in lieu of an actual person and as a backup to one-person HR teams for our smaller businesses.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

As the employee benefits landscape grows increasingly complex, businesses turn to organizations like Crown Risk Management, LLC for help. Formed in 2005, Crown Risk helps employers navigate the changing landscape and develop robust, cost-effective, and compliant employee benefit programs, qualified retirement plans, and property and casualty programs. When the company sought an additional offering that would add value for clients and provide a competitive edge, Crown Risk chose to partner with Mineral.

“Employment law is complicated and always changing, so having a resource like Mineral available to our team and directly to our clients is essential,” says Nicole Pietrantoni, an Account Manager with Crown Risk. “We began looking for a service like this and found that Mineral provides the most complete offering at the best price.”

Empowering clients with comprehensive HR resources.

Crown Risk and its professional team have earned a reputation for providing accurate and timely employment-related answers for their clients. Pietrantoni and her colleagues often field calls from employers with questions about subjects including employment law, changing mandates, or retirement contributions.

“We are able to use the Mineral resources to provide fast, accurate answers to their questions,” explains Pietrantoni. “Also, many of our clients are logging into Mineral on their own, searching the database and finding their own answers, or even getting live help directly from the Mineral Experts for complex questions. As a result, we’ve seen a decrease in the number of routine questions we’re getting, giving us more time to focus on other services.”

Smart Employee Handbook gets rave reviews.

A valuable feature of Mineral among Crown Risk’s clients is the Smart Employee Handbook. Businesses of all sizes struggle to create and maintain employee handbooks. Mineral’s tool removes the employers’ burden of designing, researching, and updating the handbook. Several of Crown Risk’s clients use the Mineral Platform to create a free employee handbook, saving each company an average of $1,500. “It’s a lifesaver! We use it ourselves,” says Pietrantoni. “Plus, Mineral sends alerts when something changes that might require an update to the manual. Too often these documents are quickly out of date, so this is a valuable service to our clients and to us.”

Pietrantoni says clients would often seek Crown Risk’s help in creating the manuals, which is both time consuming and involves considerable research. “We’re always happy to help, but with Mineral, most of our clients can create a compliant handbook all on their own.”

Multi-state compliance made simple.

When New York state (and many others) began mandated workplace harassment training, Crown Risk was able to jump right in and help its clients meet compliance regulations. “There are hundreds of courses available through the Mineral Platform, including harassment training,” notes Pietrantoni. “We are able to offer the training to all of our clients, which saves from having to purchase and manage the curriculum themselves.”

To date, Crown Risk’s clients have completed well over 200 courses on a variety of topics, training that likely would have cost those businesses thousands. “Across all our clients, the savings add up to close to $30,000,” Pietrantoni adds. “And there’s more than just what you think of as typical HR-related training. For example, there are cybersecurity courses too.”

Benefits Document Creator creates efficiency.

HR professionals are all too familiar with the myriad of benefit documents required to manage benefit plans. While some may be fairly simple, others such as POP plan and wrap documents require a fair amount of time and research. The Mineral Platform streamlines this task for Crown Risk’s clients. “The Benefits Document Creator tool is powerful and easy to use,” says Pietrantoni. “These documents have to be accurate and with Mineral they are.”

A value add for clients.

Mineral is provided to Crown Risk’s clients as part of the company’s offering, and it continually earns positive feedback. Many of Crown Risk’s clients do not have an internal HR team or may have a single point person who also handles other tasks. For these companies, Mineral fills a vital role. Clients can access the HR Compliance Library to research their HR and compliance questions. Then, on the occasions they need additional, personalized help, a Mineral Expert certified HR professional is a phone call away.

“Our team has a solid understanding of benefits and employment law,” Pietrantoni says. “But as brokers, we cannot be experts in HR compliance, so when we have questions, we turn to Mineral. The fact that we operate in multiple states also adds to the complexity, so having a resource like the Mineral Platform is indispensable.”

As the coronavirus pandemic dramatically disrupted operations for Crown Risk’s clients, the Mineral Platform served as a reliable, trusted source for information regarding the changing laws and regulations. Employers were able to access webinars, training courses, and other resources that proved vital in ensuring they were working with the most current information.

Mineral “gets it right”.

As Crown Risk looks to scale its own business, the partnership with Mineral becomes essential to that growth. “We can grow our client base and service offerings without necessarily hiring additional staff,” says Pietrantoni. “The Mineral Platform empowers our clients and our own team to tackle HR projects and answer HR questions in less time and with less effort.”

She concludes, “Our clients love the Mineral Platform, and we do too. It’s extremely valuable to have such a breadth of readily available resources. Mineral provides the technology tools plus a team of HR experts that simplify HR and compliance, giving our clients the confidence, they’re doing right by their employees. Companies just can’t afford to get HR and compliance wrong, and Mineral gets it right.”

Carlson & Associates is an independent, full-service insurance agency based in Gig Harbor, Washington, providing individuals and businesses in the Pacific Northwest with the professional, personalized service policyholders appreciate and trust. In a competitive industry like insurance, Carlson & Associates prides itself on providing value-added services, from employee benefits packages to different types of personal insurance, that attract and retain clients. To support this initiative, Carlson & Associates added Mineral to its offering — and its value quickly became evident.

“Many of our commercial clients don’t have dedicated human resource staff, so they lack easy access to accurate information regarding issues like benefits, risk management, employment law, and compliance,” explains Kirsten Conrad, Principal Partner at Carlson & Associates. “Our agency wanted to fill the gap for these clients, providing them with an assortment of resources they can use to better manage employment risks.”

The right solution at the right price.

Conrad says the firm looked at multiple options before deciding on Mineral. “Many were too expensive and too complex,” she says. “But then I spoke with another broker who was using Mineral and recommended it. We liked that Mineral is a comprehensive offering multiple products that combine content, templates, a searchable knowledgebase, a course library, and live advisors.”

Carlson & Associates rolled out Mineral in mid-2020, and Conrad believes the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated its adoption throughout the agency’s clients. “Overnight, they were facing some very complex, fast-changing labor rules and regulations. They learned that they could turn to Mineral for up-to-date answers to their questions and even practical information like signage and notification guidelines. Mineral turned into a valuable resource very quickly.”

In addition to providing Mineral to its clients, Carlson & Associates benefits from using the solution internally. “We had a small COVID outbreak in our office and used the resources in HR Compliance Library to quickly find employee communication documents we could send out to update our staff,” explains Conrad. “I also use the extensive content library to search for answers to client questions.”

Adding value to client relationships.

Conrad and her team often host online meetings to introduce the various benefits of Mineral to new clients. The discussion around how Mineral can help their business gives them a unique opportunity to learn about their clients’ concerns and priorities. “It’s a nice way to connect with our clients,” says Conrad. “It helps us understand what their businesses need that our firm can help provide.” Other clients are exploring Mineral on their own, through webinars on current compliance trends and enrolling in online courses provided in the Core Courses learning management system.

As an added benefit, Conrad offers the Smart Employee Handbook to her clients, a tool that allows employers to easily create complete employee handbooks and keeps them updated as legislation changes. “It’s one of the most popular features with many of our clients,” says Conrad. “One of our clients was paying an outsourced HR firm $300 an hour to develop and maintain their employee handbook. Now they have that benefit at no cost. Mineral is saving them a lot of money.”

The firm’s business clients are also using the HR Compliance Library and Workplace Harassment Prevention to identify gaps and potential weaknesses in their HR programs and policies as well as receive recommendations for how to stay compliant.

A competitive advantage.

Carlson & Associates operates in a busy, competitive marketplace. The agency’s clients continually receive communications from larger insurance brokerage firms seeking to win their business. Thanks to Mineral, though, Carlson & Associates increased its client retention rates in 2020.

Conrad is confident that the agency’s investment in Mineral is paying off. “Mineral is definitely paying for itself,” she says. “And we expect that it will deliver an ever-increasing return on investment as it helps us retain existing accounts and win new ones.”

Mineral enhances the agency’s services, making Carlson & Associates a valuable resource for clients. “We attract new business by promoting our partnership with Mineral,” concludes Conrad. “Including Mineral as part of our offering to employers sets us apart. Our clients look to us for more than insurance. We are trusted business partners and a source of valuable information that helps them reduce risk and improve HR-related tasks and processes.”