Diversity Discussion with Elmer Rivera (Pt III)

Welcome back as we finish up our conversation with Elmer Rivera, Branch Manager for Jimcor Agencies' Long Island, NY office and President of LABA (Latin Agents and Brokers Assoc.).  Elmer has already answered questions about Diversity with regards to employment in our industry, geographic differences, leadership and more.
Here we will look at what the industry can do to further embrace diversity as well as an inside look at the new trade association, LABA.

Q: What else does the industry need to do to further embrace different cultures in our country?
A: "Bring It To The People" ...We need to educate not only our sales force, but also our office support, customer service reps., claims reps., and accounting reps. The fastest growing consumer group, people from diverse cultures present a great virtually untapped opportunity for insurance companies and agents to sell their products and services. By providing face-to-face communication, with clear product descriptions, and implementing patience & understanding, you can begin to build trust with the culturally diverse consumer.

Q: What is the purpose of your group LABA (Latin Agents and Brokers Assoc) and how are you different from other associations in the area / country?
A: Our purpose is to provide support in the advancement of the Agent and Broker serving the Hispanic American insurance consumer in the North East by assisting in providing the best possible product offerings to this ever growing consumer segment. We are also focusing on promoting education and mentoring to the future young Hispanic American insurance professional.
We differ from other associations in the Northeast by bringing together those already servicing, or interested in targeting Hispanic insurance consumers. We also differ by being the first association that looks to focus on educating not only the agent and broker, but the Hispanic insurance consumer as well. By educating the consumer, we believe we can help the agent & broker facilitate sales and servicing to the Hispanic insurance consumer.

Q: Do you have any additional comments?
A: The bottom line is that today the diverse cultures are what make America truly the land of opportunity, and the insurance industry needs to further prepare itself to take advantage of the opportunities that will come from this fast growing consumer group.


Thank you Elmer for taking the time to answer our questions.

If you would like more information on Jimcor visit our website at http://www.jimcor.com/.
For information on LABA visit http://www.latinagentsandbrokers.com/
You can also email Elmer Rivera at erivera@jimcor.com

In closing, ask yourself how diverse your agency, company or office is.  Look around your community and find ways to learn about the different cultures all around you.  After all, everyone needs insurance!

Diversity Discussion with Elmer Rivera (Part II)

We are back talking to Jimcor's Long Island branch manager, Elmer Rivera, President of LABA (Latin Agents and Brokers Assoc).

We asked Elmer Rivera the question, "How has (or hasn't) the insurance industry embraced diversity" and then looked at different areas. Here are his candid answers!

Q: How has (or hasn't) the insurance industry embraced diversity with regards to Employment? A: The insurance industry has done a good job of embracing diversity in the workplace. When I first started my insurance career in the mid 80's there were few minorities entering the industry. Those that did were primarly African American and Asian. By the mid 90's I noticed a change. More Guianese, Hindi, and specifically Hispanics were entering the insurance industry. While much more is needed to show how we are an industry that embraces cultural differences and diversity, we are moving in the right direction. I would attribute this to the efforts of currect trade associations that have brought public awareness to following a career in insurance.

Q: How has (or hasn't) the insurance industry embraced diversity with regards to Leadership within the industry?
A: As public awareness grows, cluturally diverse people look to grow their own careers in the industry. Today people form various cultures are holding more leadership roles than they did 10 years ago. As staffing becomes more culturally diverse need to continue the same trend at the leadership level to stay in sync with the changing workforce as well as the marketplace.

We will complete this conversation with Elmer Rivera next time as we look at what else the industry needs to do to further embrace different cultures, marketing and Elmer will talk about LABA.

If you would like to reach Elmer River please email him at erivera@jimcor.com.

Diversity

We sat down with Elmer Rivera, Jimcor's Long Island Branch Manager and President of LABA (Latin Agents and Brokers Assoc) and asked him a few questions on Diversity. We will break the discussion up into a series of blogs. Here is the first of that series.

Q: How do you define Diversity?
A: Diversity can have many different meanings. When you speak of a people I would define diversity as "Cultural Diversity". This means understanding that every culture has made a contribution to American history and each culture may have very different sub-cultures. In my view, we as Americans have a duty to show tolerance and understanding of the many cultures that make our country so great. While we are all Americans, keeping our cultural identities alive should be valued and not be ignored or put aside.

Q: Do you think diversity is different geographically? (i.e. in the northeast as opposed to other parts of the country?)
A: Yes. In America there may be one group of people, but many sub-groups within. This is evident in the Asian and Hispanic communities. While this holds true in the Northwest as well, when you discuss the topic of primary Hispanic communities, Mexican is the dominant Hispanic culture by the largest margin. In the Northeast there are many different Hispanic cultures. While Dominicans are the current largest segment, other Hispanic cultures (Puerto Rican, Mexican and various Central and Southern American cultures) are only less by a much smaller margin.

In the next blog we will be asking Elmer Rivera questions about his views on diversity within the insurance industry.

Wanna be in a relationship?

Relationships are vital to any industry. How important is the 'relationship' today in insurance? With social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and yes, blogging, is the relationship really important? Do we follow companies or people? Or is it a little of both?

At Jimcor we believe it is both. Relationships are first about people. You develop a relationship with the person you feel most comfortable with and that is who you will continue to do business with over time. You want to know that if you call five years from know that person will be there to help you - you want that stability.

However, that same person must also have the tools available to them (the markets for example) to provide you with the service you need to write the account. Without those tools the best relationship cannot succeed no matter how much you like the person.

So to the agent it is about both the person and the company.

At Jimcor we strive to be the best when it comes to customer service. We want to be the first and the last call our agents make and we want them to know they can contact us with questions regarding coverage, markets, etc.

Each year we continue to improve our customer service standards - whether that means quicker quotes or more online programs - either way we give the clients what they want, when they want it and make sure we are there when they need us.

Exceptional customer service can be achieved very simply if your business consistently does the following things:
Be accessible. Answer your phone before the third ring. Have a means for the customer to reach someone immediately without having to leave a voicemail message. People want to talk to a live person.
Listen to complaints or mistakes and fix them. Thank your customer for making you aware of any issues they are having and get them fixed. Chances are there are 24 others with a similar problem.
Provide options. Give your customer choices on how they can do business with you. Make it as easy as possible for them to place their business with you.
Be honest. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Reliability is the key to a great relationship.
Be helpful and courteous. Go the extra mile, offer more and ask if there is anything else you can do for your customer.

These tips, though simple, might take time. Post them in your office. Talk to your staff. Think of ways to make implementation fun.

USLI, one of our over 50 companies, was kind enough to let us copy these customer service points from their newsletter. Companies, vendors, and associations in our industry have tools available that can help make your agency stronger and improve your service standards. Reach out to your business partners to find out what free tools are available to you ... we did!

Relationships and customer service. Business may be conducted online and people may tweet and blog, but it seems the more things change the more they stay the same... our industry is still all about the people at the end of the day.

At Jimcor we pride ourselves on great people, great companies and great clients.

EPA Compliance & Insurance Coverage

On April 22, 2010 the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) rule commonly referred to as the Lead-Safe Program, which requires workers to be trained to use lead-safe work practices and requires renovation firms to be EPA-certified, took effect.

How will this impact your clients?

The title of this blog is also a link to a handbook that can help answer your questions and your clients' questions. Forward this to your clients so that you know you have provided the information they need to operate efficiently and effectively.

You can also click here to access the handbook -
Small Entity Compliance Guide to Renovate Right
EPA's Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program

As stated in the handbook, those that must follow the rule can include but are not limited to:

• Residential rental property owners/managers
• General contractors
• Special trade contractors including but not limited to:
  Painters
  Plumbers
  Carpenters
  Electricians
• Contractors who perform activities that disturb painted surfaces in homes and child-occupied facilities built before 1978 (including certain repairs and maintenance, and painting preparation activities)

Jimcor is available to assist you with placement of these classes of business and more. We also have specialists on hand to write your hard to place business such as pre-1978 homes and businesses that may be impacted by this new EPA rule. Contact your Jimcor Environmental Specialist today and ask about our Lead Safe Contractors Pollution Liability program!

Jimcor Helps Make Insurance Cool for the Next Generation

Recently I had the opportunity to go into my son Tommy's 5th grade class to talk about the insurance industry.

The American Agent and Broker article (link below or in the title above) talks about my day in the classroom and the students' reactions.

Yes, insurance can be cool. Yes, young children can understand the differences between independent agents and MGA's and insurance companies and the relationships that exist between the three. They learned about how the industry works with local and state governments and about flood and homeowners insurance. And yes, they loved the Dunkin Donuts that I brought in to entice them to listen and ask questions!

Overall the day was a great success.

How can you get started? It's simple - reach out . Just by contacting my high school Accounting teacher I was able to work with students on projects and talk to them about the different careers in insurance while they learned about the industry. Opportunities are out there if you have the time and know where to find the tools. You can utilize resources from associations like PIA and go to organized events like career days, college fairs, etc.

To read the article click here.

What other ways can we work together to improve the public perception of the industry? How can we get more people interested in careers in insurance if not for today, then as a future career? What are your thoughts? As an industry we need to work on our image with the public. We all know that. Employers allowing staff the time to talk to students, attend events such as a career day make a world of difference. Jimcor giving employees like me the time to give back to the industry and our community only makes our company that much stronger in the end - management realizes and embraces this in our culture. What is your corporate culture?

These kids may have been young, but they learned that insurance is more than a cartoon or lizard. And most importantly, INSURANCE IS COOL!

Running for a Cause

According to Google community can be defined as:
 a group of people living in a particular local area; "the team is drawn from all parts of the community"
Insurance professionals have always been known for their sense of community, for giving back to the community, and for going above and beyond for their community. Jimcor Agencies has had the opportunity for many years to be involved with the NJ Young Insurance Professionals and their Fun Run which benefits the Special Olympics of NJ. Jimcor’s own sense of community was never so evident as the team (made up of Jimcor executives, staff, spouses and company representatives) ran for a great cause yesterday.
Special Olympics of NJ is an organization that provides sports training and athletic competition to children and adults with intellectual disabilities (http://www.sonj.org/). Since 1984 the Fun Run has raised over $2 million for SONJ and this year over $140,000 was added to that amount!
Held on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ, outside the Trump Taj Mahal which is where the Annual PIANJ / NY convention was still going on, the run started with warm-ups at 6:30 and concluded with a heart-felt awards breakfast where Jimcor Agencies was honored with a plaque for 1st place Overall Agency Fundraiser bringing in over $10,000.
Jimcor has always felt that our best asset is great people.
Tuesday morning, June 15th, on the boardwalk, as the sun was rising and people were stretching – we saw all the great people. Yes, the great people of Jimcor – not only the ones able to attend the event but all of those back at the office who bought a raffle ticket or contributed throughout the year to the many fundraising events held in our 7 offices – or even those lending a helping hand to the work piling up on desks and via emails. We looked around at the great people in the making up some of the best of our industry who gave up their morning to support the Special Olympics and run a 5k when others were sipping coffee and reading the paper.
That is what community is all about. That is what our industry is all about. And that is why our industry is the best. “The team is drawn from all parts of the community” and the team of insurance professionals we saw yesterday morning was pretty strong.

Thank you for allowing Jimcor Agencies to run along side you for so many years and be your partner – not only in this great event, but in this great industry of ours.