0:00:05 Deanna Shimota: Welcome to the HR Tech Spotlight Podcast. I’m Deanna Shimota, CEO of Growth Mode Marketing. The HR technology market is crowded, and we know it can be hard to find the best software solutions for your business in the Sea of sameness on this podcast, we shine a spotlight on some of the best up and coming technology options out there. Check it out if you are interested in learning about new, innovative solutions available in the market, and if you are with an HR tech company and interested in being considered for a guest spot, stay tuned for details at the end of the show.
0:00:45 B: Welcome to a new episode of the HR Tech Spotlight. Today we are shining a spotlight on Boone Health, a personalized, one to one coaching platform that is sitting at the intersection between mental health and professional development for employees. My guest is Alex Simmons, co founder and CEO of the company. Hi, Alex. Welcome to the show.
0:01:07 Alex Simmons: Hey, Deanna, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah.
0:01:11 B: So tell us about your background in the HR tech space.
0:01:15 Alex Simmons: Sure. So I guess prior to founding Boone, I had almost a decade of experience in the finance world. So I’m actually a CPA by background. I worked in investment banking and private equity. And so a lot of experience working in kind of intense, high stress work environments. And that’s actually where the idea for Boone resonated, was working in investment banking, the long work weeks where everybody seems to be stressed and burnt out, that was my experience as well.
0:01:46 Alex Simmons: I ended up getting introduced outside of the workplace to therapy and coaching and later meditation. And it all had a pretty transformational impact on my life. And I kind of went back into the workplace at the time and saw two big things, one of them being that all of my colleagues were going through something very similar. Everybody was stressed and burnt out. And then secondly, all my company had, which was pretty sizable, progressive employer, by all means.
0:02:16 Alex Simmons: All they had to take care of us from a personal or professional lens was an employee assistance program, which I had never even heard of an EAp. But I came to find that’s how roughly 80% of all companies were approaching this topic around supporting their people. But it’s really more designed to be a crisis management solution than anything. So there was nothing that was geared towards how do we help employees grow through the day to day challenges that me and seemingly everybody around me was dealing with.
0:02:47 Alex Simmons: And so that was kind of the impetus for, okay, there has to be a better way to do this. And that’s how we started Boone in May of 2020, in the heart of the pandemic.
0:02:58 B: Probably perfect timing to step in, too, with everything that was going on in the world.
0:03:03 Alex Simmons: Yeah. And it’s actually interesting because the business has shifted a lot where when we initially came to market, the concept was really, we want to be the most accessible means for mental well being in the workplace by offering a personalized one to one coaching platform at scale. So that’s what Boone is. We’re a democratized one to one coaching platform for employees. The initial concept was actually to be more of a mental health solution.
0:03:32 Alex Simmons: And as the company has evolved, what we found is that what most employees are looking for is more sitting at that intersection between mental well being and professional growth. My own personal example that I give is I’m stressed and anxious on a daily basis. A lot of that has to do with how can I be a more effective manager? How can I grow Boon more quickly? How can I think about this difficult conversation I have coming up with a colleague or customer?
0:03:59 Alex Simmons: And so the personal and the professional are just so intertwined in today’s world. And I would actually say that our business has pivoted and evolved from being this mental well being resource to really serving as this performance management tool for the whole human. So it’s really evolved into how can we provide democratized performance management that is personalized for our employees and is taking the whole human into effect, which I think has really resonated with this millennial and Gen Z workforce that now makes up a majority of our workforce today.
0:04:34 B: So, Alex, you mentioned the democratization. Let’s dig a little deeper into that and how that works for organizations.
0:04:44 Alex Simmons: Yeah. So as we think about the coaching landscape, there’s really two different ways of looking at it from the behavioral health lens. You have kind of older, antiquated EAP programs that are really serving as that crisis management solution for you. And then you have more progressive solutions like the modern health of the world, the spring health, the lira healths, that are serving as that one stop behavioral health platform where it’s anything from self care to therapy to psychiatry to coaching.
0:05:14 Alex Simmons: And it includes all of that. It’s available for everybody at the organization, and it’s exclusively focused on your mental health. On the flip side of the coin, on the professional development side, you have typically, if you’re looking at coaching from a professional development lens, you have companies like betterup that are out there or executive coaching platforms, but it’s upskilling your people professionally. And it’s typically dedicated to call it VP level and up or reserve for the C suite.
0:05:44 Alex Simmons: It’s very exclusive for high potential or senior leadership within the organization. So you have these kind of two prongs. And where we’ve really found a niche is we have the ability to flex in either direction, personally or professionally, but it’s offered to the masses at the organizational level. So we’ve created an affordable coaching model for businesses to be able to offer employees at scale the ability to work with a coach on a one on one basis.
0:06:15 Alex Simmons: And so the way we think about that is we have a network of over 200 coaches on our platform today. And we think about them through the lens of the mental health lens and the professional growth lens. So from the professional side, we have an entire cohort of coaches who are former C suite execs, former HR leaders, former L D leaders, former CTOs, former software engineers who are now ICF accredited coaches from your IPECs or CTIs, highly vetted, highly accredited coaches.
0:06:47 Alex Simmons: And then from a personal lens, we have an entire cohort of coaches who are actually master’s levels therapists who have formal coach training in their background. So basically what we’re doing, if you’re a 100 employee organization, we’re offering Boon to everybody at the company. It’s use it or lose it. Sign up if you’d like. This is your one stop personal and professional growth resource and you’re able to go through the process and basically determine do you want to see this as more of a career growth or more of a personal development or in most cases, what? We’ve seen a combination of both.
0:07:26 B: One of the big challenges or problems that you see facing HR departments today as it relates to what you guys go out in the market and do.
0:07:35 Alex Simmons: So say the three biggest challenges that we’re consistently hearing from HR leaders is around recruiting and retention. And this is particularly true with smaller businesses where it’s like, hey, we may not be able to compete from a compensation lens. So how do we recruit and how do we develop our younger leadership within the organization? And we found that especially within the small to mid sized business community. So our sweet spot is really 50 to 1050 to 5000 employees.
0:08:07 Alex Simmons: Where we’re launching this democratized coaching resource, we found that these are HR teams of one to three people. They’re spread super thin. They don’t have a robust L D infrastructure. And so in a lot of ways, Boone serves as an extension of the HR or people team to help recruit and retain that top talent. So they’re using Boone in their recruiting process, they’re using Boone in their onboarding process. They’re using Boone in their manager promotion process.
0:08:35 Alex Simmons: So it’s been a big resource in that recruiting and retention side of the equation. And then the other two big things that we’re hearing, again, specifically in this small to midsize sector, is employees are stressed and burnt out. This remote hybrid environment has really stressed the need for connectivity, and there is a loneliness epidemic in our country. And it’s like, as a company, how do you continue to build that culture in this remote hybrid environment where people, it becomes more difficult to have difficult conversations, it becomes more difficult to just create connection in general, how do I take care of my people through that lens?
0:09:17 Alex Simmons: And then the last thing that we’re really seeing is an inherent lack of career growth opportunities, particularly in the small business space. So McKinsey just came out with a study where they actually looked at in 2022, what were the top reasons why employees were leaving their organizations. Historically, that’s always been compensation related. And when they looked back at this study for 2022, for Millennial Gen Z and young baby boomers, the top reason why they were leaving their previous employer was actually lack of career growth opportunities.
0:09:52 Alex Simmons: So what we’re really seeing, recruiting and retention challenges. Employees are stressed, anxious and burnt out, and an inherent career growth, an inherent lack of career growth opportunities. So as we look at that, we see this huge intersection between, okay, how do I develop my people personally and professionally, and how can I think about that in an integrated solution?
0:10:18 B: How do you think leaders should think about managing today’s workforce?
0:10:26 Alex Simmons: So I think the biggest thing that we have seen, and I just continue to stress this idea that it has now become nearly impossible to separate work life from personal life. So you, as an organization, how are you thinking about supporting your people personally and professionally, and thinking about the ways in which, if your people are struggling personally, they’re not going to show up the way you want them to professionally.
0:10:58 Alex Simmons: So how can you think about providing a personalized experience for your employees? Because what we’re finding today is every employee has their own story. I gave you my story of me being stressed and anxious around some of the professional challenges that I’m dealing with. Every employee has their own version of that story. And I think what we’re seeing is, when you’re just approaching this through the lens of, okay, I need to beef up my mental health resources for my team, so I need to bring on, my people are really struggling. I need a therapy resource for my people.
0:11:33 Alex Simmons: We are seeing that that is really missing the boat around a lot of what employees are dealing with. Don’t get me wrong, therapy is an amazing resource. I have a therapist. I have a coach. I feel like that should be something that everybody has the opportunity to take advantage of. But when you are purely approaching it from a mental health lens, you are missing the boat on a lot of what’s going on professionally for these employees and vice versa. If you’re just approaching it through the professional lens, you’re not really catering to the personal needs of that employee.
0:12:08 Alex Simmons: And it’s all coming back to how are your people going to show up? So we really feel like, how can you create a personalized experience for your employees that is really catering to that intersection both personally and professionally?
0:12:24 B: So you’ve touched a bit about how Boone Health is different. Let’s dig a little bit more into that as you think about the competitors that are out there in the HR tech landscape that you come up against, what makes Boone health different from the other options someone might?
0:12:47 Alex Simmons: In my, I was doing kind of like a visual Venn diagram of sorts. But on the behavioral health side, you have your modern health, your spring health, your lira healths, which are your one stop shop behavioral health platforms, and they’re going to essentially replace your existing eap. And on the professional side, you have things like Betterup, which is they have, I think, 5000 coaches on their platform.
0:13:16 Alex Simmons: They’re working with the sales forces of the world and really Fortune 100 businesses. And those behavioral health platforms are largely focused in the Fortune 100 space as well. Where we really sit is the middle of those two categories. So if you’re looking at these behavioral health platforms, they are not going to be a professional resource for your people. And if you’re looking at Betterup, they’re not going to be a personal resource for your people.
0:13:44 Alex Simmons: We feel like there is an opportunity, especially for these small businesses that don’t want to be bringing on multiple point solutions. We feel like there’s an opportunity to provide an integrated personal and professional experience for your people where Boone can just be your one stop personal and professional growth tool. It sits on top of your EAP program and it’s affordable. So I really think that our ability to flex in either direction, personally and professionally, is really what differentiates us.
0:14:16 Alex Simmons: And I would say just from a target market perspective. As I mentioned, those companies are really focused on Fortune 100 enterprise level customers. Our target customer, our average company size is 250 employees. So that 50 to 1000 range, where you really have these HR teams of one to three people, they’re spread super thin. Boone offers this integrated vendor experience where you can just rely on them to be an extension of the HR team.
0:14:47 B: Aside from the size of the organization. Are there other characteristics that make a company a perfect fit for Boone health?
0:14:56 Alex Simmons: Yeah, so I would say our customer demographic today is, we’ve seen a couple of industries in specific that have really resonated. So think marketing and advertising, healthcare, logistics and transportation, financial services, a few others. But I think more broadly, it has been this white collar, knowledge economy workforce where it’s kind of the high stress, high workload type work environment. About 80% of our users today are between the ages of 18 to 44. So definitely a high stress on millennial and Gen Z.
0:15:38 Alex Simmons: And we found that when we launch with an organization, so say we’re launching with 100 employee organization, we’re finding that on average, 50% of the people are signing up for Boon. So we’re getting half the organization to sign up, and then 30% of the organization is kind of consistently working with a Boon coach over time. So across all phases of the organization, from manager to individual contributor, all the way up to C suite within the organization, and really focus in that white collar lens. But, yeah, I’d say white collar more generally.
0:16:19 B: And what type of impact have you seen organizations that work with Boone Health experience?
0:16:25 Alex Simmons: Yeah, so there’s been a couple of things. I think, from a utilization perspective I just mentioned, we get 50% of the company to sign up, typically, and we’ll see 30% of the employees use it over time. So from that landscape alone, what we are doing for our organizations that we’re working with, we’re providing aggregated insights and coach reported themes on a monthly basis. So we’re actually giving you, the HR leader, insight into what are the biggest pain points that my people are dealing with. Is it around time management and productivity? Is it around having difficult conversations in the workplace? Is it around building resilience or stress and anxiety? What is it?
0:17:09 Alex Simmons: And then that conversation allows us to have a conversation with you of, okay, how else can we help you solve those pain points beyond one on one coaching? And so we’ve really just turned into an extension of the HR team, primarily through the insights that we’re giving back to the organization around what are the biggest pain points that their people are dealing with. So that’s been a huge thing, is really being this pulse on the organization.
0:17:35 Alex Simmons: And then from an ROI perspective, we’re tracking a handful of metrics where we’re seeing really market improvements after working with a Boone coach over time. So things like employee productivity, work satisfaction, work life integration, employee resilience, we’re seeing that on average, roughly 85% of employees are improving in each of those areas after working with their Boone coach for just six sessions.
0:18:03 Alex Simmons: So we’re seeing really market improvement in that area. We’re also seeing that Boon users are more than 50% less likely to turn over than non boon users. I know employee retention is a huge issue for a lot of organizations today, so we’re providing an ROI analysis around that where we’re finding that our companies are saving $3 for every dollar they’re spending on Boone just from employee turnover alone.
0:18:29 Alex Simmons: So a handful of different things that we’re tracking and then we call all of this the Boone effect.
0:18:36 B: I love it. What would you say is the biggest hesitation that you see companies have when they’re implementing a solution like Boon health?
0:18:46 Alex Simmons: Biggest hesitation is really just around the idea of I have an existing EAP today, how is Boone going to layer on top of this? And I think what we’ve really found is that 95% of the companies we’ve talked to that have an EAP program in place today, they would argue that utilization is probably somewhere in the 1% to 2% range. Super low utilization. Most employees don’t even know it exists. Yes, it’s going to be a cheaper resource, but the reason it’s cheaper is because nobody’s using it.
0:19:27 Alex Simmons: So that is the kind of, I guess the cost conversation of can we get away with just having an EAP resource? And can we get away with doing something internally through our management training process that we already have within our organization? Or do we feel like we really want to bring on a coaching resource to help our people further their growth and development in the organization? So those are some of the bigger things that we have seen.
0:20:01 B: What is your future vision for Boone Health?
0:20:05 Alex Simmons: Future vision? I touched on it a little bit around being this extension of the HR team. I think we really see ourselves continuing to evolve in that area where it’s extension of the HR team across all phases of the employee lifecycle. So from recruiting, to onboarding, to promoting a new manager, to a parent, coming back from maternity or paternity leave, to promotion into senior leadership to even severance, and offering BoonE as a resource in that category, being a resource that HR leaders can turn to in all phases of the employee mean being the first call for any personal and professional need that an organization has. Period. So one example of that know with everything that’s going on in the Middle east right now, we’re finding that a lot of employees are really struggling to cope with what’s happening overseas.
0:21:07 Alex Simmons: And we just came out and offered literally just safe space support groups for our customers where we were able to deliver those 24 hours later after everything was happening. And it was just a quick turnaround for us where nobody else is providing that level of service, we had another customer reach out to us and tell us, hey, my IT implementation team is really struggling with project management training right now. Can Boone come in and do this sort of thing? And we were able to facilitate that through one of our Boone coaches that has a decade of project management background at Google and YouTube.
0:21:44 Alex Simmons: So it’s like beyond the one on one coaching experience. We’re becoming so embedded into these organizations. And so I think it’s this idea of continuing to become an extension of that HR team. And then more than that, it’s how can we continue to evolve as this pulse on the organization? How can we leverage AI to start to really turn those coaching themes and insights into real time recommendations around what you can be doing as a culture leader within your organization?
0:22:16 Alex Simmons: So if we just saw that five sessions were around time management and productivity or having difficult conversations. Okay, Deanna, you’re going to be flagged. Here are some things you can be doing around that real time based on the data that we’re collecting. So I think there’s a huge opportunity for AI in our business not replacing the coaching that we’re doing, because I think people are still starving for that human connection. And the value of having that personalized one on one experience with your coach is truly special.
0:22:49 Alex Simmons: But I think leveraging AI from A data and insights perspective is a huge opportunity for us.
0:22:58 B: Very cool. So what final thoughts do you want to leave our audience with?
0:23:03 Alex Simmons: Final thoughts. I think just the idea that culture and retention and development continue to be the biggest themes that we are hearing with HR leaders that we’re talking to and CEOs in this remote hybrid workplace that seemingly is here to stay in some capacity, it’s becoming more and more challenging to build culture, to build development, and to keep your people connected. And so I would just challenge everybody out there to really take a hard look at, okay, how are we solving those challenges today?
0:23:42 Alex Simmons: Are we really investing in our employees the way we need to be to maintain that culture, to make our people feel like they’re growing within our organization, which is ultimately going to set our company up for the next ten years? So how can we have a longer term vision about how we’re going to continue investing and growing within the organization?
0:24:06 B: Last question, where can our listeners go to learn more about Boone Health?
0:24:12 Alex Simmons: Well, you can check out our page on LinkedIn, of course, but our company website is Boone Health Boon Health. So check it out and if you’re interested in learning more, feel free to just schedule a demo on there.
0:24:30 B: Alex, thanks for sharing your time and expertise with us today. And for those listening, be sure to check out Boone Health for more information.
0:24:38 Alex Simmons: Awesome. Thank you. Deanna.
0:24:48 Deanna Shimota: Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Tech Spotlight Podcast where we showcase some of the best up and coming HR technology options in the market. If you are an HR tech company leader who would like to be considered for a guest spot on this program, please contact me via growthmodemarketing.com or reach out to me Deanna Shimota on LinkedIn and if you found this show informative, subscribe, connect with us on social media and leave a review.
0:25:17 Deanna Shimota: This is Deanna with growth mode Marketing signing off. Thanks for listening. We hope you’ll tune in again next time.