00:00:05) - Welcome to The HR Tech Spotlight podcast. I'm Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode 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.
(00:00:45) - Hello and welcome to another episode of the HR Tech Spotlight. In this episode, we are shining a spotlight on Mineral, an HR tech platform that combines data, technology and human expertise to take the guesswork out of HR and compliance. Joining me from Mineral to talk about the platform is Diane Haines, chief product and marketing officer of the company. Hello, Diane.
(00:01:08) - Hello. How are you? Excited to be here.
(00:01:11) - Yeah.
(00:01:11) - Good. Thank you for coming on. So tell us about your background in the HR tech space.
(00:01:18) - Sure. I'm really passionate about air. I've been working in software for too many years. I don't want to take myself, but it's been a lot of years. and, mostly always been in business software. So software that helps businesses like your ERP, CRM, and my last two companies, more on HR tech. And I have to say, I really enjoy tech because I've mainly worked with enterprise companies or small medium-sized businesses. And one of my favorite stories is I was talking to a small business owner and he was relating to me. He's like Dion, he was a home builder. And he said, Diane, I got into this business and I love my business because I like to build homes for families. I am not here to do accounting in here, but it's necessary evil for his company. So he loves it when he can leverage software to kind of get back to his passion of what he why he loves being a small business owner, which is not all the administrative stuff that is required and running the business.
(00:02:14) - So that's always really satisfying that we can help people like yourself.
(00:02:19) - Yeah. So let's talk about Mineral. Give us the elevator pitch. What does Mineral do?
(00:02:26) - Yeah. Great. so Mineral is, as you said, we're all about simplifying air and compliance. As you can imagine, over the last 20 years, h has gotten really complicated for businesses. you know, really, we've seen a lot of regulations come up around mandating sick leaves, all sorts of things that you have to do. Covid was a huge watershed event of now you've got to check vaccinations, not vaccinations. People are in the office, people aren't in the office. And so there's just been a lot over the last 20 years that have both state and federal regulations governing compliance. That has become really complicated for small business owners. And so what we do is we help our small business and our clients make sure they're aware of what the regulations are, how they affect their business. And most importantly, translate those regulations into, okay, this is what you need to do, right? Like, I don't know about you, but if you read any state or federal legislation in that legalese, it's very hard to understand what you, as a small business owner, are supposed to do now that they've passed that regulation.
(00:03:31) - So we translate them, we let them know, okay, you need to put a new policy in your handbook. You need to offer this kind of training. So we translate it into really actionable, tangible things that a small business owner needs to do so they can make sure they're in compliance.
(00:03:47) - Yeah, I know compliance is tricky in the hair world. There are constantly changing state and national regulations to keep up with. And you know, obviously as an HR leader, you've got a lot of things on your plate, a lot of things to do. And compliance is not usually their favorite thing to do. Right. So they need a good partner that can help them manage that.
(00:04:08) - Yeah. What I often hear from our clients, and I hear it over and over again. I hear a lot of our clients say I have a hard time sleeping at night, because I don't know what I don't know. And I know that there's always something that I'm not keeping track of or I'm not. I don't fully understand what my business is doing, and I'm putting my business at risk.
(00:04:27) - And so I often hear our clients tell us, you know, Mineral gives them the peace of mind that they're not missing something, they're not misinterpreting something, and that they're doing what they need to do to stay in compliance.
(00:04:42) - Yeah. So I know you mentioned that Mineral was recently acquired. What does that mean for clients that are working with you?
(00:04:52) - Yeah. So in January of 2024, we got acquired by a company called Major Tech, who is a leader in, legal as well as, GRC sort of governance, risk and compliance. So the good news is, we're part of a bigger company that focuses on really a lot of the same things, which is compliance. And so now we we are a part of a bigger solution set for businesses who aren't maybe just worried about HR compliance. Maybe they're also worried about from the legal aspect or governance aspect. And so we can help provide peace of mind across multiple compliance areas now not just HR. And so really, really excited the the global company and as well.
(00:05:36) - And so we're excited about being a part of tech and really helping more and more businesses.
(00:05:44) - What would you say, Diane is a big challenge or problem that you see HR departments facing today that they need to lean into now?
(00:05:55) - Sure, you know, for the last year. I mean, I can tell you, I have not been able to have a conversation with whether it be an analyst or one of our clients or one of our partners, without talking about artificial intelligence. I mean, it's just everywhere. I was actually getting my teeth cleaned and the dental hygienist, you know, kind of making conversation was like, what do you do, blah, blah, blah. And I said, oh, I just happened to, you know, was on a webinar and I was talking about artificial intelligence, and she just started talking to me, you know, while she had all these things in my mouth, she just started talking to me. She's like, I'm a dental hygienist, but I've heard all about AI.
(00:06:28) - And so it's everywhere. Everybody's asking about it. And what I often find in with our HR clients is that they're being asked or they're seeing, vendors and providers talking about AI, and they have a lot of concerns. You know, I've talked to a lot of clients who are wondering, you know, what? What is the AI using? What kind of data is it using? Is it ethical? We've seen some large companies put AI into their HR solutions and introduce prejudice or bias, for example, into the recruitment process without knowing it. So there's a lot of excitement about AI, but also some concern, particularly in the HR industry, about how far they can go, how much should they trust it. You know, what data privacy is in place, what ethics are involved with it? because, you know, people can't get it wrong. Right? There are major implications if there are mistakes or they're given advice that that is not trustworthy or not, they're not sure where the information of data is coming from.
(00:07:26) - So I spend a lot of my days these days talking about folks, about AI and how we can leverage it in, in, in what we do every day. You know, the example is Minerals. So what we do is we provide advice, we have a platform as well as a service team that you can call and ask for advice. So the beauty of what we're doing with eyes were combining the technology with the humans. so the humans are making sure that the answers that technology are given are accurate without prejudice, without bias. And then the technology is making it easier to reach more and more people. so it's a, it's a it's a good balance of the two. And I think we have found, as I've talked to clients, that there's, there's this trust that we've been able to establish as a company. because we have all these experts. But now that trust, we need to transfer to the AI enabled technology that we have, and they feel a lot better because we do have that human in the loop within.
(00:08:25) - Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I think with I, you know, it's not new in the air tech space, but it's much more like widely known and prevalent now ever since, you know, probably about a year ago, year and a half ago. And, you know, it's really interesting to see as an industry, organizations are embracing the HR tech that has AI in it, yet they have a lot of hesitation, you know, and they don't trust it. And I think there are a lot of things that have to be figured out from, you know, an ethics standpoint. And ultimately it will come down to air compliance and how companies can and can't use this stuff. Right.
(00:09:07) - That's right. And then again, like, that's why I've said, as I've talked with people that trust that they're worried about knowing that there are humans in the loop and involved with it just adds that extra layer of comfort and confidence.
(00:09:20) - Yeah, that makes sense. As you think about the landscape for solutions that are similar to Mineral, how would you say your company is different or has a unique point of view in the market compared to those other options?
(00:09:35) - Yeah.
(00:09:35) - I mean, for us, one thing would be, you know, we're trying to make air and compliance simple. So it's it's really difficult to find another provider in the industry that has as much, touches as much part of the air world as we do from compliance perspective. There's a lot of point solutions that will help you with certain things. Build an employee handbook, provide training to your employees you know, help you draft job descriptions. but we're an all in one compliance platform. So it's all together because we we know we mainly serve small, medium sized businesses. And we know that small, medium sized businesses don't have big IT staffs to implement lots of different software, let alone figure out how to integrate the software together. And so that's why we've really focused on making sure our platform you can get, our platform you can add to it all. It's all integrated. You can even reach out to our HR experts as part of the platform. Get the answers. And if you forgot what I told you, when you ask me a question, it's all part of the platform and you can go reference it.
(00:10:37) - So it makes it really easy. I think that that's why our tagline is about making the HR and compliance simple. we try to make that experience simple and really demystify compliance for the small business, small business owner who, as I mentioned before in my story before, wants to get back to the part of their business they're passionate about. And that's not usually HR and compliance.
(00:11:00) - Right. So you mentioned small and medium sized businesses. Can you tell us a little bit more about what type of companies are the perfect fit to work with Mineral?
(00:11:10) - Sure. I have two examples, to kind of tells you sort of the spectrum that we have. So a really great example is a small business. I'd say, you know, under 100 employees, they don't have maybe they may not have a full time HR person. A lot of times these businesses and, you know, a lot of these restaurants that you go to, stores that you visit and they, they usually there's someone who part-time is doing all right.
(00:11:34) - they're the office manager or the accounting person, and H.R. is just one of the hats that they're one. So they're not dedicated to HR. And as you can imagine, you know, we have a lot of clients like this. I was thinking about I was talking to a woman who, manages, several and health care clinics and practices. Right. And she's an office manager, so she's doing everything from worrying about sort of the billing as well as the HR aspects. And she was telling me the story about how she used to spend hours scouring the internet for answers to these compliance, questions that she had, and she would get answers, but questionably, or this is the right answer, is this outdated? And then she'd have to interpret what the answer was. And so she got access to the Mineral platform. And it's really been helpful for her to save all that time, but also so it's significantly cut the amount of time she's had to spend looking for answers. But probably more importantly, given her that peace of mind or confidence that the answers she has are the ones that she needs because she is not a dedicated HR professional who has done this for 20 years.
(00:12:40) - It's a side part of her. So that's a good example of one of our smaller clients. Another good example of one of our clients is, I don't know if you're a football fan, but the Dallas Cowboys is one of our clients. This is not the same as Jana and the small clinics, right? 600 people, you know, they've got a football team, they've got a stadium, they've got food and beverage consulting. It's a pretty complex business, right? Travel, all of these things. They are actually one of our clients too, and they have a dedicated HR team. I think there's 4 to 6 people in HR. That's all they do. So you know, but you but do you think someone like that a group like that, they don't have all the answers either. Things are cropping up all the time that they have to deal with that they're not sure about. So they leverage us differently than Jana did. You know, in that case, in this case, we're more of like a complimentary support, helping them answer questions that they don't have.
(00:13:31) - They're experts in certain things, but not experts in things. So that's a good example of a, a larger client of ours versus a smaller client of ours and how we help them. But depending on what they need, we help them in different ways, both similar things that for both of them is that we're providing them that peace of mind that they know what HR and compliance regulations and things that they are required to do. And we also provide some of the tools to automate some of that. So we are definitely providing that to both the that value to both sides companies.
(00:14:04) - And what impact have you seen organizations have that have worked with Mineral?
(00:14:12) - Yeah. I mean, we see everything from like that woman is a great example. She talks about the significant amount of time that she's been able to save and doesn't have to spend on researching and looking up things. you know, other clients have said to us things, for example, they're able to be more proactive. A lot of HR historically has been a very reactive space where something happens and you have to go deal with it, right? we definitely had clients tell us, like, we could maybe help them stave off some problems that that maybe oh, gosh, we didn't know we needed to provide that training.
(00:14:45) - So let's get our employees trained. That's a lot of compliance, is getting employees trained so that they don't put the company at risk or do something that they don't know is risky for the company. So a lot of the time what we see is, our business, we're impacting businesses by saving them time, giving them that peace of mind, and also helping them avoid issues that they don't even know. Are there, before they happen?
(00:15:11) - What is the future vision for Mineral? I know you guys just got acquired. There's probably a lot in the hopper.
(00:15:17) - Yeah, I mean, we're excited, but as I mentioned before about, I guess I would just say compliance is not getting any simpler. We know it's going to get more complex. And we know for businesses, it's going to be more and more complex. And so they're going to have more and more challenges. So we're looking forward to, really helping across all of the compliance, not just each other, but as I mentioned, legal and other areas, really making sure that companies, know what they're getting into, what they need to address.
(00:15:45) - And, with Mitratech also serves even larger businesses than we serve today. So we're looking to really expand our compliance even beyond small and medium-sized businesses. So, as I said, I think the industry and the regulations out there, make it very easy for us to continue to be in a place where we can help businesses because it's not getting any easier.
(00:16:09) - Yeah. I mean, that is so true. What would you say is the biggest hesitation that you see companies have when they're implementing a solution like Mineral?
(00:16:20) - Yeah. So with the small medium-sized businesses that we see, we usually are seeing people who don't have a solution today. They are typically, I'd say, doing the DIY. They're googling, they're trying to find out things. even worse, perhaps they're paying very expensive lawyers or consultants to ask them a question here or there. Right. And we all know what those billable rates are very often. So what we find is that that's the hesitation, we usually don't have a problem with people who are paying consultants and lawyers a lot of money to kind of kind of make a switch because they're already spending a lot of them.
(00:16:53) - But when we often find is in small midsize businesses who are just getting by, just taking that risk by doing the DIY method and doing, you know, googling and looking for answers, that there that that's the hesitation is actually investing the money into something new that they, they've never had before. It's I think it's classic software challenge in general for small medium-sized businesses. You know, when do I spend money on hiring more people versus when do I spend money on technology? So, that the process of things is easier. So I don't need to hire local. Right? I think it's a quintessential challenge that most small businesses, and I think what I've found are in my 20 plus years of working in software, is that small and midsize businesses are getting more savvy. I've seen a lot of businesses, especially that now, are really understanding that software technology actually is going to help them from the get-go. It used to be people would hire a lot of people and then they'd say, gosh, we can't scale this way.
(00:17:54) - Let's invest in some technology. We're definitely seeing small midsize businesses now who are very savvy. They are starting out with technology versus hiring all these people and then hiring the people that they really need, and making sure those people are doing really valuable client work instead of a grunt work that, frankly, software continue to. So I'm we're seeing less and less of that hesitation. But it's still there because, you know, these small businesses, they have to figure out where they're going to spend their money and if they're going to invest it in people, technology and other things. And so I'd say that's probably the biggest hurdle we see, is that people might not want to spend the money until they actually have a big problem. But then, my goodness, it's a really big problem.
(00:18:38) - Yeah. So what advice would you give to someone purchasing this type of technology? Like what considerations should they take? Into, you know, think about as they evaluate their options.
(00:18:53) - Yeah. You know, we talk a lot with people about making ROI decisions, right? because, yes, you're going to spend money on software, but the questions we always ask, so what would you do instead? Right.
(00:19:06) - Like what would you pay? What are you paying to a lawyer or a consultant? how many people would you need to employ to get to have the knowledge, to replace, you know, the software also? so that's more on the expense side of things also sort of what's the, the the risk that you're taking on by not investing in software. Right. What happens if you get fined by OSHA or, you have conducted a, you know, a search for candidate and the candidate comes back and said it was an unfair search, right? When you get fined, when you get like, how much does that cost compared to the dollars you'd spend every month on software? And usually when we have these conversations about what would you do instead and how much risk are you taking? The equation is usually pretty straightforward for them once they've considered it, but a lot of times people just start with, oh, I need to spend this amount of money and they're not thinking about what would they to be doing instead, what money or risk are they taking? So that's that's usually what the advice I give to people is look at this as an investment for the company and replacing other things that you're doing, or removing risks that you have for the company, or making sure that you're not going to get fined or sued.
(00:20:23) - And when you start looking at it that way, you know the dollars you're going to spend on technology won't seem as expensive.
(00:20:32) - Yeah, that's really good advice. So Diane, what final thoughts do you want to leave our audience with?
(00:20:40) - Yeah. You know, I probably just that, I think it's been really great to see in the last decade or so how air has really come into I'd say it's blossoming, period. Right where air used to be in a business, sort of like a side thing. Wasn't that strategic. Now, air is very strategic in most businesses. You know, investing in people, growing your people, upskilling your people. It's not a nice to do, right. It's a must-do. And it's been great to see people really recognize that. And as a result, the air technology industry has benefited because as a result, people realize they need to make investments into technology and air, to kind of help their businesses. And I think I want to leave your audience with the fact that, it's really an investment for scaling your business, and making sure that you're not, creating risk in your business.
(00:21:34) - and you know, really think about, like, what are all the things you can go back to doing, just like the star story I started with. What are all the things you can go back to doing as a business person? If you invested in some software and technology to help you take care of more of the administrative stuff, some tasks that are happening, if you are going to hire the next person, maybe you'd rather focus on hiring someone to grow the business, enrich the business rather than doing some of the more admin administrative tasks? I think that's where we found, frankly, software helpful in all of our lives. You know, being able to buy online if I don't want to drive that way, using something like Excel to calculate things, these aren't things that are taking away from other people. It's just making life easier. And that's how I kind of think of HR, technology, software, technology and software is really making a business less easier so that the people in your business can go and do things to help grow the business or in which the business.
(00:22:33) - Where can our listeners go to learn more about Mineral?
(00:22:37) - Sure they can go to trustMineral.com.
(00:22:41) - Excellent.
(00:22:43) - So that does it for this episode of the HR Tech Spotlight. Diane, thanks so much for being a guest on the show.
(00:22:51) - Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.
(00:22:54) - Of course. And to our listeners, be sure to check out Mineral.
(00:23:05) - 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. For a guest spot on this program. Please contact me via GrowthModeMarketing.Com. Reach out to me, Deanna Shimota, on LinkedIn. And if you found this show informative, subscribe to it. And leave a review.
(00:23:35) - This is Deanna with GrowthMode Marketing signing off. Thanks for listening. We hope you'll tune in again next time.