Five service lines, bought three ways. Most clients start with one and add others as the relationship makes it obvious where the next gap is. Nothing here is bundled: you are not required to take payroll to get compliance, or compliance to get training.
01 · Outsourcing
HR outsourcing
The whole function, or the parts of it you cannot staff. Hiring paperwork and onboarding, personnel files, the handbook and its acknowledgments, leave administration, benefits enrollment and changes, performance documentation, offboarding and final pay, and a named person your managers can call before they do something they cannot undo.
02 · Payroll
Payroll outsourcing
Administration of the payroll cycle on a licensed payroll platform: timekeeping review, overtime and double time, meal and rest premiums, shift and bonus pay, deductions, garnishments, expense reimbursement, terminations and final pay within the deadlines California sets, and pay statements carrying every item the law requires them to carry.
03 · Compliance
California compliance
The handbook and the policy set behind it, exempt and independent-contractor classification, meal and rest practice, overtime and reporting-time rules, leave administration where several statutes overlap, required notices and postings, mandated training, and the recordkeeping that lets you prove any of it years later.
04 · Training
Training and development
Training delivered to supervisors and to staff, covering the subjects California requires and the practical ones it does not: wage and hour, leave and accommodation, documentation, hiring, and what a manager does in the ten minutes after somebody raises a complaint. Management skills development as a structured program, and confidential one-to-one executive coaching.
05 · Talent
Talent and organization
Job descriptions that match the work actually performed, structured hiring, offer and promotion practice, pay bands and pay-scale disclosure, manager training in the conversations managers avoid, and organizational design for companies whose structure stopped matching their headcount two years ago.
Scope
What this practice does not do.
It does not practice law. sfHR Consulting is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Where a question turns on the interpretation of a statute, on litigation risk, or on privilege, you will be told to take it to employment counsel, and the work will be organized so that counsel receives an orderly record rather than an unsorted file.
It is not a PEO. There is no co-employment, no employer of record, no pooled benefits master plan. You remain the employer, your people stay yours, and every employment decision is finally yours to make.
It does not sell insurance or benefits. No commissions are earned on any product recommended to you, which is the only way advice about a benefits broker can be worth listening to.
It does not conduct workplace investigations. In California that work belongs to a licensed private investigator or to an attorney, and this practice is neither. Where an investigation is needed you will be told so at once and referred to someone qualified to conduct it. What can be done here is everything around it: the complaint intake route, the interim measures, the policy that governs it, the training that reduces how often it is needed, and the personnel record afterwards.
It does not take work it cannot do properly. Immigration filings, ERISA plan drafting, executive compensation tax structuring, and multi-state payroll tax registration are referred out. A practice that claims everything is telling you something about its standards.
Choosing
Start from the symptom.
| What you are seeing | Where it belongs |
|---|---|
| Nobody owns HR, and it shows in the paperwork | HR outsourcing |
| Payroll is late, wrong, or nobody can explain a pay stub | Payroll outsourcing |
| The handbook is five years old, or came from another state | California compliance |
| Salaried staff who may not lawfully be salaried | California compliance |
| A complaint has been made about a manager | A licensed investigator or your employment counsel conducts it. Call here about the process around it. |
| Someone has to be let go and nobody has documented anything | HR outsourcing |
| Required harassment prevention training is overdue | Training and development |
| Newly promoted managers are out of their depth | Training and development |
| Two people doing the same job are paid differently and nobody knows why | Talent and organization |
| Hiring is ad hoc and inconsistent | Talent and organization |
| An agency notice, a wage claim, or a demand letter has arrived | Employment counsel first. Then call here about the record. |