Making it Through the HR Maze
By Richard Lee
Assistant Business Editor
Re-Printed from The Stamford Advocate 10/21/04
The cost of having a human resources staff can be heavy for a small
or medium-sized business, but having someone to interpret complicated
federal and state employment laws and manage health coverage and
payroll for employees is becoming a necessity for nearly all companies.
Those
who cannot afford a full-time staff are increasingly seeking our
providers such as OperationsInc, a Stamford human resources service
provider for companies in southwestern Connecticut, Westchester County
N.Y., New York City and Long Island, N.Y.
Founded
by David Lewis, the firm offers the services of a dozen human resource
professionals with six to 20 years of experience on an as-needed,
contractual basis.
"Instead
of paying $100,000 a year for an HR professional, they can outsource
it to a company like us. We're available on-call. We consider good
prospects companies with 100 employees or less," Lewis said, commenting
that while many companies are growing they are trying to find ways
to avoid hiring a full-time human resources staff.
Often,
companies have a one-person human resources staff, and that individual
is overwhelmed with government regulations, health insurance and
payroll requirements and the responsibility of hiring and possibly
firing staff. As
a result, a mistake could put the company's good-standing in jeopardy,
said Lewis, who spent 19 years in human resources and management
positions.
"While
company executives are more concerned than ever about containing
costs...they are equally concerned with limited liability within their
organizations," he said. HR infrastructure is weak, incomplete and
assembled without the benefit of professional expertise."
Lewis
operates his business out of an office at his North Stamford home,
where he started the company in 2001. Services include recruitment,
benefits and compensation planning and administration, regulatory
compliance, employee relations, payroll processing, human resource
process management and record keeping.
OperationInc's
revenue doubled from December 2002 to December 2003 and is expected
to double again by this December, Lewis said. The company has accumulated
a client list of more than 50 businesses.
One
of them is the Cambridge Group, a Westport-based recruiter of physicians,
information technology professionals and specialized pharmaceutical
positions. Cambridge contacted OperationsInc more than a year
ago, and Lewis' firm recommended a number of changes.
"He
made sure we were compliant with all the rules and regs. He straightened
out our record keeping," said Mike Salvagno, president of Cambridge. "As
a small business owner, you're faced with so many regulations, but
we're not going to hire a full-time human resource professional.
It's not cost-effective."
Cambridge
has 35 employees and more than 50 contracted professionals who receive
company benefits during the course of a project.
"We're
actively supporting 15 clients on any given week. We're doing sexual
harassment prevention training, interview skills training. We service
offices of our clients all around the U.S.," Lewis said, stressing
that his staff members sign detailed confidentiality clauses to protect
the client's employee information.
When
Steven Bader started Nobel Americas Corp., a Stamford commodities
trading company, in 1996, he did not have a human resources staffer.
He realized that he needed some expertise and four years later contracted
with David Lewis.
"Any
firm not big enough to have its own HR staff is smart to have someone
like David from the start," Bader said. "It's a serious burden to
deal with all these HR things and make sure we are in compliance."
Bader
credited Lewis for suggesting that he hire a part-time human resources
professional now that the company has grown to 55 employees, Bader
still calls upon Lewis to deal with complicated human resource issues.
There
is a growing trend toward hiring outsourcing companies such as OperationsInc
to handle the daily duties of human resources departments, said Walter
Cleaver, president and chief executive officer of the Human Resources
Planning Society, a New York City-based professional organization
serving more than 3,000 members.
"A
lot of companies have decided to outsource that business that is
completely transactional," Cleaver said. The
strategic role that human resource executives play in helping guide
a company, however, should not be forgotten, he said.
