Re-Writing the Book on Effective Human Resource Solutions

Organizations of all sizes and types find themselves torn between conducting the business and mission of the organization and internal management. Many times the internal management is given short shrift simply due to time constraints of day-to-day running of the business, or lack of expertise in areas such as benefits or human resources.

Why Consider Human Resources Consulting?

Organizations can achieve significant advantages from outsourcing one or more HR functions. You can reduce your operating costs, mitigate risk, increase your focus on core competencies, not to mention freeing your employees to spend more time on strategic issues and less time on administrative issues. And you are able to do this while remaining focused on your core business — what it is you’re in business to do.

The ability add systems and support without the intrinsic costs of owning and supporting leading edge technology can improve the quality and consistency of the HR process.

And, if HR is done right, you develop a strong, cohesive team of employees which in turn results in a strong organization and business success.

What Does HR Consulting and Outsourcing Entail?

Outsourcing of HR functions is intended to streamline systems and save money by allowing the internal HR and financial professionals to focus on more strategic issues for the furtherance of the organizations’ core competencies.

The work performed to first recruit and hire an employee who meets the needs of your organization starts the process and it progresses through the educational phase and into the career management phase for that employee. Throughout, HR policies and procedures must be in place to mitigate risk to the employer and streamline the administrative function. It is a systematic approach that includes recruitment, employment, compliance, career management and termination of employment which can occur for any number of reasons.

It is critical that your HR functions not bog down your organization, that they serve to support your organization’s culture and reason for being, and that they have a reason for their existence. Tompkins HR Group was formed with a strong entrepreneurial sense. We understand that there needs to be a reason to do something, and not just because an outside consultant says so.

What About Technology To Support The HR Function?

Tompkins HR Group offers its clients access to proprietary software that we like to call Ceres.

Ceres is designed to be an educational tool to provide information and resources to both the organization and its employees that is customized – there’s that word again – and branded to the employer. The site is developed and maintained by our staff ensuring the information presented is accurate, comprehensive and timely for your organization.

Employers can customize their Ceres site to include retirement plan information, HR-related forms, information about insurance costs, health care options, drug encyclopedias, corporate newsletters, links to provider lists, mail-order pharmacy refills, and much more. Information on the site is not limited or restrictive – we have clients who provide only benefit information, or benefit information and HR forms, and we have clients who reinforce their mission and principles (and sometimes dress codes) on the site. It is truly up to the organization how they want to utilize the technology.

An organization’s customized site can be accessed through the Internet with specialized log-ons and passwords, or directly through an employer’s own intranet using a secure, embedded password system. Employees can access – any time, from anywhere – clear, accurate, up-to-date information about their benefits and other HR topics.

Case studies of our clients who utilize Ceres demonstrate that an organization can free up a good share of the administrative time of an employee in order to spend time in more strategic or directly impactful work for the organization.

What About Training Programs?

Customization is the key to effective training programs. Our firm helps to determine the needs of the organization and will design the training program to match. Educators and facilitators may be from Tompkins HR Group, or may be community leaders specializing in a particular topic.

There are virtually unlimited topics that can be a part of a particular training program - interviewing practices, termination practices, ADA accommodations, harassment and sexual harassment, wage and hour laws, project management, leadership training, and conflict resolution, among others. Tell us what you need.

We have a list of our training programs available for your review or, of course, we can customize one specifically for your needs.

What If We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know?

That’s okay, because we can take you through an assessment to help you determine if there are steps that you should be taking to improve your systems or better comply with the myriad laws and rules surrounding the hiring and management of employees. The assessment is comprehensive and thorough, and we promise to tell you if you are doing something right and don’t need our services. We also promise to tell you if you need to work on something.

What Resources Can I Expect From Tompkins HR Group?

Salary Benchmarking and Surveys - We offer current surveys for both benefits and compensation that are made available to our clients for their own benchmarking projects. There are many HR consultants who expect the client to purchase the surveys, but we think that is silly. In our view, you come to us for support and assistance and it is our job to provide the resources.

Reference Library - We offer a professional library of HR reference books that are diligently updated monthly as new case law is promulgated. We sought counsel from several employment law attorneys regarding the reference library to invest in so that resources available to our clients are simply the best available.

Now, this leads us to legal advice. We are an HR consulting firm and not employment law firm. Being in business ourselves, we understand the value of good legal advice. Be prepared that in our work as an HR consultant, you may very well hear us say that you need to consult legal counsel — perhaps to do a final review of your personnel handbook, or possibly because you might be entering into a situation that would require legal counsel and our intervention – however well intentioned – may jeopardize attorney-client privilege. In any case, your best interest will always be put first.

Total Compensation Statements – Every business pays a good share of its revenue on some expense associated with employees. And, given that your employees are generally the lifeblood of your business, this is a good expenditure. However, oftentimes employees don’t see the entire picture. If they were to consider their total compensation – paid time off, employer tax payments towards social security, salary and wages, incentive and bonus – well, it would be a big number, a big number you understand and may need others to, as well.

We offer software to provide customized – that word again – total compensation statements. As an employer you can include all of the individual pieces that make up total compensation, plus explanations of the compensation and messages that tie this compensation to the company’s vision, mission and culture.

Human Resources Client Web Portal – through our website you will have access to a wide variety of notices and documents, highly relevant third-party articles about to human resource issues, our current and archived e-newsletters and other resources to help you manage your HR functions well and effectively.

Lastly, we have also invested in a network of strong, senior level HR professionals who provide advice and counsel to both our HR consultants and our clients in more complicated or specialized matters.

Contact Us:

You probably have recognized that we customize our services to meet the needs of our clients. If you would like more detail about why we are different, please take a moment to read the stories on the top shelf of our home page. Or, call us at 503.224.3040 and tell us your story.