Moment 01
Your first real handbook
The policies live in email threads and memory. I write the handbook and the HR policies and procedures California actually requires, in language your team will read.
Compliance & policy →HR services · For urban organizations
The whole HR
function, on call
Does this sound like you?
- Your handbook is years out of date, or you never had one.
- Someone asked a classification, leave or termination question and nobody could answer it with confidence.
- A manager just received a complaint and nobody knows the next step.
- Your HR person left, or you never had one.
Not sure which one is you? Find your situation → Where a legal opinion is needed, I bring in your counsel.
HR services for small businesses, startups and minority-owned businesses of 10 to 150 employees, from an Oakland HR consultant serving the East Bay and the Bay Area. Full-scope HR support across nine disciplines: from executive search, compensation consulting and salary band design to FLSA audits, HRIS implementation and RIF compliance. Engage one, a cluster, or the function entire; every scope is priced before work begins.
Start here if you don't know where to start
Most companies that bring me in as a Bay Area HR consultant have one of three things: an employee handbook that is years out of date, a classification question they can't answer confidently, or a pay equity gap they need measured. Those are the three most requested services, and each one is a defined, fixed-scope engagement.
Who this is for
You compete on everything but budget
You run an urban organization: a Bay Area startup, minority-owned business, or nonprofit with 10 to 150 people, up against legacy employers with deep pockets. You grow on revenue, not venture money. You hire from your network, show up for each other, and see what legacy players miss: the underserved customer, the overlooked talent, the leaner way to run.
That also means your people decisions have to work harder per dollar. Network hiring leaves pay set case by case and documentation thin. California obligations arrive by headcount, often before anyone notices. And the person you cannot afford to lose is usually the one nobody has asked what they need.
Black founders received about 0.32% of U.S. venture funding in 2025. Source: Crunchbase.
You work directly with me, one on one, not with a junior staffer at a Bay Area HR consulting firm. Fractional HR, my thinking and my hands, runs $5,000 to $10,000 a month. HR advisory, my thinking and your team's hands, runs $2,000 to $4,000 a month. A single project is quoted to scope. Other firms sell the same role as outsourced HR, part-time HR or a fractional HR director. If you are weighing a PEO vs. an HR consultant, the difference is co-employment: a PEO takes over payroll and benefits, while my HR services for small businesses leave both with you. As an HR consultant for Oakland and the East Bay, I provide HR for small businesses from San Leandro to Berkeley, in San Francisco and San Jose, and remotely across California.
Start with your moment
Where most growing companies call me
Moment 02
Contractor or employee?
California's ABC test decides it, not the contract. I review every role before the state does.
Classification & pay →Moment 03
Crossing a headcount line
At 5 employees, harassment prevention training is required. At 15, every job posting needs a pay range. At 100, pay data reporting begins.
Compliance & policy →Moment 04
Keeping someone you cannot replace
Stay conversations, pay you can defend, and a growth path, before the resignation letter.
Retention & employee relations →Moment 05
Letting someone go
A termination process that holds up: the meeting plan, the words, and a final paycheck that arrives on time.
Termination planning →Outcare, do not outbid
What losing one star costs
One in 48 Bay Area jobs paid $500,000 or more in ADP’s 2024 payroll data. You cannot outbid those employers. You can outcare them: fair pay, flexibility, growth, and people who feel seen.
Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary. Enter a salary to see yours.
Cost to replace that person
$45,000 to $180,000
That is the cost of one departure. Keeping one person you cannot afford to lose is where HR pays for itself.
See fractional HR and advisoryThree claims that sink small companies
$25,000
Willful contractor misclassification carries penalties of $5,000 to $15,000 per violation, and up to $25,000 when it is a pattern.
Three misclassified contractors can cost more than a year of HR support.
30 days
Pay a departing employee late and you can owe up to 30 days of their wages as a penalty.
One late final paycheck on a $90,000 salary can cost more than $10,000.
5 days
California guarantees at least five paid sick days a year. Punishing someone for using them opens a retaliation claim.
Losing a star over a denied sick day is illegal, and it follows you out the door.
Source: California Labor Commissioner
Fractional HR runs $5,000 to $10,000 a month and HR advisory $2,000 to $4,000, measured against claims that can reach $25,000 per violation. Custom projects are quoted to scope, in writing, before any work begins, and the price estimator shows typical HR consulting fees by headcount. Data current as of September 2026.
Start with a defined project
Pay transparency posting auditEvery open posting checked against Labor Code 432.3, with a written fix list.
California HR compliance check-upClassification, pay, leave, training, safety plans and files, ranked by exposure.
Harassment prevention trainingLive sessions for supervisors and staff that meet Government Code 12950.1.
Pay equity auditPay across substantially similar work, with a correction plan and range structure.
Fractional HR and HR advisoryA senior HR lead, part time, for urban organizations of 10 to 150 people.
Founding-client terms: the first five organizations to sign get 15% off their first engagement, through December 31, 2026. A posting audit fee is credited in full toward a check-up, pay equity audit or fractional engagement signed within 30 days.
Union negotiations are high stakes and I was skeptical an external framework could adapt to our labor environment. The bargaining prep tools and memorandum models from Urban Human Resources changed the preparation entirely. We closed a three-year collective bargaining agreement without a single hour of work stoppage.
Client testimonial, unpaid. Some details changed to protect confidentiality. How results are presented
The outcome
What changes for your company
Every engagement ends with written work you keep, owners you named and dates you set.
When we're done
- You know which California rules apply at your headcount, and where you stand on each one.
- Every gap has a fix, an owner and a date, with penalty and back-pay items first.
- Your documents hold up when a wage claim, an agency letter or a buyer's diligence request arrives.
- Your managers know what to do the day a hard conversation or a complaint lands on them.
What I need from you
- One point person who can pull documents and make decisions.
- The documents on a short list. Most companies pull them in a day.
- Decisions on owners and dates at the findings session. I do the heavy lifting; you approve what changes.
See the work
The full list
50 capabilities, nine disciplines
Hiring, total rewards, employee relations, compliance, workforce mobility, organizational development, HR technology, and labor relations. Every item is listed on the full capabilities page.
Not sure which service you need?
What does an HR consultant do for a company your size? Turn a vague people problem into a specific, priced fix. Most HR services for small businesses start from one question: a pay equity worry, a handbook that is three years old, a merger closing next quarter. Describe it in a sentence and I will tell you what it actually touches.