HR Function Buildout & HR Systems
Build the HR Function Your Small Business Needs
You can have employees without having a complete HR function.
Hiring may be handled by the owner. Payroll may sit with the office manager. Employee files may be stored in different places. Managers may handle employee problems differently. Policies and procedures may have been added only when something happened.
HR Function Buildout & HR Systems brings full-spectrum HR expertise into one practical structure designed around your business.
Whether you are starting a new business or practice, hiring your first employees, growing an established company, or preparing for your first internal HR hire, we can build or strengthen the systems needed to manage employees more consistently.
Virtual HR Function Buildout is available nationwide, with regular in-person service in North Carolina, Georgia, and Indianapolis & Central Indiana. Select in-person engagements elsewhere may be available by arrangement.
What Is HR Function Buildout?
HR Function Buildout is for businesses that have HR responsibilities but do not have one consistent system connecting them.
That may mean building the HR function for a new business, strengthening a function that developed informally as the company grew, organizing responsibilities that are spread across several people, or preparing the company for its first internal HR hire.
Instead of treating hiring, onboarding, employee records, policies, documentation, compliance, manager responsibilities, employee relations, technology, and recurring HR administration as separate pieces, the Buildout connects them into a working HR structure.
The goal is to give your business an HR system people can actually use, maintain, and grow with.
I’m Starting a Business or Practice. What HR Systems Should I Have in Place Before I Hire Employees?
HR does not have to be something you build after employee problems begin.
For startups, new medical or dental practices, new hospitality businesses, professional firms, and other new employers, HR Function Buildout can establish the foundation before or as employees are hired.
That means deciding how employees will be hired and onboarded, where records will be maintained, what policies and procedures are needed, who will handle HR responsibilities, how managers will address employee issues, how payroll and benefits information will move through the business, and what ongoing compliance and documentation processes need to be maintained.
Starting with a clear system can prevent the business from having to untangle inconsistent practices later.
Discuss Your HR BuildoutI Already Have Employees but No HR Department. What Should I Have in Place?
Many small businesses do not intentionally build an HR function.
They grow into one.
One person handles payroll. Another person keeps employee files. Managers deal with performance problems. The owner becomes involved when something becomes serious. Policies may exist, but no one is entirely sure how they are supposed to be applied.
Eventually, HR is being done—but it is being done in pieces.
A business can need a functioning HR system long before it needs a full-time HR employee. Employee count alone is not the only consideration; complexity, growth, inconsistent practices, documentation problems, and unclear ownership matter too.
HR Function Buildout brings those responsibilities together, establishes clearer ownership, and creates repeatable processes the business can maintain.
You may not need a full-time HR department. You do need an HR function that works.
What Can Be Included in HR Function Buildout?
The exact Buildout depends on what your business already has, what needs to be created or strengthened, your workforce, locations, management structure, and how the business operates.
Hiring & Onboarding
Create consistent hiring, new-hire documentation, onboarding, orientation, and employee setup processes.
Employee Files & Recordkeeping
Organize employee records and establish clear responsibility for maintaining them.
Workplace Policies, Procedures & Employee Handbook
Develop or update the policies, procedures, and employee handbook needed within the larger HR system, then connect them to the documentation, manager procedures, and processes required to actually use them.
HR Compliance Infrastructure
Establish practical employment-compliance procedures, documentation, recordkeeping, required postings, and recurring responsibilities based on the business, workforce, locations, and applicable requirements.
Manager Responsibilities & Escalation
Define what managers are expected to handle, what they need to document, what authority they have, and when an issue should move to HR or leadership.
Employee Documentation & Corrective Action
Create consistent processes for documenting attendance, performance conversations, coaching, corrective action, employee responses, and employment decisions.
Employee Relations & Workplace Concerns
Establish procedures for receiving employee complaints and workplace concerns, documenting issues, assigning responsibility, escalating matters appropriately, and following through consistently.
Termination & Offboarding
Establish procedures for employee separations, documentation, records, offboarding, and internal responsibilities.
Unemployment Claim Documentation
Strengthen the records and internal processes that may be needed if an unemployment claim is filed.
Workers’ Compensation Administration
Clarify internal reporting, documentation, recordkeeping, and administrative responsibilities.
Payroll & Benefits Coordination
Clarify how employee information, payroll, benefits, time off, status changes, and other recurring employee administration move through the business.
HR Forms, Templates & Manager Tools
Build practical forms, checklists, templates, and internal tools that support the HR system.
HR Systems, Technology, AI & Workflow
Connect the people, processes, forms, and technology used to manage HR responsibilities, including digital documentation, recurring-task management, payroll or timekeeping workflows, and appropriate automation.
HR Ownership & First HR Hire
Define who owns each HR responsibility now and prepare the function for a future internal HR employee when the business is ready.
Recurring HR Responsibilities
Establish repeatable procedures for the ongoing HR activities the business needs to maintain.
What HR Work Can I Automate — and What Should Still Be Handled by a Person?
Building an HR function today should include deciding what does not need to remain manual.
If onboarding depends on someone remembering to send documents, recurring HR tasks rely on manual reminders, information has to be copied between systems, or managers struggle to locate the correct process, there may be work that can be simplified.
AI and automation support the HR system. They are not designed to independently make employment decisions or replace human judgment in employee relations, discipline, termination, accommodations, investigations, compliance matters, or other sensitive employment situations.
What Changes as My Business Grows From 15 to 50 Employees?
Growth brings more than additional employees.
As headcount increases, businesses may encounter additional compliance requirements, more managers making employment decisions, more complicated employee issues, additional locations, more documentation, and HR processes that are no longer practical to manage informally.
A business may also reach the point where several people are touching HR without anyone clearly owning the whole function.
HR Function Buildout helps create a structure that can support the business now while giving it a stronger foundation for continued growth.
A medical practice does not necessarily need the same HR structure as a restaurant group, marketing agency, property management company, retailer, or technology startup.
The Buildout should reflect the workforce, management structure, operating environment, locations, and day-to-day realities of that business rather than forcing every employer into the same model.
What If I’m Preparing to Hire My First HR Person?
Your first HR professional should not have to walk into scattered files, undefined responsibilities, inconsistent processes, and years of unfinished HR work while simultaneously trying to support employees.
HR Function Buildout can prepare the function that person will inherit.
That can include defining the HR role and responsibilities, developing the job description and interview criteria, organizing the existing HR systems, establishing processes and workflows, assigning responsibilities, preparing the systems for handoff, and training the incoming HR employee on how the function was built.
Build the System. Put It Into Practice. Hand It Back to the Business.
The goal is greater HR self-sufficiency—not long-term dependence on outside HR support.
Review
Understand how HR is currently being handled, what already exists, what is working, what is missing, and where the business needs structure.
Build
Create the HR systems, procedures, documentation, responsibilities, tools, and workflows the business needs.
Implement
Put the new structure into use and establish who is responsible for each part of the HR function.
Train
Prepare the owner, designated staff, managers, or incoming HR employee responsible for maintaining the function to use the systems, procedures, tools, and workflows.
Handoff
Leave the business with a practical HR function it can continue operating with clearer ownership and less dependence on outside support.
HR Expertise
Full-Spectrum HR Expertise Behind the Buildout
HR problems rarely exist in isolation.
An onboarding problem can become a documentation problem. A documentation problem can become a termination problem. An unclear manager role can become an employee-relations problem. A weak process can eventually affect an unemployment claim or another employment decision.
That is why HR Function Buildout requires more than creating a handbook or organizing employee files.
Sherry Pulcher brings full-spectrum HR expertise across employee relations, HR systems, policy and procedure development, employee documentation, unemployment claims, workers’ compensation matters, supervisor and workforce management, labor relations, and union environments.
The pieces of HR need to work together as one function.
About Sherry PulcherWhat Happens Before the HR Function Buildout Starts?
The process begins with a brief virtual consultation to discuss the business, employee count, locations, current HR structure, and what is driving the need for Buildout.
For a new business, we can also discuss anticipated hiring, workforce structure, management roles, opening timeline, and what needs to be ready before employees begin working.
If HR Function Buildout appears to be the right fit, the project scope, final investment, timeline, and requirements are confirmed before project payment is due.
- Virtual buildout consultation
- Project scope and final investment confirmed
- Consulting agreement signed
- Client selects the standard payment schedule or paid-in-full option
- Initial project payment completed
- Kickoff and document/information request scheduled
HR Function Buildout Pricing
Pricing begins with workforce size. Final project investment can increase based on the condition and complexity of the existing HR function, multi-state requirements, onsite implementation, travel, locations, systems, and other project-specific needs.
Starting Investment
For smaller employers that need a practical HR function and core systems built or strengthened.
Starting Investment
For growing employers with more employee records, managers, workflows, and HR responsibilities to connect.
Starting Investment
For larger small businesses with greater workforce, management, documentation, and implementation complexity.
Custom Scope
Projects are scoped individually based on workforce structure, locations, systems, and implementation requirements.
Workforce Size Is the Starting Point. Complexity Determines the Final Scope.
A smaller business can require more work than a larger employer if its HR records, processes, systems, or management structure need substantial rebuilding.
Final investment may increase based on factors such as:
- Multiple business locations
- Employees working in multiple states
- Multiple shifts, departments, locations, or management levels
- Incomplete or inconsistent HR records and processes
- Substantial policy or documentation reconstruction
- Multiple employee classifications
- HRIS, payroll, timekeeping, workflow, or automation implementation
- Additional onsite work or unusually complex compliance requirements
20% Off One Additional Consulting or Training Service
HR Function Buildout clients receive 20% off one additional consulting or training service added during the Buildout or within 90 days after the completed HR function is handed back to the business.
This may include Supervisor & Manager Training, Operational Performance™ Consulting, or other consulting work outside the original Buildout scope.
Choose the Payment Structure That Fits the Project
Payment options are provided after the initial consultation, project scope, final investment, and consulting agreement are confirmed.
- Standard project schedule: 50% at signing, 25% at an agreed implementation milestone, and 25% before final training and handoff.
- Paid in full before kickoff: Receive a 5% savings on the approved project investment when the full project fee is paid before project kickoff.
The paid-in-full savings applies to the approved HR Function Buildout project fee. Buildout Client Preferred Pricing remains a separate client benefit.
Not Sure Whether You Need a Full Buildout?
Sometimes you know HR is not functioning the way it should, but you do not yet know whether the issue is employee records, policies, documentation, management practices, onboarding, HR ownership, technology, or something else.
In that situation, an Onsite HR Infrastructure Review may be the better starting point.
The review looks at how HR is currently being handled and identifies what is working, what is missing or inconsistent, where the biggest gaps are, and what should be addressed first.
You receive an HR Infrastructure Findings Report & Action Plan before deciding what should be implemented.
Explore the Onsite HR Infrastructure ReviewHR Function Buildout for Small and Growing Businesses
Virtual HR Function Buildout is available throughout the United States. Regular onsite consulting is available in North Carolina, Georgia, and Indianapolis & Central Indiana, with select in-person engagements elsewhere based on scope, location, and scheduling.
Build HR Around the Business You’re Building
Whether you are preparing to hire your first employees, opening a new practice, growing an established company, or getting ready for your first HR hire, your HR function should not depend on scattered information, informal processes, and whoever happens to have time to handle the next employee issue.
HR Function Buildout & HR Systems brings full-spectrum HR expertise together to build, implement, and hand back a practical HR structure your business can use now and continue to build on as it grows.