Fractional HR leadership for Bay Area companies

California's classification test is deliberately narrow, and the population it catches first is the one almost every Bay Area company carries: a long-standing consultant doing work that looks like the work of an employee, on an invoice instead of payroll.

We review the arrangements that carry the most exposure, restructure the ones that should be employment, and document the ones that genuinely are not — with the written agreement, the independence and the invoicing trail that a claim would test.

Meal and rest break premiums, itemised wage statements, expense reimbursement, paid sick leave, pay range disclosure on postings, and pay data reporting all sit on the same file. Each is individually manageable; together they are a full-time specialist's job, which is exactly why companies between twenty and two hundred people carry them badly.

We audit what is actually happening in payroll and in practice, quantify the pattern, and fix the highest-frequency items first rather than producing a manual nobody reads.

In this market the cash number is rarely the whole decision. Candidates compare equity, refresh policy and the shape of the role, and employees leave over a title, a level or a promise about scope rather than a few thousand dollars.

We help build the parts that actually decide the outcome: a levelling framework that makes levels comparable across teams, a hiring process that respects an experienced candidate's time, and a first ninety days that delivers what the offer implied.