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Individual HR Solutions for Start-ups or Small to Medium Sized Businesses


Individual Services

Our services include helping you find and acquire new talent, diversifying your workforce, completing necessary HR paperwork, and creating employee handbooks and documents that will help keep you compliant with all the state and federal employment laws.

Our goal is to streamline your approach to many of the most challenging HR management tasks with our individual services. Whether you have questions about compliance or human capital management, we have the answers you need.

Person presenting in front of a classroom. everyone is wearing suits

Additional HR Services Sage Solutions can provide:

 

MEETING FACILITATION

group of person listening to a presentation with the presenter blurred in the background

Sage’s expert meeting facilitation skills help to bring out the best in your team. Our strategy is to lead, mentor and inspire conversation, planning and team building. This interactive process is sought after by many different industries and we are able to adapt our approach to achieve the objectives desired.

What sets us apart?

  • Common sense approach that works
  • Creativity and energy to bring about solutions
  • Expert listening skills with the ability to engage everyone in the process
  • Clear agendas that match your company’s goal and objectives
  • Excellent reviews due to our vast real world experience
  • Follow up with actionable results

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING

disaster recovery, are you ready?

Business continuity planning is more important today than ever. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, we all now understand that the unimaginable can happen. For businesses, the need to create a plan for prevention, response and recovery is vitally necessary for survival during these difficult times. Need help developing a plan? Sage has solutions!

 

 

 

 

 

COMPENSATION AND CLASSIFICATION ANALYSIS

Compensation and Classification survey results

Sage takes particular pride in our ability to efficiently and effectively analyze an organization and provide customized solutions to satisfy their needs.  Some of our strongest skills include job classification, compensation analysis and plan development.  Our compensation program helps to ensure your program is compliant with numerous laws and is competitive in your marketplace.

Sage has more than a half century of experience with compensation analysis, management, program implementation, federal compliance and demonstrable adaptability to quickly understand and comply with various state and municipal requirements.  We are able to perform tailored analyses in both the private and public sectors:  profit, not-for-profit, and in a variety of industries like healthcare, government, technology, engineering, financial services, real estate, automotive, transportation, mechanical systems, amusement and entertainment, food services, fine arts and construction to name a few.  

A few steps in our process:

  • Ensure job descriptions and compensable factors are accurate
  • Review job classifications and provide recommendations where prudent
  • External comparisons:  Market Survey and Benchmarking
  • Determine compensation strategy
  • Test strategy against costs
  • Internal analysis of employees vs. compensation strategy 
  • Develop a plan to resolve incongruities
  • Provide job descriptions, job classifications and career paths 
  • Assist with plan implementation 

EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK AND TRANSITIONS

Two women talking on a couch in a professional setting

There are times when turnover is necessary. Sometimes an employee’s performance does not meet your standards.

There are also unfortunate times when an employee violates policy to the point where immediate remedial action must be taken. Sage can provide solutions to these dilemmas by providing: on-site or telephonic investigations, manager training on investigations and appropriate corrective action plans, investigation templates/guides, technical advice on levels of appropriate corrective action, facilitation of the actual termination, documentation and unemployment compensation inquiries.

Should downsizing (furlough vs. lay off) or rightsizing become necessary, Sage can provide analysis of the workforce, development of an employee communication plan, development of exit packages, and implementation of separations.

EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK

Example of employee handbook

Handbooks can be very tricky these days. Most companies either don’t have one, or if they do, it may be woefully obsolete. An outdated handbook, in some cases, can be more dangerous to a company than not having one at all.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been attacking handbook language especially as it relates to workplace conduct, confidentiality and communications. This has translated into many problems for employers, including reinstatement of terminated employees, payment of back pay, and mandatory changes to handbooks. Sage can either work with an existing handbook or develop a new one for you. To ensure that the language in your handbook is compliant, we partner with attorneys to stay up to date with the ever changing labor laws.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee Engagement: Survey Results

Only 31% of employees are actively engaged in the workplace, leaving a remarkable 67% unengaged. This lack of engagement translates to 56% to 73% of employees likely to look for new employment. The major implication of this statistic is that less engaged employees are more likely to contribute to significant turnover, and turnover is expensive. While many factors contribute to a positive or negative bottom line, when unexpected turnover occurs, the negative impact to the bottom line can be substantial. 

Sage partners with companies in a comprehensive way to address employee engagement including:

  • Leadership engagement training tailored to your specific company
  • Employee engagement survey aimed at addressing your KPI
  • Survey results complied and analyzed by a Social Psychologist
  • Detailed survey report with a plan to address key areas
  • Expert assistance and follow up to improve employee engagement 

GOVERNMENT COMPLIANCE

You worked hard to grow your company, and you don’t want it impacted by government fines. Sage can help you to obtain and maintain compliance so that all your risk is rewarded.

INVESTIGATIONS

When situations don’t go as planned, let Sage help you get to the bottom of the problem, and then work with you on a solution. Whether it is helping to diffuse a bad situation or conduct interviews, we can help reduce the stress when bad situations do happen.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS

A job description is a critical piece in ensuring you are Fair Labor Standards Act compliant in meeting the exempt status rules for many of your employees. A well written job description will also assist with ADA compliance. Sage can partner with you to develop job descriptions or enhance existing ones.

POLICY AND PROCEDURE

There is a tendency for policies and procedures to be developed and then placed on the shelf, rarely to be seen again. If human resource-related policies were written many years ago, many are likely out of date. This can result in problems especially if “out of date” also means “out of compliance.” The absence of some policies, particularly those related to the ADA and FMLA (if applicable) or sexual harassment, can cause significant legal problems should an employee file a claim against your business.

SAFETY PROGRAMS

Sage Solutions can assist you in obtaining compliance with MIOSHA.  MIOSHA finalized numerous changes to hazardous communication programs and there is mandatory reporting of injuries implemented for many organizations.

Key compliance issues with which we can assist include, but are not limited to: developing a hazardous communication program, conducting a full review of an existing plan to determine if it meets current requirements, developing a safety program, auditing of an existing program, providing a compliance kit for current mandatory reporting requirements, assisting with MIOSHA Forms 300, 300A and 301, assisting with future MIOSHA mandated reporting and drug testing programs, investigate workplace injuries (telephonic or in person), assist in working with workers’ compensation carriers, assisting with return to work programs, and coordinating workers’ compensation with FMLA or other leave programs.

TALENT ACQUISITION PROGRAMS

Finding the best talent in this market can be very difficult and expensive. Many organizations are choosing to reduce their standards to meet a hiring objective. This is a costly mistake that can delay growth, increase workers’ compensation expense, increase turnover, increase litigation exposure, decrease employee satisfaction, decrease customer satisfaction and reduce productivity.

Sage can also provide direct recruiting for your higher-level talent acquisition needs.

TALENT RETENTION SYSTEMS

Once you hire your best talent, it is critical that you keep them! In order to do this, Sage Solutions can partner with you to analyze your turnover and develop action plans to ensure you stay within your goals, develop exit interviews, design, develop and implement employee relations activities, create employee engagement activities, succession plan, develop a job posting system, and develop training programs to improve performance and advancement potential.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING SERIES

Process, Policy and People

Sage’s training has a direct impact on the People side of the Sage Stability Pyramid. Our trainings also address the Policy and Process sides by focusing on key policies like EEO & Harassment and ADA & FMLA, and by addressing critical processes such as performance improvement and hiring.

The goal of our Leadership Training Series is to prepare leaders for the real-life challenges that come their way.  The workplace is changing, and leaders at every level need the tools and training to understand and  respond to today’s workforce.  Leaders need PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE on what they can do to engage employees, improve critical work processes, and be fair and consistent in applying organizational policy.  We impart these skills through INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE, not through an overabundance of boring lecture.  The workplace is changing, and the new leadership paradigm focuses on cooperation and trust, inspirational management, continuous adaptation, teamwork, and long range thinking.  When leaders hone these skills, they become better leaders. They thrive, their employees thrive and the organization is positioned for success!

LEADERSHIP TRAINING SERIES:

COMMUNICATION & FEEDBACK (3 part series)

BARRIERS TO FEEDBACK DELIVERY

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Help leaders recognize how and why providing feedback doesn’t always go as planned.

 

Providing employees feedback is a key aspect of a leader’s role.  But most leaders, especially newer leaders, might admit it is one of the most difficult tasks of the job. This training sets the stage for subsequent trainings where the focus is on why and how we give feedback to employees. Here, the interactive dialogue focuses on leaders recounting situations where feedback situations didn’t go as intended. We identify the reasons it didn’t go well, and collectively explore what factors lead to the unintended outcomes.  When we move on to the feedback delivery trainings, being cognizant of these barriers helps to prevent their future use, and reinforces the use of the successful strategies from the training.

MOTIVATIONAL & CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

Small Business HR Solutions in Livonia MI | Sage Solutions Group - Motivation_Cover

Objective: Educate leaders on effective ways to provide motivational and constructive feedback that is well-timed, fits the situation and is clear and focused so that the employee knows what went well or didn’t go well when provided feedback.

 

With this training, we provide information that highlights what type of feedback employees prefer and what is most effective. One of the key reasons for providing motivational feedback is to .. motivate!  So we also focus on what activities leaders unwittingly do that actually work to de-motivate. This training stresses the importance of  “catching” employees when they are “doing it right” and providing motivational feedback to reinforce the good performance and preempt behavior that is “not so right.”  Sometimes though, employees put themselves in situations where constructive feedback is warranted.  We identify effective feedback strategies that highlight what to do and what not to do.  With interactive dialogue and structured activities leaders get to practice the strategies that are most effective. 

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

Small Business HR Solutions in Livonia MI | Sage Solutions Group - Communication_Cover

Objective: Educate leaders on determining what course of action to take when an employee has committed an infraction and to effectively provide informal and formal feedback to employees that is well-planned and well-documented.

 

This training provides a step by step approach for leaders to fully understand the performance improvement process for employees. It starts with 3 stages of informal feedback designed to help keep an employee doing great work or nudging them back in their lane when needed. If an employee’s actions warrants more than informal feedback, the training walks leaders through 3 stages of formal, corrective action. This training is infused with many interactive activities allowing them to practice the techniques with real-world examples. It also covers ways for leaders to handle situations when employees make feedback giving difficult, and how to document each stage of feedback.

CONDUCTING AN INVESTIGATION

Small Business HR Solutions in Livonia MI | Sage Solutions Group - Investigation_Cover

Objective: Provide leaders with best practices for completing investigations broken down into a clear 8-step process.

 

Conducting investigations can be difficult, but when completed correctly, a fair, appropriate and legally sound outcome can be achieved.  This training provides best practices for completing investigations broken down into an 8- step process: 1- Create an Organized Plan; 2- Be Thorough; 3. Be Prompt; 4- Be Fair; 5- Be Professional; 6- Ensure Accuracy; 7- Document; 8- Follow-up. Investigation templates are provided as an example to help facilitate the process. Solutions to real world situations that can occur during investigations are also covered to prepare a leader to handle special circumstances. 

EEO AND HARASSMENT

Small Business HR Solutions in Livonia MI | Sage Solutions Group - EEO_and_Harassment

Objective: provide leaders best practices to prevent harassment and discrimination in the workplace, and should an allegation of harassment or discrimination be made, how to effectively address it to mitigate personal an organizational risk.

 

In today’s climate, understanding harassment in all forms, including sexual harassment, is essential for anyone in a leadership role. This training provides critical information to help managers understand the implications of discrimination and harassment. It provides guidance on how to prevent, recognize, and address harassment and/or discrimination in the workplace.  Areas covered include what qualifies harassment and the legal implications that must be considered, discrimination and harassment policies, anti-discrimination enforcement in the workplace, an overview of the legal implications, what to do if harassment is alleged and retaliation and how to avoid it. 

EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

Small Business HR Solutions in Livonia MI | Sage Solutions Group - Preformance_apprasial_cover

Objective: provide leaders with a process and tools needed to have ongoing employee evaluation, inclusive of ongoing employee development.

 

One of the best ways to achieve high employee engagement is to provide employees with a solid understanding of their role within the organization. This can be presented in the employee evaluation to provide a win-win situation for both the employee and the company. The goal is to provide leaders with the tools necessary to deliver employee feedback that achieves their objectives while providing an opportunity to foster employee engagement. This training outlines the best practices for delivering employee feedback in a system that includes job description development, evaluation tools, employee development plans, and reiterates how to provide feedback and how to appropriately document the process. 

ENGAGING EMPLOYEES

Small Business HR Solutions in Livonia MI | Sage Solutions Group - Employee_Engagement

Objective: Provide leaders with clear, actionable ways to engage employees.

 

A DEEP DIVE The initial employee engagement training module presents a model of employee engagement.  It explores the foundational elements that impact employee engagement (and those that don’t).

WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT The second engagement installment reviews who is engaged in the workforce and provides a clearunderstanding of the positive outcomes at both the employee level and organizational level.

HOW TO ENGAGE The final installment focuses on what leaders and organizations can do to best engage their employees.  We highlight the ways engagement can be fostered throughout the employee life-cycle. 

THE HIRING PROCESS

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Objective: Provide leaders with a detailed process for hiring that starts with a good job description and ends with hiring, ensures fair and consistent practices and ends with a great candidate well-suited for the job.

The ultimate goal of an interview is to hire the right candidate for the job presented. Hiring the right candidates is crucial for your organization’s long term success. A single poor choice can cost an organization 1.5 times the annual salary, as well losses related to decreased morale, lost productivity and diminished customer service. For this training, we focus on every aspect of the hiring process, including: leaders understanding the critical importance of job descriptions, how to effectively screen candidates, how to develop structured interviews with behavioral or situational interview questions, how to conduct an interview that is free from bias, and how to develop a system to evaluate and select the right candidate for the job!

THE ROLE OF A LEADER - EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Objective: Educate leaders about emotional intelligence, introduce strategies to recognize and manage one’s own and others’ emotions, and understand its’ role in employee-manager relationships.

We focus on the soft skill of Emotional Intelligence (or EQ as it is known) because it is a critical tool for leader’s to possess. EQ includes Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Empathy and Relationship Management.  EQ addresses 2 key skills: 1. The leader’s understanding and regulation of his/her emotions, and 2. The leader’s understanding of the emotions of others. Having both of these skills is crucial for a leader to manage employee relationships. Research shows this is often the factor differentiating success from failure.  We address strategies to improve aspects of EQ, and end with a personal SWOT analysis so that leaders begin the practicing a critical aspect of EQ, a conscious effort at looking inward!

THE ROLE OF A LEADER - HOW TO BE A LEADER

Small Business HR Solutions in Livonia MI | Sage Solutions Group - Role_of_the_Leader_Cover

Objective: Educate leaders about skills effective leaders possess, including “soft” skills, and how they impact engagement.

 

This training provides a detailed understanding of what leadership is, and how leaders best interact with their employees.  The training starts by distinguishing the difference between “managing” and “leading”.  We provide a data-driven approach for participants to provide them an understanding of what leadership qualities most favorably impact employees.  Of special consideration is how these qualities impact employee engagement. Research shows the employee-manager relationship is one of the most important facets of engagement. We stress engagement throughout many of the trainings, because poor engagement impacts organization’s bottom line via turnover, poor productivity and the like. We round out this training by introducing “soft” skills, and discussing how these skills have a far greater impact than technical skills when leading people.

UNDERSTANDING FMLA & ADA

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Objective: To provide leaders with an understanding of FMLA and ADA and apply it to day to day administration.

 

Understanding FMLA and ADA can be very confusing even for seasoned HR professionals. This training is designed to help leaders understand FMLA and ADA in a way that is easy to follow and apply.  This includes a review of the basic laws, an understanding of a leader’s front-line responsibility, an understanding of how to initiate an interactive process, and a discussion of a leader’s role in documentation and follow through.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORKFORCE

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Objective: Educate leaders about today’s increasingly diverse workforce, introduce the concept of employee engagement and focus on how they impact engagement as leaders.

 

This training starts with a review of current workplace demographics. Rapid changes to the workforce are taking place right before our eyes. There are 5 different generations in the workplace and by 2060, minority groups will be the majority of the workforce.   Research highlights the benefits of a diverse workforce, but with differing world-views and cultural backgrounds, this can also bring conflict. The training focuses on how leaders must understand who their employees are from a broad sense (generationally & culturally), and as individuals to effectively lead them. We introduce the concept of employee engagement as it relates to the current workforce, and how they as leaders have a lion’s share of responsibility in engaging (or disengaging) those they lead.

ANY ADDITIONAL SERVICES AS NEEDED

If you need other human resources, we can be that resource for you.

 

Don't hesitate to contact us today and learn how we have helped start-ups, and small to medium sized businesses in Novi, Waterford, Howell, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Southfield, West Bloomfield, Dearborn, Sterling Heights, and Canton, MI succeed with our strategic human resources solutions!
734-238-3504