Before she started hr-haven, Belinda Waggoner spent years handling human resources for a series of large, prestigious law firms. Eventually, she came to hate it.

“I wasn’t really practicing human resources anymore, but practicing politics,” shesaid. “I started my career in HR to be a strategic business partner, not to practice corporate HR that only fosters pure compliance.”

And so, five years ago, Waggoner wrote a business plan for what would become hr-haven. The company would offer outsourced, back-office HR services to small and medium-sized businesses.

More importantly, Waggoner decided, hr-haven would develop positive, creative and tailored solutions for its clients. It would prove to business owners that HR doesn’t have to be about stifling policies—that, done right, HR can become a profit center.

She launched hr-haven from a spare bedroom. Today, it’s based in a stylish Overland Park office suite. For each of the past five years, the firm has logged 40 to 50 percent growth, with a strong 2015 outlook.

“It hasn’t stopped. It’s like a hockey stick,” said Waggoner, describing the growth chart.
“It’s healthy, organic growth.”

Mythbusting HR

As she has built hr-haven, Waggoner has had to battle stereotypes about HR: namely, that it’s a joy-killing, rule-enforcing drag or, worse, that it’s something that isn’t really necessary for smaller businesses.

People who wouldn’t blink at hiring a lawyer or an accountant do everything they can to avoid contracting with an HR specialist, even though ignoring the issue “can take years off the life of a business, if an owner doesn’t pay attention sooner,” Waggoner said.

Often, when a company is young, the owners’ skill set revolves around a product, service or sales. They may not possess the leadership or management skills that their businesses demand. They may not even know what they don’t know. Waggoner and her team can help entrepreneurs tackle these and other growing pains.

“Not all business owners are born to lead,” Waggoner said. “Some know about human resources. Others simply need support as they grow.”

Over time, Waggoner’s firm has shifted from assisting startups to supporting established entrepreneurial clients.

“Those clients want to create something bigger than themselves,” she said. “They want to scale up and out.”

As a result, hr-haven’s lineup of services has evolved, too. Previously, the firm might have only acted as HR director. Now, the agency’s services include onboarding new employees, dedicated recruitment, payroll and benefits. Outsourcing these services makes sense for a business without established HR protocol or dedicated staff.

“For the cost of 1.25 times a human resource employee’s salary, you bought an entire HR department,” Waggoner said. “When you hire an HR person, you only get their experience and toolbox. The end result when hiring us is that you get more creative, robust service.”

Waggoner and her team also have developed a series of products to help clients, such as the HR Startup Toolkit, a custom-written employee handbook, and HRx, a two-day review of a company’s HR practices that covers practically every facet of human resources and diagnoses potential problems.

Too many companies adopt a “Frankenstein approach” to HR, cobbling together policies from different sources. Or they’ve gotten poor direction from a business coach.

“There often hasn’t been an emphasis on an HR system and process to help employees and owners to be successful,” Waggoner said.

Proper planning is important. At hr-haven, client contact typically begins with fact-finding and an assessment of needs.

“Then we pull together a plan,” Waggoner said. “HR guidelines should be more aligned with goals to grow the business from the inside out. The people part can easily go awry.”

Company Culture Is More Than Beer and Pingpong

In addition to the HR Startup Toolkit and HRx, hr-haven also offers Cultural Roadmap planning.

As a company matures from startup to early-growth phase, the Cultural Roadmap provides a fundamental tool to identify, establish and foster a strong sense of identity and a well-defined culture.

Specialists from hr-haven will gather the owner’s and management’s insights about the perceived culture. But they’ll also evaluate daily operations and the internal brand.

Many companies spend significant time and money on external branding, but neglect the internal brand that impacts employees and the company culture.

“We also interview the employees,” said Waggoner. “We measure the temperature of the organization. If you ask 20 people what the company does, you’ll often get 20 different answers. We want to make the inside of the company match the outside.”

A strong company culture doesn’t happen by default. “Owners commit assume-i-cide,” Waggoner said. “Passionate owners assume everyone knows where they’re going and how to get there.”

That’s not always the case. Waggoner and hr-haven advocate for clear definition and alignment of culture, mission and
beliefs. As more Millennials enter a multigenerational workforce, these fundamentals are increasingly important.

“New people want to know about a company’s values, operations and management,” Waggoner said. “Employees want to belong and know where you stand. People were disillusioned about corporations during the last economic downturn. They
want to know about the values of a business.”

This cultural development takes effort. Unformed or dysfunctional cultures cannot be easily or quickly remedied.

“People come to us with sick or broken cultures,” said Waggoner. “There’s no culture in a box. We help grow and build it by capitalizing on belief systems and values.”

Each company’s Cultural Roadmap is organic, personal and tailored. The team from hr-haven has identified 18 criteria that comprise successful people programs. These factors include beliefs and values, workflow and process, employee feedback, compensation, recruiting for culture and organizational development. All are covered by the Roadmap.

“People think culture is ping-pong and beer. It’s not,” Waggoner said. “You’ll still have people problems. An employee may not be a good fit or up to standard. That problem doesn’t go away.”

Waggoner insists that hr-haven isn’t a consultant.

“Consultants tell you how. We’re embedded in a business,” she said. “We also roll up our sleeves and do the work even if we’re not on-site.”

‘We’re Not Your Typical HR People’

Five years after hr-haven’s inception, despite steady sales growth, Waggoner still has no sales representatives among her 14 employees. Referrals and networking generate new business.

Waggoner doesn’t envision hr-haven becoming a conglomerate with offices dotting the country.

“I don’t want corporate bloat for my company,” she said. “Our clients want a scrappy entrepreneur.”

That’s not to say expansion is off the table. Waggoner anticipates eventually opening another location, but doesn’t have a timeline in mind. “I won’t grow beyond 80 to 100 people,” she said. “We can’t lose that small feel.”

Waggoner values the personal client interaction that her HR firm is built on, much like a neighbor cares about knowing the local butcher or baker.

“We’re not typical HR people,” she said. “We don’t like to say ‘no’ and hide behind compliance.”

Waggoner’s goals for hr-haven include continued and aggressive 50 percent top-line growth in annual revenue. Each year, she presents her employees with a State of the State address to both look in the rearview mirror and forecast the next one to three years.

Waggoner also prepares an organizational chart that indicates planned expansion and opportunities for growth. This outlook helps senior and junior employees to identify future roles.

Last year, hr-haven also launched a “sprout program” based on an agency model. Employees with an HR education but without much experience can acquire exposure to HR work and train to develop into other roles. For instance, an account manager can prepare for a career path as an HR director.

“It helps an employee get hands-on experience,” Waggoner said.

As successful as hr-haven has been, Waggoner prefers to focus on her clients’ achievement.

For example, it might be a company that grows from eight to 30 and retains its culture. It could be a company that fixes its unhealthy culture and breaks through to new growth. It’s an accomplishment, Waggoner said, “if that company can double top-line revenue and the employees still have smiling faces.”

Her company’s success depends on her clients’ progress.

“When you help them grow,” Waggoner said, “you can’t help but grow.”