“Total HR helped build an effective company culture and structure.”

“Entrepreneurs in California need a professional HR company.”

“Who can keep up with all the new laws? I know Total HR has my back covered.”

In a competitive economy, Total HR Management provides the top executives of a company the freedom to work on the business and not in the maze of human resources requirements. When Total HR Management helps a Chief Executive sleep better while returning to the innovative roots of an entrepreneur, the job has been done right. In an interview, Alex Shahabe, the owner of Signature Furniture Rental, expressed how having Total HR Management as a partner helped to put many legal issues to rest while increasing the performance and profitability of his company. Signature Furniture Rental specializes in furniture rentals for corporate housing clients.

With a lengthy track record of demonstrated consistency in their industry, Signature Furniture Rental is known for their response time, flexibility, and straightforward pricing. As a direct result, when it came to HR outsourcing, they demanded the same excellence from a human resources outsourcing company. With a focus on responsive quality and tailored services, Total HR Management came through with what the company needed.

Alex Shahabe, Founder and Owner of Signature Furniture Rental:

Before Total HR, our HR functions were a mess. My executives handled them, and the payroll was run through my CFO. When it came to all the policies and my employees, it was handled through my executive team. Basically, we were winging it.

I was not sleeping well at night because of the fear of lawsuits. I had some friends who went through some lawsuits with employees, and their companies were hurt by a lack of coverage. And I did not have coverage to protect me from such lawsuits. So I began shopping for coverage from potential employee lawsuits. When I began looking deeper into it and learned about the process, I understood my policies were not effective to protect me upfront. At the same time, it was a bit too much to hire an HR manager for my company considering its size. The evolution started when I began talking to various HR outsourcing companies, examining my options.

Although it started with employment liability coverage, I came to see that there were many services and values offered that could help my company. For example, our handbook had been put together eight years ago, but the policies and laws had changed. But we had never had the time to update our employee handbook. The laws had changed drastically, and we needed someone to revamp our whole structure and processes.

We started shopping just for insurance, and we looked at five or six different options. We chose Total HR because of the relationship I had built with Dennis Bernstein, the sales and marketing manager. I trusted him and I felt he was an honorable guy with integrity. A rapport was quickly built, and I chose Total HR because I trusted them. Dennis opened the door.

Once the door was opened, I began working day in and day out with James Harwood. James had a lot of experience in the HR world. Shelly is our point person, and she spends two hours a week in our office. Shelly is very knowledgeable. They have my back covered. Shelly is very detail oriented. If I have questions and Shelly doesn’t have the answer, she goes and finds the answer. She is very methodical when it comes to looking at issues and policies. With the research Shelly does, I get a lot of good feedback.

Shelly comes here every week and employees have access to her. It is phenomenal for employees to have access with the HR person in case they have issues with their own manager. If they have such issues, they know they have someone with whom they can voice their concern. This positively impacted our company culture. Our employees now felt they could be open with problems and there is not going to be a negative backlash. Employees really do appreciate that opportunity and those third party resources because it gives them a sense of having a voice.

If I take a step back, I would say that entrepreneurs working in California need a professional HR company to work with their employees. One of the biggest mistakes when I started the company was not having a service like Total HR as part of my team. Total HR helps build an effective culture and structure, bringing a consistency within the organization. I am very happy with Total HR, and my sleeping has improved. That’s why I look so good today.