An HR staffing agency places HR employees into your company, usually on a temporary or direct-hire basis. An HR hotline gives you access to generic compliance advice by phone. Fractional HR consulting, as offered by Avina Consulting, is a retained strategic partnership. We know your business, your people, and your goals. We show up consistently and advise at the leadership level, not just when you have a transactional HR question.

Most of our clients have between 10 and 100 employees. This is the range where a business is too large to manage people informally but not yet large enough to justify a full-time HR director. Companies in this range are often dealing with compliance gaps, growing pains in management, and the need to build HR infrastructure for the first time.

This is one of the most common situations we see. Office managers are valuable, but HR in California requires deep expertise in employment law, employee relations, and people strategy that goes well beyond administrative tasks. An office manager handling HR without proper support is a compliance and liability risk for your business. We often work alongside existing administrative staff, providing the strategic and legal layer they are not equipped to provide.

The most common gaps we find include: outdated or missing employee handbooks, missing or incorrect meal and rest break policies, I-9 errors, improper employee classification, missing required notices and postings, inadequate documentation for terminations, and noncompliant leave of absence policies under CFRA and FMLA. Any one of these can result in significant liability.

Retained clients receive priority access to Erika and her team for urgent employee situations. For new clients with an immediate need, we recommend scheduling a consultation as soon as possible so we can assess the situation and determine the fastest path to support.

Our primary market is Orange County and the broader Southern California area, including Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego counties. We also work with California-based businesses outside Southern California, particularly for retained engagements where work is primarily advisory and remote.

Retained partnerships are customized, but typically include: monthly HR advisory sessions with your leadership team, on-call support for employee relations situations, policy and handbook maintenance, manager coaching, compliance monitoring, and proactive guidance as your business evolves. You are not buying a set number of hours. You are buying an embedded HR partner who knows your business and is available when you need them.