Jim Cichanski, CEOIn this perennial search for talent, Human Resources (HR) professionals play an integral role by helping enterprises find, recruit and retain talent. Weighing all the opportunities in the HR consultancy industry, Jim Cichanski Founded & CEO of Flex HR, Inc. finds helping companies identify the right talent, improving standard HR practices and compliance to achieve high growth and success to be the most gratifying. Operating since 2001, Flex HR provides HR Consulting, HR strategy and leadership, Recruiting and HR operations outsourcing services—all customized as per the client’s needs. All services are focused in making the client rich with enabled management and employees, providing an employment experience that retains employees and increases value at either their exit, acquisition or IPO.
Mitigating Challenges Faced By the HR Industry
Having spent numerous years in the HR domain and having been involved in nearly 300 acquisitions during his past tenures, Jim is well aware of the bottlenecks in the industry. More often than not, Jim learned that insecurity among hiring managers in recruiting the most deserving candidates is a factor that usually goes untold but eventually proves lethal to the long term growth of the organization. The objective hiring provided by a third party recruiter can go a long way in solving such problem. According to him, even the dearth of skilled—as opposed to trained—hiring managers in many organizations is proving detrimental and needs to be addressed with the help of expert HR professionals. Having been in the industry for more than three decades, Jim has observed the dramatic shifts taking place in the HR consultancy industry and in standard HR practices. There have been several mandates in local, state and federal labor laws, which necessitated equivalent changes in HR practices consequently. Flex HR Clients receive formulated HR practices that are relevant to these changing dynamics. Jim explains, “What the Flex HR team is most proud of is the peace of mind we ensure to our clients, who know that their HR practices are being managed efficiently and professionally, so that they can get back to their core businesses.”
Portfolio of Services
Based in Johns Creek, GA, Flex HR started with offering part-time strategic HR outsourcing. Over time, the company diversified its services and started providing complete outsourcing of the HR function by taking care of the client’s staffing needs, outsourcing the HR backroom and providing other value added services. The service model of the company is designed in a way to analyze client’s operations, cultural fit and the business needs while maintaining focus on meeting critical HR
compliances, creating enhanced value and building competencies. In its consulting services, Flex HR conducts audits and benchmarks best practices, provides strategic HR direction, takes on the role of HR head part-time, and manages AAP requirements as needed. They manage the entire HR process, compensation programs, design commission plans and conducts employee investigations. The organization’s HR processes and functionalities are designed to meet workplace employment compliances. Jim notes, “We constantly look ahead at emerging laws, such as the Affordable Care Act, and provide out-of-the-box solutions to meet customer’s every requirement.”
Flex HR supports Clients by managing all the paperwork, ensures on-boarding compliance, manages new hires and terminations, employee relations , benefits management, processes the requests of the employees, payroll, reconciliations of benefits, develops and maintains an employee intranet with a 24/7 online support. The team also supports its clients by providing an economical “Employer of Record” avenue so that they can easily on-board contractors. Flex HR works with their clients to develop proactive measures that ensure employee satisfaction and, in turn, helps create a productive workforce. Explaining the benefits of working with Flex HR, Jim adds, “There is no need to have an expensive staffer on board full-time, only use our service as needed which can be availed in optimized cost and lesser workflow involvement.”
What the Flex HR team is most proud of is the peace of mind we ensure to our clients, who know that their HR practices are being managed efficiently and professionally, so that they can get back to their core businesses
Workflow Strategy
Flex HR’s services are diversified across industries and markets. The company serves over 200 clients, mainly small to mid-size which span several different industries and service organizations. Their expertise is also used in many Fortune 500 companies as well. By deeply understanding a client’s business requirements, Flex HR resourcefully and professionally fulfills their staffing needs in the shortest possible time. Flex HR assists clients in developing and managing college relationship programs in which it gets interns on-board and manages them until they are hired full-time. They think outside the box such as developing community relation activities and networking that augurs well with clients’ business strategies, being aware of the client’s inter-workings, HR strategies and their long term plans. Flex HR helps companies that have headquarters in other countries start their business operations in USA and become fully compliant with US labor laws and HR practices, all focused on growing the entity.
Recognized by Atlanta magazine CATALYST and named as ‘One of the 5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America’ 3 times in 6 years by Inc Magazine, Flex HR has come a long way from its initial days. It’s a vindication of the company’s delivery model, which is discreetly customized for each client. For the CEO’s dedicated efforts, Jim has been named as the “Business Person of the Year” by the Greater North Fulton Chamber. Discussing the company’s future plans, Jim says, “Flex HR plans to sustain the growth momentum and continue to be recognized by our clients for our services that they come to rely on and depend upon, so they can get on with running their business.”
