Background
Doulos Concrete was founded by David and Gwen Howell. Since they started the company in 2015, the duo and their staff have completed hundreds of commercial and residential projects. The dynamic, rapidly growing company tackles everything from simple sidewalk installations to box culverts and multi-cell scuppers.
Since its inception, Doulos Concrete has served commercial business installations and commercial residential projects in and around Tucson, Arizona. The company and its owners are eager to take on new projects and continue their positive growth trajectory.
The Challenge
As Doulos Concrete has grown rapidly over the years, so too have its HR needs. Having well over two dozen employees, the complexity and administrative burden that increased in parallel became very challenging for Gwen and staff. Like most small businesses, Doulos Concrete was interested in how to streamline their HR processes such as payroll, benefits administration, 401(k) management, while also keeping a focused eye on risk and keeping pace with compliance to state and federal regulations.
In pursuit of this goal, the Howells and Director of Operations, Rachel Lewis, sought out various third-party HR providers. Initially, Doulos worked with two different national payroll providers, however, these big-box companies fell far short of meeting the company’s expectations.
According to Lewis, these entities were “absolute nightmares” to work with. They did not provide adequate support and always seemed to be on-selling yet another service rather than addressing the issues at hand. They were then fortunate to meet with Focus HR, a local Tucson HR Outsourcing firm, that proved it could provide a higher level and service and meet the unique HR needs of Doulos Concrete.
The Solution
After receiving the green light from the Howells, Lewis coordinated with Focus HR to implement Focus HR’s entire service offering. Doulos was surprised to learn how easy and painless it was to switch providers.
Focus HR began handling everything from safety training to payroll as well as health benefits and 401(k) management. The Focus HR team also managed the client’s Workers’ Compensation policy.
From the outset, Focus HR implemented proven practices and bolstered these strategies with world-class support. Lewis praised Focus HR for being “incredibly helpful, always available, [and] always able to find us solutions.”
Doulos has also been extremely satisfied with their designated Focus HR payroll representative, whom they describe as “beyond professional.” Lewis considers their rep a “reliable second set of eyes” that she can count on to catch and correct any payroll mistakes.
The Result
Since Focus HR has become Doulos Concrete’s full-service HR provider, the headaches associated with managing payroll and other HR responsibilities are a thing of the past. Lewis and the rest of the staff have been thrilled with Focus HR’s responsiveness, knowledge, and client-oriented business model.
The Howells and Lewis found Focus HR to be a breath of fresh air when compared to previous providers. In Lewis’ own words, “what was promised was exactly what was delivered.”
Doulos Concrete will continue to use Focus HR as its trusted HR management partner so that employees can focus on what they do best: completing custom concrete projects with curb appeal.
“incredibly helpful, always available, [and] always able to find us solutions.”
Rachel Lewis, Director of Operations at Duolos Concrete
