As a boutique consulting firm specializing in the Defense Aerospace sector, Delta Zee Solutions knows the importance of precision and compliance. But when their internal team grew from 4 to 11 employees, managing payroll and offering employee benefits in-house became increasingly complex.

They turned to a national provider, expecting an all-in-one payroll and benefits solution. Instead, they encountered confusion, delays, and communication breakdowns.

“I couldn’t even get someone on the phone,” says Sue Zepeda, Office Administrator at Delta Zee. “Every email was copied to six or seven people, and no one seemed to know who was responsible. Our employees ended up without insurance on the day it was supposed to go live.”

After weeks of re-sent documents, unanswered questions, and mounting employee frustration, Delta Zee canceled the contract and began looking for a true partner—not just a vendor.

The Solution

Sue was introduced to Focus HR by both a trusted banker and her husband, who had used their services before. She also recalled meeting Focus HR’s Clint Parry at a business event years earlier. That personal connection gave her confidence to reach out.

“After meeting with Clint again, we decided to take the plunge and switch to Focus HR. That was almost two years ago—and we’ve never looked back.”

Delta Zee chose Focus HR for full-service HR support: payroll, benefits administration, compliance, and HR guidance. The onboarding process was smooth, and from day one, communication was clear and responsive.

The Results 

With Focus HR, Delta Zee Solutions now has:

• A dedicated payroll specialist (hi, Constance!) who acts as an extension of their team
• Streamlined access to HR resources and experts in compliance, handbooks, and workers’ comp
• Confidence that payroll and benefits are handled accurately and on time 
• A trusted team that supports both leadership and employees directly

“I can call or email and know I’ll get a response quickly. Constance is my second set of eyes on payroll—and our employees can reach out directly too. That makes a huge difference.”

Even as Delta Zee has grown to 21 employees, the support has scaled with them.

Why it Works 

For a business built on precision, compliance, and expert knowledge, Focus HR has become a natural fit. Their service model, built on relationships and responsiveness, gave Delta Zee the reliability they were missing.

“We’ve had the occasional mistake—because we’re all human—but with Focus HR, it’s owned, addressed, and resolved immediately,” Sue says. “There’s no blame or hiding. Just solutions.”

“I happily pay that bill every month because I truly feel like Focus HR is part of our team.”

Delta Zee Solutions won’t be recommending their previous payroll provider anytime soon—but they recommend Focus HR to every business owner they meet.

“We’ve never had one regret choosing Focus HR, from day one until today.”

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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

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Mesquite Gastroenterology and Surgery Center (MGSC) was founded in 2009 by Dr. Miguel A. Arenas and his wife Katie Belk-Arenas. MGSC is a medical office and outpatient procedure facility, built to provide its patients with the latest technology in endoscopy and the highest level of service. With 46 employees, the practice strives to attract and retain the best personnel by offering a robust benefits package and an excellent work environment. Practice administrator, Katie Belk-Arenas, has responsibility for all key operations of the practice, including scheduling, billing, personnel management and HR administration.

The Challenge

Since the inception of the practice, Mesquite has cycled through several national and regional payroll providers, struggling to find a solution that would deliver consistent results and minimize Katie’s workload. This proved difficult and switching from provider to provider didn’t yield a better result. According to Katie, “the transition to each company was a nightmare, a complete mess of errors and omissions” that required her to spend countless hours both correcting payroll/tax data and on the phone with payroll companies and government agencies to get things fixed. Ensuring accuracy required manually entering data, building spreadsheets and having to check and re-check information to ensure appropriate contributions, deductions and taxes were correct. Benefit administration was also a hassle, including getting employees on the plan, off the plan, doing COBRA administration and handling inquiries.

Additionally, integration with Quickbooks and reconciling transactions became problematic. All combined, the time, energy and stress involved in fixing continuous errors became overwhelming and unsustainable. Something had to change.

The Solution

When Katie learned of Focus HR, she agreed to meet with Clint Parry, who took the time to really understand her needs and develop a solution to address the myriad of issues Mesquite Gastroenterology had been experiencing for so long. Katie was particularly excited to learn that Focus HR was a Tucson-based, women-owned HR Outsourcing firm that seemed to offer a much different experience. However, given painful transitions in the past, she was very nervous to yet again switch providers. Her employees shared that same sentiment, as past changes brought numerous technology glitches and pay issues. But, after doing appropriate due diligence, Katie decided to outsource all HR administrative functions to Focus HR.

The Result

Mesquite Gastroenterology is thrilled with the difference Focus HR has made. According to Katie, the “transition was so amazing…completely seamless!” Her staff agrees and has found the professionalism and personalized care they receive from the Focus HR team to be nothing like the past. Katie added, “I simply cannot imagine life now without Focus HR! They have fixed all the issues we had in the past and provide a robust technology platform and a fabulous team who handles what used to just overwhelm me.”  With HR administrative functions now running on all cylinders, Katie has turned her attention back to what matters most: creating a great company culture and patient experience that is second to none.

Employees are happier, costs are down, and Katie can now breathe easier knowing that Focus HR has everything under control. When asked what she would say to someone considering Focus HR, she said:

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Kirsh Manufacturing, Inc. is a Tucson-based machining company. In business since 1998, Kirsh provides quick-turn machining capabilities, including prototype or production runs, serving a diverse range of industries including aerospace, medical, scientific, optical and defense.  The company also holds ISO 9001/AS 9100D and ITAR certifications. Owner, Tim Kirsh, prides his organization on delivering exceptional and highly personalized customer service that is responsive to the very unique needs of each customer.  This level of service and attention to every detail shows through, as the company has maintained a 99% quality rating for 11 years running.

The Challenge

Like any successful small business, Kirsh’s daily financial and administrative operations are dependent upon key employees and provider partners to perform at high levels and deliver results to maintain the Company’s reputation and profitability.  When a long-term employee (family member) who provided essential accounting and HR responsibilities announced her retirement, Tim immediately began the process of recruiting a new employee to fill the upcoming void. However, after extensive recruiting efforts and interviews, finding the same caliber of talent proved daunting and frustrating.

The Solution

Focus HR and Kalil & Associates, both strategic partners in providing a complete suite of HR and Accounting services, including Payroll, Employee Benefits Administration, Workers’ Compensation, Compliance, AP/AR, Invoicing, Billing, and Banking Reconciliation, approached Tim about the prospect of outsourcing these key functions. At first, Tim was hesitant to turn these vital operations over to two outside firms, given he’d had such a high level of trust and comfort with a family member previously handling them.  However, once Focus HR and Kalil conducted a thorough analysis of Kirsh’s current internal processes for HR and Accounting, both firms were able to build a compelling business case for outsourcing these two key areas.  After reviewing the analysis and business case, Tim decided to move forward with the proposed outsourcing solution.

The Result

Tim has been very pleased with the new partnership. The conversion process was smoother than anticipated. Tim has also witnessed a number of new efficiencies and better processes brought to the table that give him more control and insightful data. Additionally, having two professional firms provide a complete HR and Accounting solution in a responsive and accurate manner has provided him with greater peace of mind. Perhaps most significantly, it now takes one-third the time for Focus HR and Kalil to complete all HR and Accounting-related tasks than was needed previously.  According to Tim, Focus HR and Kalil & Associates have really “knocked it out of the park!”  Tim has not only witnessed time and cost savings but also feels a greater degree of confidence in how these two vital functions are run.

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Custom BackOffice Solutions (CBO) is a Tucson-based third-party logistics provider of public and contract warehousing, order fulfillment, distribution, pick & pack, transportation, cross-docking, container de-stuffing, examination, assembly, packaging and value-added logistical requirements. For more than two decades, CBO has helped clients create a customized menu of services to meet their needs and manage their inventory.  Jean Reehl, CEO of CBO, has worked hard to build a culture where employees and clients alike feel a strong sense of family and togetherness, working collaboratively to solve their most pressing fulfillment needs.  

The Challenge

As the business continued to expand, the demand for more employees grew, as did the administrative burden and costs of having many employees. Jean initially worked with a national payroll provider but found over time that she was spending more and more time on hold trying to resolve issues related to the provider’s poor level of service. Given the growth of CBO, it wasn’t sustainable for Jean to waste precious time and money dealing with this added hassle.

The Solution

Focus HR approached Jean with a better solution – one that would consolidate and simplify the fragmented feel of her current approach to handling administrative HR, while giving her a local team of HR experts, based right here in the Old Pueblo. Focus HR solved her ongoing issues with Payroll, Employee Benefits Administration, and Workers’ Compensation while giving her a more robust HR system and a local team of advisors to help address any new issues.

The Result

Since partnering with Focus HR, Custom Back Office Solutions has more than doubled in revenues and employees. Focus HR has freed up Jean’s time to focus on more important things like attracting top talent and developing her current employees. Jean feels a greater sense of control and peace of mind, knowing she has a solid local provider to handle the HR challenges of her rapidly growing company. Jean says:

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