Fractional HR · Fort Wayne & Northeast Indiana

Big-company HR risk. No HR department.

Growing businesses of 10–75 employees carry the same exposure as large employers: terminations, complaints, wage-and-hour rules, misclassification, and turnover. And nobody is dedicated to managing it. Pillar provides senior, SPHR-certified HR leadership at a fraction of the cost of hiring one.

Schedule a free 30-minute HR risk check

Led by Jason Johnston, SPHR · Month-to-month · You always work directly with me

It all works fine. Until the day it doesn't

The pattern is the same in a machine shop, a trades company, or a clinic: the business grows past 15, 25, 40 people, and someone inherits HR by default.

The termination that goes sideways

Let go by gut feel, with no documentation trail. Now there's a demand letter, and the cleanup costs ten times what prevention would have.

The complaint nobody's equipped to handle

An employee raises harassment or discrimination. Whoever investigates needs to be impartial, trained, and defensible. That isn't the office manager.

The letter from the state

A wage-and-hour question, a misclassified worker, an I-9 audit. The rules applied all along. Enforcement just hadn't arrived yet.

Prevention is cheaper. That's the business I'm in.

Start here: the HR Compliance & Risk Audit

A structured review of your HR foundation, delivered as a written report with your top risks ranked and a practical fix-it roadmap. Whether we work together afterward or not, you'll know exactly where you stand.

  • Employee handbook and policy review (or a gap analysis if none exists)
  • Employee classification check: exempt/non-exempt and contractor status
  • I-9, personnel file, and required-notice compliance
  • Hiring, onboarding, and termination practice review
  • Top-five risk summary with a prioritized remediation roadmap
$1,950
Fixed price · Completed in 2–3 weeks
Book the free intro call

Ongoing support: fractional HR retainers

Senior HR leadership on call, scaled to your size. Month-to-month, with no long-term contracts and no onboarding fees.

Advisor

$950
per month

On-call HR guidance by phone and email, one monthly working session, policy updates, and hiring and termination support as issues arise.

Embedded

$2,500
per month

Everything in Advisor, plus the equivalent of one day per week of hands-on HR leadership: employee relations, manager coaching, recruiting process, performance management, and compliance execution.

Not sure which fits? That's what the free intro call is for. If you don't need me, I'll say so.

Specialized services

Workplace Investigations

Impartial third-party investigation of harassment, discrimination, or misconduct complaints, with a defensible written report. A core specialty.

$165/hour

AI Workplace Policy

A practical AI usage policy plus staff training guidance, so you capture the productivity upside of AI tools while protecting confidential business and customer data.

$1,950 fixed

Project & Interim HR

Handbook builds, open-enrollment support, interim HR coverage, and other defined projects.

$150/hour
Jason Johnston, SPHR, founder of Pillar People Management

The person you're actually calling

I'm Jason Johnston, an SPHR-certified HR leader with a decade of experience building HR functions from scratch: for a global software company across three countries, Indiana's #1 certified Honda dealership, a national healthcare staffing agency, and businesses like yours.

My specialty is the hard stuff: the complaint that needs an impartial investigation, the termination that has to be handled right, the classification question nobody wants to open. I've also implemented the systems (ADP Workforce Now, UKG, Greenhouse) that make the routine stuff stop eating your week.

Every client works directly with me. No account reps, no ticket queue, no junior staff learning on your dime.

SPHR Certified (HRCI) 10+ Years in HR Leadership Fort Wayne, Indiana Insured

Start with a free 30-minute HR risk check

Tell me how the people side of your business runs today. I'll flag anything worth worrying about and tell you honestly whether I can help. If it turns out you don't need me, I'll say so.

Pick a time on my calendar

Or call (435) 299-0290 · jason@pillarpeoplemanagement.com · LinkedIn