CBC

CBC

Case Study

Children’s Bereavement of South Texas

Published on July 18, 2022

Client Profile:

Non-Profit
Number of Employees & Volunteers: 24
Location: San Antonio, TX
SWBC PEO client since 2013

CBC

Blair Thompson has been the Managing Director for the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas (the Center) for five years. The Center is a 21-year-old non-profit organization that provides services for children (ages 3–23 years old) that have experienced a death loss of a parent, sibling, or grandparent.

After experiencing his own loss during his teenage years, Thompson felt compelled to enter a line of work that served the community. By his own admission and the concurrence of his colleagues, Thompson’s most impactful contributions to the Center take place, not behind a desk providing HR support, but in ensuring that counselors and other direct service staff can have confidence in an expertly run organization.

As part of the management team leading a growing organization, Thompson continues to lean on SWBC PEO to shoulder those instances where his expertise falls short. In fact, he sees SWBC PEO as part of the team that allows the organization to focus its time where it should—in changing the lives of children.

A PASSION TO SERVE

Ninety-five percent of employees that go into non-profit work are passionately compelled to do so to serve the representative cause of that organization. They DO NOT go into the work to spend their time wearing a HR hat, nor do they want to

Objectives

Stabilize overhead cost for administration
Maintain HR compliance
Build confidence with the Center employees
(as it relates to HR)

successes

Leveraged SWBC PEO’s 45+ industry experts
Received guidance as the Center approaches the 25-employee tier
Ensured HR functions run smoothly so employees can focus on the Center's mission
Resulting in a well-run organization

Care Giver with child

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS ARE STILL A BUSINESS

Many people forget that a non-profit organization, although not for profit, is still a business and should be run accordingly. They are required to perform the same day-to-day business-related activities—evaluating expenses, staffing, resources, efficiencies, and so on. With the obligation of running a business comes the responsibility of making the dollar go further—especially in the non-profit sector where leveraging operational efficiencies results in maximizing the resources available to support the program.

Taking into consideration the above and staying true to their mission in reaching as many children as possible, the Center keeps a keen eye on expenses, of which HR is only one. The Center has concluded (as many other SWBC PEO clients have as well) that it is significantly more cost effective to shoulder the HR administrative functions to SWBC PEO, rather than to hire for that function internally. The reality is that it would likely take multiple internal HR representatives to match the depth of expertise that the Center leverages with SWBC PEO. Today, serving a staff of 24 would likely equate to engaging two full-time HR employees, not to mention the cost of software and tools that they have access to whenworking with SWBC PEO.

What you often see in the non-profit world are organizations that may rely on the strengths and skills of a sitting board member that has experience in the HR space. When that happens, although helpful, that board member is likely being pulled away from their primary responsibilities, be it with the board or their full-time work. And, when non-profit organizations become comfortable with that arrangement, it can often be a devastating shock when that volunteer HR representative can no longer offer his/her services to the organization. For the Center, it was critical that they have an HR resource in their back pocket, on-demand for when
the need arose.

Blair Thompson

"It’s essential that every one of our employees come to work to a place that is well run, has strong resources, and offers support in the work they’re doing. For us, a huge part of those offered resources is provided through our relationship with SWBC PEO."

Blair Thompson

Managing Director, Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas

OFFERING EMPLOYEES A SENSE OF CONFIDENCE

An employee’s perspective on how their place of employment is run correlates to their state of happiness at work. For the Center, it’s a point that didn’t get overlooked. Prior to outsourcing HR support to SWBC PEO, the process to get HR-related support lacked clarity and consistency. That meant that when an employee raised an HR concern, be it payroll-specific or an employee-relations issue, the road to remedy was a long, winding one. That can have

a profound impact on how an employee perceives their employer. For the Center, it resulted in frustrated employees that had to exercise great patience as their employer researched appropriate resolutions. Fast forward to the SWBC PEO partnership, and the Center reports greater satisfaction among their employees.

"Working with SWBC PEO gives our employees a sense of confidence that all those administrative and HR functions are going to be managed well so it allows them to focus on their primary task, which is serving children." —Blair Thompson

Teens Take On Grief

LIMITING RISK WITH A GROWING COMPANY

As businesses grow, so do the staff to sustain the business. With that, comes the need for increased HR support. For the Center, as the staff continued to grow, so did the need to streamline the hiring process and administrative onboarding, handle workers’ compensation claims and employee separation processes, if needed.

It goes without being said: you don’t know what you don’t know. And, if you’re not in the HR world day in and day out, some of these run-of-the-mill situations may seem like business-ending circumstances. In reality, they’re likely not, and chances are that the SWBC PEO has counseled and provided direction to other client businesses hundreds of times before. So, when the Center ran into issues regarding employee relations, rather than trying to finagle a path or answer, they simply leaned on the employee relations experts at SWBC PEO. Then, they didn’t have to worry about violating any regulations or miscommunicating policies; it was all handled—and in a timely and orderly fashion.

When the Center started with SWBC PEO, they had six employees. Today, they boast a staff count of 24! Prior to working with SWBC PEO, Thompson would have grown increasingly concerned with new legal ramifications to consider as his organization approached the 25-employee tier. Engaging with SWBC PEO means that Thompson doesn’t have to lose sleep over it; instead, he just leverages the experts at SWBC PEO to navigate those waters.

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