HR Companies & HR Consultants in Augusta, GA

Overview

Brownstone Mediation Services, LLC is a human relations consultancy based in Augusta, Georgia. It combines everyday HR support with alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The firm presents itself as an outside HR partner for organizations that cannot justify a full internal department, and it also takes on focused projects involving workplace conflict, culture and people development. Services are delivered in person or virtually and can be arranged as the need arises.

The firm's typical clients are new or small businesses, organizations without experienced HR staff, and managers who have had to hire, discipline and terminate employees with no HR guidance. The founder has developed interventions for academic, nonprofit, corporate and military settings, so the work spans many sizes and sectors.

Brownstone distinguishes itself from consultancies that concentrate on benefits, compensation, recruiting or talent acquisition. Its own specialty is human relations: helping organizations treat conflict and difference as something to work through openly and building cultures that stay strong when disagreements arise. The firm describes its people as "conflict mechanics."

Services

Engagements follow one of three models. Consulting covers specialized, strategic projects on an as-needed basis. Outsourcing provides a broad set of HR services for larger volumes of work and long-term requirements, and the firm says it can fit a range of budgets. Support is an ongoing managed arrangement running three months or longer, up to indefinite on-call availability. Work areas include:

• HR audits, policy design and compensation analysis
• Climate assessments, employee surveys and culture change initiatives
• Diversity, equity and inclusion work
• Independent workplace investigations
• Strategic HR planning, talent and performance management, compliance and risk management
• Employee handbooks, onboarding, terminations, HR administration and new leader assimilation
• Executive coaching, leadership development, team building and structured dialogue

On the ADR side, an impartial, experienced mediator offers a confidential and informal route to resolving disputes. The firm also facilitates guided conversations about complex workplace and community topics, provides individual or team conflict coaching built on profile assessment feedback, and runs training on ADR and HR subjects, either on site or online.

Approach and Mission

Brownstone looks at four elements together: people, policies, processes and practices. From that picture it develops a human relations strategy intended to help an organization handle differences, disputes and conflict while performing at a high level. The consultants describe their method as human centered and inclusive, and they open with three questions: what is working, what is not, and how could things be done differently?

The company's stated mission is to transform workplace relationships by giving leaders and teams the tools, strategies and skills to build high-performing organizations that are resilient in the face of conflict. Its vision is to be a leading consultancy of HR and ADR professionals. Its values are curiosity, conviction, collaboration and continuous improvement, its guiding philosophy is "People First," and its tagline promises better teams, better relationships and better performance.

Background and Team

TeKay Brown-Taylor, Owner and President, founded the business after being personally affected by a corporate restructuring. Having observed that conflict management was the greatest developmental gap in many workplaces, she came to see mediation and other ADR methods as effective but underused tools for employee relations. A St. Louis native, she moved to Augusta in 2012.

She previously worked as an HR Business Partner at a Fortune 500 human capital management company, where colleagues and staff selected her for a company award.

Her credentials include a bachelor's degree in management and organizational behavior, an MBA with an HR management emphasis, PHR and SHRM-SCP designations, and certifications in EEO management, inclusive workplace culture, diversity and inclusion, and civil, family and workplace mediation, including mediation train-the-trainer. She also holds an Air Force commission and has logged more than 500 hours of continuing education. With over 18 years of experience, she serves as a SHRM Georgia District Director supporting chapters statewide.

The firm also works with independent consulting partners across the country, whom it calls co-collaborators. Together they report more than 171 combined years of experience in conflict, leadership, human relations and DEI work. Government contracting appears among the firm's offerings, making Brownstone relevant to public-sector buyers as well as private employers.