HR Companies & HR Consultants in Bloomington, IN

Barton Performance Group, LLC is a veteran-owned consulting practice based in Bloomington, Indiana, that works with organizations and their leaders to strengthen results through research-backed methods. Although its office is in south-central Indiana, the firm presents itself as a partner to clients around the world. It sits where human resources meets operations, helping employers improve how people are led, developed and organized so that business performance follows.

Services and Specialties

The firm describes four core areas of expertise: assessing and developing leaders, designing and rolling out strategy, evaluating organizational culture, and guiding leaders through change. Its consulting work covers a range of issues that managers commonly face, including:

• Structured change management that defines the scope of a change, builds a plan and delivers solutions addressing both people and systems
• Performance management training covering goal setting, development planning and coaching for behavior and results
• Strategies and practices for keeping high-performing professionals
• Leadership development that helps participants understand their own style and find skills to build
• Facilitation, coaching and assessment services
• Work to build cultures centered on high performance and service excellence

Training Programs

Besides custom consulting, Barton Performance Group delivers several established leadership and team programs. One is Situational Leadership II, delivered through the SLII Experience learning design. This framework teaches managers to work out what an employee or group needs and then choose a matching leadership style. Its common vocabulary is meant to work across languages, cultures and regions.

For teams, the firm offers The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, based on Patrick Lencioni's work on team dysfunction. That program focuses on trust, productive conflict, commitment, accountability and attention to results, and it uses the DiSC personal assessment to help colleagues understand one another. A Leading Change program is also part of the lineup.

How They Work With Clients

The firm's engagements start with in-depth discovery and conversations with senior leadership, so that any solution fits the organization's priorities. Its consultants aim to diagnose a situation quickly at the outset, including what actually drives the client's business.

From there they put in place learning solutions grounded in evidence, write communication plans that speed up adoption, and enlist stakeholders and internal champions to build consistent behaviors, even in large, global organizations. The firm says it prepares carefully, will challenge clients when warranted and adapts proven content to each setting.

It treats every challenge as unique, with success measured by the client's own definition.

Background and Positioning

Barton Performance Group says it wants to be a reliable, responsive consulting partner known for strong working relationships. Its stated purpose is to build partnerships across HR and operational functions and to tailor its services to each client's values and goals.

It maintains a dedicated page for government buyers that links to a capabilities statement, which signals interest in public-sector work alongside private employers. For buyers comparing HR consultants, the firm's mix of change management, leadership assessment and licensed training programs makes it a fit for organizations that want leadership and culture development rather than transactional HR administration.

Overview

Schrader & Associates is a human resources consultancy in Bloomington, Indiana. It is led by its president, Chris Schrader, who works under the name "Chris the HR Pro." The firm advises organizations on people issues of every scale, from basic supervisor training to major events such as mergers and the integration of combined businesses. Besides consulting, the practice offers public speaking and career coaching resources, and it publishes white papers and a blog.

Who They Serve

The firm says it has worked for companies of many sizes in locations around the world. Its home page points to experience with midsize businesses that earn roughly $5 million to $20 million in yearly revenue. Buyers who want to see past engagements can review a sample client list on the site. Schrader & Associates does not use a standard template for HR. It studies each organization's needs first and then recommends a course of action based on that review.

Services

The firm groups its work into four practice areas:

• Strategic services: business integration, support with acquisitions and mergers, planning for and carrying out fast expansion, workforce reductions and large layoffs, building employee selection systems, retreats for senior leaders, succession planning, and reviews of how the organization works combined with change management
• Compensation and benefits: reviewing, designing and developing pay and reward plans, and evaluating benefit programs to find improvements
• Human capital development: programs that build leaders and strengthen middle managers
• Training programs: sessions on hiring well, managing employee performance, handling discipline, coaching, preventing harassment and building diversity awareness, leading a workforce that spans four generations, and how the Affordable Care Act affects the way an organization is structured

Background and Approach

Chris Schrader has more than 25 years of experience as an executive at privately owned companies, with assignments both in the United States and abroad. Over his career he has held leadership roles in finance, sales, human resources and operations, and the firm also lists manufacturing among its areas of experience.

Former colleagues have called him a businessman who practices HR. That label matches the firm's view of human resources as a tool for running the business well, not just an administrative task.

The firm presents this mix of business functions as what sets it apart. Its leadership has worked both on the front line and on executive staff. As a result, Schrader & Associates aims to understand the points of view of different stakeholders and to explain its HR advice in terms that operating executives recognize.

Chris Schrader is also an active speaker. He presents to small groups and has testified before legislative bodies, and the site says his values are rooted in his faith and his family.

For buyers comparing HR consultants, Schrader & Associates suits owners and executives who want a senior advisor with a business focus. It can handle strategic events such as acquisitions, restructurings or periods of fast growth, as well as hands-on management training. The website is built around its president, who leads both the consulting work and the speaking engagements.

The HR Chicks is a human resources consultancy based in Bloomington, Indiana, that works mainly with small and mid-sized companies. These are usually businesses that need experienced people guidance but don't have a full in-house HR department. Founder and CEO Ravin Rowe leads the firm. It offers outsourced HR, from setting up basic systems to acting as an ongoing fractional HR leader. Its stated goal is to make human resources less stressful and easier for owners and managers to understand.

Service Areas

The firm groups its work into four areas: foundational HR and compliance, people and performance, compensation and strategy, and training. Buyers can bring it in for a single project or keep it on as a continuing partner. Its main offerings include:

• Business structure audits that look at org charts, reporting lines, how much each leader oversees, and how clearly roles are defined
• Compliance health and risk assessments covering wage and hour practices, worker classification, recordkeeping, and federal, state, and local rules
• Setting up HR policies and writing custom employee handbooks
• Direct hire recruiting, plus onboarding and orientation programs
• Performance management systems and help with employee relations
• Fractional HR leadership on an ongoing basis
• Compensation and benefits analysis, and people integration during mergers and acquisitions
• Workshops on emotional intelligence, sales, and mindset, plus speaking engagements

How Engagements Work

Assessments don't end with a written report. Both the structure audit and the compliance review come with a 90-day activation plan. That plan can include ranked fixes, named owners for each task, short training pieces for leaders, change management support, milestones, and follow-up check-ins.

Compliance clients may also get practical tools such as a regulatory calendar, policy and documentation templates, interview guides, job description frameworks, and guidance on documenting discipline. The audits also cover forward-looking risks: remote work governance, pay equity, accommodation processes, exempt versus non-exempt classification, and contractor status.

New clients usually start with a free 30-minute call that the firm calls a Chick Chat. It is used to talk through current problems, spot early improvements, and decide which services fit.

Approach and Distinguishing Traits

The firm organizes its work around a framework it calls A.R.P.S.: attract, retain, protect, and strengthen. In practice this means helping clients hire well so they stop refilling the same roles, keep good employees, lower legal exposure, and build stronger leaders and culture. The HR Chicks ties people strategy directly to business results like retention and revenue growth.

It describes its style as conversational and plain-spoken, and its advice is tailored to each client's goals and culture rather than built from standard templates.

The firm also runs a blog, The Chick Chat, with articles on pay transparency, wage equity, and the use of AI in recruiting. It has also published toolkits for small employers. Buyers who want an approachable local partner for compliance, recruiting, restructuring, or part-time HR leadership in the Bloomington area may find it a good fit.