HR Companies & HR Consultants in Columbia, MD

HR Anew is a human resources consulting firm headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. It advises small businesses, nonprofits, faith-based groups, healthcare and behavioral health providers, government agencies and larger employers. The firm reports more than 27 years of work with mission-driven organizations nationwide. It is led by founder Deborah Stallings, MA, SHRM-SCP, who serves as both CEO and Chief Human Resources Officer. Her team includes HR strategists, specialists and generalists.

How the Firm Works

The firm's central idea is early intervention. It aims to address people problems such as poor performance, conduct concerns or cultural friction before they grow into EEOC complaints, lawsuits or operational setbacks. Leaders weighing a difficult personnel decision can book a private, confidential one-hour strategy session with Stallings.

The session produces a step-by-step course of action and help with documentation or messaging. A free introductory call is offered first, and longer advisory arrangements can be set up on request. For continuing needs, clients can use a retainer or engage the team project by project. This gives them fractional or outsourced HR capacity without hiring a full in-house department.

Services

• Fractional Chief Human Resources Officer and people-strategy leadership
• Outsourced HR support for small businesses and nonprofits
• HR audits focused on compliance, liability reduction and practical systems
• Equal Employment Opportunity work, including investigations, counseling, mediation, final agency decisions and policy development
• Recruitment, including structured and behavioral interviewing, new hire processing, orientation, onboarding, mentoring and follow-up check-ins
• Training in leadership, communication, compliance and job skills

For federal agencies and large employers, the firm provides EEO services it describes as compliant with EEOC Management Directive 110. It also supplies accommodation specialists and custom training for managers and staff. HR Anew is a WBENC-certified woman-owned small business, and its site references a GSA Schedule. Both credentials are relevant to public-sector buyers.

Hiring and Retention Approach

Recruitment work is built around a proprietary framework called The AHIRED Method. It uses assessments and compliance-minded practices to match candidates to roles. The firm states that clients have cut turnover by about 30 percent within six months of adopting the method. It also reports retention above 90 percent, with some clients reaching 94 percent. HR Anew offers a secure, centralized technology platform called WorkSmartAnew to support productivity. Free resources and white papers are also available on its site.

Background and Recognition

The company describes its vision as faith-guided. Its core values form the acronym WISDOM: wisdom, innovation, service, drive, opportunity and meaning. The firm and its founder have received a range of honors:

• Maryland Top 100 Women from The Daily Record
• Enterprising Women recognition from the Baltimore Business Journal
• Women in Business Champion from the U.S. Small Business Administration
• Woman of the Year from the National Association of Women Business Owners
• An HR leadership award from George Mason University
• Placements on DiversityBusiness.com rankings of Maryland small businesses and 8(a) firms

Buyers who want senior-level HR judgment, EEO expertise and hands-on support may find HR Anew a good fit. This is especially true for nonprofits, healthcare employers and agencies with federal compliance needs.

Jumpstart HR is a human resources consultancy headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, operating as a trade name of Jumpstart Brand, LLC.

Founded in 2011 by Joey Price, who serves as CEO, the firm combines two lines of work: a hands-on consulting practice that delivers fractional and project-based HR, and a separate research unit that studies the HR technology market and publishes analysis free of vendor sponsorship.

Its consultants are experienced practitioners located in the United States, and the company presents this dual model as a way to keep client advice informed by current market evidence.

The firm describes three main client groups. The first is smaller organizations, typically somewhere between about ten and two hundred staff, where personnel matters have fallen to a founder, finance lead or office manager. The second is companies that already employ HR staff but lack capacity for certain tasks.

The third is businesses going through change, such as exiting a PEO, expanding into additional states, hiring an initial HR employee or setting up foundations after raising capital. Its team has worked with clients in professional services, technology and startups, nonprofits and healthcare.

Services

• Acting as an outsourced HR department, including payroll oversight, policies and everyday employee questions
• On-call advisory through a monthly plan with scheduled consulting calls
• Fractional HR subscriptions providing a set block of monthly hours
• Prepaid blocks of consulting time for discrete projects
• Full lifecycle recruiting and help with stalled searches
• Drafting, revising and yearly refreshes of employee handbooks for multi-state employers
• Free and in-depth HR audits, including reviews for private equity diligence
• Leave administration covering FMLA and state programs, plus interim coverage
• HRIS and payroll implementations, migrations and troubleshooting
• AI strategy, governance and adoption advisory, including team training

For organizations with existing HR staff, Jumpstart HR can investigate employee relations issues, handle terminations, absorb surplus recruiting work and benchmark compensation. Clients may engage the firm for a single assignment or keep it on an ongoing basis, adjusting the level of support as needs shift.

Engagements usually begin with a complimentary consultation to scope the work, and the site offers several short self-service diagnostics, including a risk check for smaller teams, a needs review for larger HR and recruiting functions, a technology buying diagnostic and a workforce archetype quiz.

The company also sells people development tools. Individuals and teams can purchase Working Genius and DISC assessments on their own or combined with one-on-one debriefs led by a certified coach on staff. Its research arm produces category guides and market analysis aimed at HR leaders, technology vendors and investors, along with free frameworks and briefings.

Background and credentials

Price wrote The Power of HR, released by Kogan Page in March 2025, which was named a Distinguished Favorite in leadership at the NYC Big Book Award and a finalist at American Book Fest.

He has given a TEDx talk, delivered a keynote at the HR Technology Conference, was included in SHRM's 30 Under 30 list in 2016, and HR Executive has named him one of its 100 most influential voices in HR technology. He also hosts the Joey's HR Lounge podcast, featuring interviews on hiring, compliance, AI and workplace trends.

Buyers weighing HR consultants may find the pairing of practical support with independent technology research to be the firm's distinguishing feature.

Overview

Spectrum HR Solutions is a human resources consulting firm based in Columbia, Maryland, that has advised employers since 2004. Its clients include privately held companies, nonprofit organizations and public-sector agencies in Maryland and other states. The firm positions itself especially for growing employers with roughly 25 to more than 150 staff who have outgrown informal people practices.

It can act as an organization's outsourced HR department, or it can supplement an internal HR group that needs added capacity or senior expertise.

The firm's work spans both strategy and day-to-day execution. Consultants assess existing HR functions and pinpoint gaps. They then build policies, handbooks, systems and workflows suited to the employer's size and goals. Engagements can be scoped as a single project or as continuing support. Proposals are tailored after an initial conversation about the client's business. Spectrum frames its value in business terms, emphasizing retention, productivity and lower legal exposure.

Services

Its consulting practice is organized around several areas:

• HR operations development, including handbook review, improvements to recruiting and onboarding processes, and HR infrastructure
• Compensation, total rewards and benefits design, with attention to pay equity and pay transparency rules
• Executive coaching and leadership growth programs
• Employment law compliance, audits and risk reduction
• Culture and organizational wellness initiatives
• Performance management frameworks and engagement strategies
• Harassment and violence prevention training, written policies and neutral workplace investigations
• Learning systems and organizational training programs
• Executive and C-suite talent searches

For chief HR officers and other senior people leaders, the firm also offers several kinds of support. These include HR metrics and analytics, workforce and succession planning, and strategic alignment. It also works on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, on recruiting and keeping top talent, and on employee satisfaction efforts.

Background and Team

The company is led by CEO and Principal Brenda McChriston, who holds a master's degree along with the SHRM-SCP and SPHR certifications. Kelly Brooks, vice president of operations, started with the firm in 2010 as a junior consultant. Brooks holds a master's in industrial/organizational psychology and focuses on improving internal processes, policies and culture.

Senior Productivity Partners Ruth Bassham and TJ DeLoatch each bring two decades or more of HR experience. Bassham's background covers Fortune 500 firms, start-ups, manufacturing, distribution, government contracting and professional services. Her expertise includes labor relations, mergers and acquisitions, and multi-state operations. DeLoatch's career centers on retail and commercial furniture, with depth in change management, compliance and training.

What Sets Them Apart

Spectrum reports that about 90 percent of its business arrives through referrals. Its team draws on experience in private, nonprofit and government settings. The firm describes a hands-on, high-touch style in which consultants work directly inside client organizations. Its stated values include confidentiality, clear communication and ongoing professional development.

Clients such as Baltimore Healthy Start have praised the team's responsiveness and its knowledge of employment law. Leadership also voices a strong commitment to inclusive workplaces that reject bias and discrimination, and that commitment shapes both its internal culture and its DEI consulting.

The HR Team is a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm that works with employers in Maryland, Washington DC and Virginia. It is now part of the Ravix Group. Its main clients are nonprofits, trade associations, small businesses and startups that need seasoned HR expertise but do not have, or do not want, a full internal HR department.

Instead of hiring in-house HR staff, these organizations rely on the firm's consultants for everyday people matters as well as larger strategic decisions.

Services

The firm offers ongoing outsourced HR along with project-based consulting. The consulting work covers several distinct areas:

• Writing and updating employee handbooks
• Designing and improving performance management
• Coaching managers and advising them on difficult situations
• Benchmarking pay against the market
• HR audits to find compliance gaps
• Employee surveys to measure staff sentiment

Its outsourced engagements cover routine employee questions, regulatory compliance, workplace policies, guidance for supervisors and sensitive workplace concerns. Typical situations it helps with include deciding whether to add full-time, part-time or contract staff when workload grows, checking compliance after rules change, resolving conflict between coworkers, and reviewing pay and benefits after strong performers leave for competitors.

Industries served

The firm has built expertise in a set of sectors where it says it understands the workforce issues well:

• Trade associations and nonprofit organizations
• Technology companies
• Construction
• Financial services
• Law firms
• Government contractors

Approach and background

The firm has been in business for more than twenty years and has worked with organizations of many sizes and industries. Its view is that HR is a people-centered advisory service, not a product such as insurance or benefits, and not a clerical job of processing paperwork. It does not offer standard packages or call-center help.

Instead, it adapts its recommendations to each client's needs and workplace culture. The goal is for clients to see their consultant as a trusted advisor, much as they would see their attorney or accountant.

Client feedback on the site stresses responsiveness and continuity. One museum client credited an assigned consultant with guiding its board through a CEO search and leadership transition. A professional association said it valued clear, concise advice and current knowledge of HR developments. A behavioral health provider described how the firm helped it grow from 17 employees to more than 250, covering both operations and long-term planning.

Beyond client work, the firm publishes educational material for employers. This includes a newsletter, webinars, a video library, a blog, an FAQ section and a free eBook series called Eileen's HR Lessons, built from two decades of practical HR experience. For buyers comparing HR providers, The HR Team suits organizations that want an ongoing advisory relationship, sector knowledge in nonprofits, professional services and contracting, and practical help with compliance and employee relations without hiring a dedicated HR department.