HR Companies & HR Consultants in Broken Arrow, OK

Merillat Consulting LLC is a woman-owned human resources consultancy headquartered in downtown Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The firm works mainly with small and midsize employers, roughly in the range of ten to five hundred staff, and acts as an external HR department for companies that lack one or need more depth than their in-house team can offer.

Its client base stretches from Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Northwest Arkansas to Texas, Kansas and Missouri, and it supports remote and multi-state employers in every U.S. state.

Services

The firm's offering is organized around outsourced and fractional HR, with project work available for businesses that need help on a single initiative rather than an ongoing retainer. Its menu covers:

• Outsourced HR management and day-to-day people support
• Fractional HR leadership and fractional CHRO engagements
• Fractional COO and operations consulting
• Compliance consulting and HR audits
• Handbook writing and policy development
• HRIS selection, implementation and optimization
• Payroll administration and benefits administration support
• Compensation planning and performance management programs
• Employee relations guidance and workplace investigations
• Recruiting help, onboarding, terminations and FMLA/ADA leave administration

At the executive level, its fractional CHRO work extends to succession and workforce planning, organizational design, culture initiatives, change management, HR budgeting, merger and restructuring support, and reporting to boards. The fractional COO practice goes beyond HR into operational assessments, standard operating procedures, KPI dashboards, vendor reviews, multi-location standardization and broader business software rollouts, which makes the firm a possible fit for owners who want people and operations advice from one source.

Approach and technology focus

Merillat emphasizes direct access to experienced practitioners and tailors each engagement to the client's size, culture and budget instead of selling a fixed package. A notable specialty is HR technology: team members have hands-on experience building and migrating payroll and HRIS platforms such as Paycom, Paylocity and Ease, including multi-state payroll tax setup, prior-period corrections and data cleanup. Client testimonials on the site frequently mention audits paired with system implementations, suggesting this combination is a common entry point.

Leadership and team

Founder and CEO Katie Merillat holds an MBA and the SHRM-CP credential and has spent more than fifteen years in payroll, HR administration and HRIS work, on top of a longer career in sales and management; her interests center on compliance and strategic development. Jarrett Dick serves as VP of Operations and Marketing.

Hannah Westmoreland directs client services and recruiting and brings a change-management and system ROI perspective. Tricia, a senior HRIS and HR operations consultant, has over twenty years in the field, including time as an HR director and many years running benefits and HR operations. Brittany Prickett manages implementation and payroll, drawing on prior payroll tax experience at Paycom.

For buyers comparing local HR providers, Merillat Consulting stands out for its blend of strategic fractional leadership with deep practical payroll and HRIS implementation skills, its multi-state compliance capability, and a small, named team that clients deal with directly. The firm also publishes HR resources, a blog and an HR answers section, and offers an initial consultation at no charge.

The People Perspective is a human resources consulting and talent acquisition firm based in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. It works with small businesses that need outside HR help, and also with larger organizations whose HR departments need extra capacity for particular projects. It works with clients in many different industries. Its testimonials come from businesses such as a compression company, a bakery, an architecture practice and a construction-related firm.

Background and Team

Kristi Spaethe, SHRM-CP, PHR, founded the company in early 2018. She saw that small companies in the area had no practical source of HR support. The firm started with compliance-focused work, such as handbooks, job descriptions and performance management, which it called basic HR. Ongoing monthly support of that kind is still the center of the business.

In early 2022, Spaethe bought Switchgear Search and Recruiting and renamed it People Perspective Search and Recruiting, which added recruiting to the firm. The rest of the team includes an HR consulting manager and trainer, Erin Moran, BBHR, and two consultants: Elizabeth Callahan, SHRM-CP, and Jessica Vaught, JD, SHRM-CP.

Vaught worked as a lawyer before moving into HR and brings expertise in wage-and-hour rules and employee relations.

Services

The firm aims to handle all of a client's people needs in one place. Its main areas of work are:

• HR compliance, including risk reduction and guidance on complex employment laws
• Ongoing outsourced HR support for companies that do not have in-house staff
• Handbooks, job descriptions and performance management systems
• Search and recruitment for employers, plus support for job seekers
• Leadership coaching and custom training for leaders and employees
• Assessments, succession planning, strategic planning and team building
• Menopause benefits guidance for employers

In 2025 the company launched The People Playbook, a subscription service. Subscribers get up-to-date compliant tools, training and support when they need them, as a lower-cost option than full consulting engagements.

How They Work With Clients

The firm calls its approach customizable HR. It recommends only the services a client actually needs, when the client needs them, and avoids pushing extra work. The first meeting is a free 30-minute consultation to decide whether the two sides are a good fit.

If a small business wants an office manager to handle HR, the consultants can help that person stay compliant, talk through employee problems and put sound practices in place. When a company already has HR staff, the firm can take on projects the internal team has no time for.

It can also screen job candidates so hiring managers only meet the strongest applicants.

Clients say in their reviews that the consultants learn each company's culture before giving advice, rather than handing over generic plans. They also say the team teaches clients as it goes, so clients get better at handling HR issues on their own.

The company's stated values are collaboration and listening, persistence through setbacks, a light-hearted style it calls funHR, and being authentic even when that feels awkward. For buyers in the Tulsa area, its main strength is the combination of compliance consulting, training, recruiting and a subscription resource library, all from one local team.