The Global Standard Partners

Why We Stay Small

A boutique caseload, on purpose.

Most HR consultancies grow by adding clients. We grow by saying no to most of them. Here's how an engagement actually unfolds.

Stage One

Diagnose the trigger

Most engagements start with a specific event — a 1099-to-W2 transition, a first wave of hires, or a compliance gap the founders have been managing themselves. We start there, not with a generic audit.

Stage Two

Set the retainer

We scope the work into a fixed monthly retainer with a defined hours cap — never open-ended hourly billing. You know the cost before we start, every month.

Stage Three

Stay the partner

Once the initial trigger is resolved, most clients stay on at a lighter tier for ongoing policy, compliance, and employee-relations support — the same person, indefinitely.

Services

Four ways to work with us. One partner.

Each open file below represents a distinct line of work — priced and scoped on its own terms.

Active Practice

Fractional HR Partnership

Ongoing HR leadership without the cost of a full-time hire — built for companies with real HR risk but not yet the size to justify an internal department.

Standard Partner

Up to 15 hrs / mo

Core HR functions: policy maintenance, compliance check-ins, onboarding/offboarding support, and day-to-day HR guidance.

Complex Partner

Up to 35 hrs / mo

Everything in Standard Partner, plus employee-relations support and active transitions: worker classification changes, handbook builds, compliance overhauls.

Fixed Fee

Project-Based HR Services

Not ready for an ongoing retainer? These one-time deliverables are scoped up front, with no monthly commitment — and if your need doesn't fit a listed package, we'll build a custom scope around it.

HR Audit / Compliance Assessment

Review of current HR practices, payroll classification, and compliance gaps.

1099-to-W2 Transition Package

Worker classification review, onboarding docs, payroll setup guidance.

Employee Handbook Development

Custom handbook covering policies, PTO, conduct, and compliance basics.

Payroll Setup · Policy Sets · Recruiting Setup

Additional fixed-fee projects scoped to what you need.

Custom Project

Scoped to fit

Something else on your mind? We'll scope a one-off project and price around your specific need and budget.

International

U.S. HR for International Businesses

Hiring or managing people in the United States from abroad? At-will employment, FLSA exempt and non-exempt classification, I-9s, state paid leave, state-mandated harassment training, benefits expectations, and a very different approach to terminations tend to surprise companies headquartered elsewhere. Your home-country playbook won’t transfer — we translate it.

U.S. Entry HR Setup

At-will offer letters, correct exempt and non-exempt classification, I-9 and onboarding documents, and a handbook built around the paid leave and harassment-training rules of each state you hire in.

Ongoing U.S. HR Partner

One point of contact for your U.S. team — employee relations, benefits expectations, and terminations handled the U.S. way, in step with your headquarters leadership.

U.S. Compliance Review

An audit of how your U.S. workers are classified, paid, documented, and trained, with a clear list of gaps to close.

Multi-state experience supporting global client operations, a SHRM-SCP credential, and hands-on compliance audit work — paired with an understanding of how HR runs at headquarters, so we can explain why the rules differ here.

By Inquiry

Speaking & Advisory

Research-backed sessions on sustainable growth for small and mid-sized enterprises, drawn from doctoral research on human capital, sales optimization, and operational scalability.

Virtual HR training

Live online · by appointment

In-depth live sessions for your team and leaders, delivered remotely — half-day or full-day, no travel required.

Keynote / panel

By engagement

Conference and event speaking on HR-driven growth.

Who We're For

We're precise about fit — deliberately.

A boutique caseload only works if every client is genuinely the right one. This is what we screen for before the first call.

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No internal HR function yet — usually an owner, CEO, or COO currently handling it themselves.

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Up to 250 employees — enough exposure to matter, not enough to need a full department.

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Facing a specific trigger: a worker-classification change, first hires, multi-state expansion, or a recent HR incident.

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Values a long-term partner and risk reduction over the lowest possible bid.

About

Grounded in research, not templates.

Shirlyn Santos

Founder & Principal HR Partner

15+ Years in HR & Business · SHRM-SCP · Doctoral Candidate

The Global Standard Partners is built on a simple premise: growing companies need senior HR judgment long before they can justify a full-time HR hire — and they deserve better than generic advice bought by the hour.

That judgment comes from over 15 years in HR and business, a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) credential, and ongoing doctoral research on sustainable growth strategies for small and mid-sized enterprises — the integration of human capital, sales optimization, and operational scalability.

That combination is why our engagements start with the specific trigger putting a company at risk, not a generic audit template.

Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with hands-on experience across federal, state, and county-level employment compliance in multiple states — so a client outside Nevada is not a limitation, just a different set of rules to apply correctly.

HR leadership for companies that outgrew guessing.