Benefits, Leave & Compliance Partnership

Structured, specialist-informed partnership to keep your benefits, leave, ADA, and workers' compensation programs organized, compliant, and running with care — as your business grows.

ClearPath provides thoughtful, dependable specialist support in the HR functions growing businesses need but rarely have dedicated expertise for — benefits administration, leave of absence management, ADA accommodations, and workers' compensation — designed for founders and leaders who want clarity, consistency, and compliance confidence without hiring a full-time specialist.

I work as your external specialist partner, bringing 15+ years of hands-on HR experience, deep compliance expertise, and organized workflows to your most important people processes — so you can focus on leading with confidence.

Partnerships are capacity-based, scoped to your needs, and delivered through defined quarterly engagements. Detailed investment information is shared after submitting an inquiry.

Our Partnership Levels

ClearPath offers two specialist tracks each designed for a different level of benefits and leave complexity plus a broader People Ops option for teams that need it. Choose the level that fits where your team is today.

  • What It Is: Reliable, ongoing benefits administration and leave coordination handled consistently and compliantly.

    Best For: Employers who need dependable execution of core benefits and leave functions — new hire enrollments, life events, open enrollment support, FMLA intake, and employee benefit inquiries.

    Support Includes:

    • Benefits enrollment — new hires, life events, terminations, and open enrollment

    • Leave of absence intake and compliance tracking across FMLA, CFRA, PDL, ADA, and PFL

    • Employee benefit inquiry support — clear and empathetic

    • Carrier and TPA coordination

    • Benefits records maintenance and HR communication workflows

    What You Gain: Consistent, compliant benefits and leave execution — organized, dependable, and handled by a specialist who understands both the compliance requirements and the human stakes.

  • What It Is: An embedded specialist partnership covering the full scope of benefits, leave, ADA, and workers' compensation.

    Best For: Growing teams with increasing benefits and leave complexity who need a dedicated specialist resource without adding headcount.

    Support Includes:

    • Everything in Benefits & Leave Essentials, plus:

    • ADA accommodation coordination and interactive process support

    • Workers' compensation coordination — injury reporting, carrier coordination, and return-to-work

    • Dependent verification and benefits audit support

    • Open enrollment planning and execution

    • SOP development and monthly alignment conversations

    What You Gain: A dedicated specialist who knows your programs, your employees, and your compliance obligations — and shows up every month ready to execute.

  • What It Is: Broader HR operational support for teams who need reliable coordination beyond benefits and leave — onboarding, documentation, and communication workflows.

    Best For: Founders and small teams who need a reliable HR partner to take ownership of essential people processes.

    Support Includes:

    • New hire onboarding and contractor documentation

    • Employee file organization and maintenance

    • HR inbox and communication workflows

    • Basic benefits enrollment coordination

    • HR documentation and SOP support

    What You Gain: Essential people operations — organized, dependable, and off your plate.

    For specialist-level benefits, leave, ADA, or workers' compensation support, Benefits & Leave Essentials or Complete is recommended.

Not Ready For A Retainer Yet?

Not every team is at the stage where ongoing partnership makes sense. If you're earlier in that decision — or you just need expert help in one specific area — ClearPath offers a suite of fixed-scope, fixed-fee projects designed for exactly that. Each is complete in itself, with no retainer required.

Assessment Projects

  • Up to 15 Hours — $2,250

    What It Is: A structured, outside-eyes assessment of where your benefits, leave, and workers' compensation practices stand today — and a clear, prioritized roadmap for what to address first.

    Best For: Growing teams that have been managing benefits and leave informally and need a clear, honest picture of their compliance exposure before something becomes a problem.

    Support Includes:

    • Structured intake questionnaire completed before we begin

    • Current-state review across benefits, leave, workers' comp readiness, documentation, and communication workflows

    • Compliance gap assessment — FMLA, CFRA, ADA, COBRA, and OSHA recordkeeping

    • Written findings summary organized without jargon

    • Prioritized action plan by urgency and impact

    • 60-minute debrief call

    Does Not Include: Implementation, legal or compliance review, or ongoing support beyond the debrief call. This engagement provides an assessment and recommendations. It does not constitute legal advice. For matters requiring legal counsel, ClearPath works alongside your legal team.

  • Up to 12 Hours — $1,850

    What It Is: A structured review of your current benefits program administration — assessing enrollment accuracy, carrier and payroll reconciliation, compliance with federal regulations, and the employee-facing benefits experience — with a clear findings summary and prioritized action plan.

    Benefits administration errors are more common — and more costly — than most employers realize. Missed COBRA notices, inaccurate enrollment data, unreconciled carrier invoices, and gaps in open enrollment documentation create both financial exposure and employee trust issues. This audit gives you an honest, expert assessment of where your benefits administration stands and exactly what needs to be addressed.

    Best For: Growing employers administering benefits in-house without dedicated HR support, companies that have recently changed carriers or HRIS platforms, and organizations that have experienced benefits billing discrepancies, employee enrollment errors, or open enrollment irregularities.

Specialist Compliance Projects

  • Up to 15 Hours — $2,500

    What It Is: A focused engagement that assesses your current leave practices, identifies compliance gaps, and delivers a documented leave framework built for your specific workforce and operating states — with the deepest expertise where the rules are hardest, including California.

    Leave of absence is one of the most legally complex and frequently mishandled areas in people operations. FMLA, CFRA, PDL, ADA, PFL, and state-specific programs carry overlapping requirements, strict timelines, and serious consequences for non-compliance. This project gives your team a clear, compliant, and usable foundation — built by someone who has managed hundreds of leave cases across California and multi-state environments.

    Best For: Growing employers managing leave informally or inconsistently — whether you're California-based, operating across several states, or building a distributed remote team. Especially valuable if a recent leave situation exposed gaps.

  • Up to 12 Hours — $2,100

    What It Is: A focused engagement that establishes a compliant, documented interactive process framework for workplace accommodations — giving your organization a clear, consistent, and legally defensible approach to ADA and FEHA accommodation requests.

    Accommodation requests are among the highest-risk employee situations a growing employer can face. Without a documented, consistent interactive process, even well-intentioned responses can create legal exposure. This project builds the structure your team needs to handle accommodation requests confidently, compassionately, and in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act.

    Best For: Employers who have received — or anticipate receiving — accommodation requests and don't have a documented interactive process in place. Also well-suited for teams where accommodation requests are currently being handled inconsistently or without formal documentation.

  • Up to 15 Hours — $2,700

    What It Is: A focused engagement that establishes a compliant, documented workers' compensation coordination and return-to-work program — giving your team a clear, consistent process for handling workplace injuries from first report through return to work, with the OSHA recordkeeping and modified-duty structure most growing employers are missing.

    Workers' compensation is one of the costliest and most operationally tangled areas a growing employer manages — especially in higher-risk industries like manufacturing, agriculture, and the trades. Slow injury reporting, mishandled claims, missing OSHA logs, and the absence of a real return-to-work program quietly drive up claim costs, premiums, and your experience modifier for years. This project builds the coordinated, documented program your team needs — created by someone who managed workers' compensation programs hands-on for over a decade, including a role dedicated specifically to workers' compensation and leave management.

    Best For: Growing employers — particularly in manufacturing, wine and agriculture, solar, and other higher-injury-rate industries — who are handling workplace injuries reactively, lack a documented return-to-work process, or aren't confident their OSHA recordkeeping and injury-reporting workflows are sound.

Project engagements begin the same way as partnerships: submit an inquiry, and you’ll receive details and a link to schedule a free discovery call. Once scope is confirmed, you’ll receive an agreement and initial invoice to secure your start date.

Where ClearPath Specializes

While ClearPath supports the full range of benefits and leave needs, my deepest expertise sits in four areas that growing teams consistently underestimate:

Leave of Absence Programs — FMLA, CFRA, PDL, ADA, PFL, and state-specific programs administered accurately and compassionately from intake — with particular depth in California, where CFRA and PDL requirements go well beyond federal FMLA standards.

Benefits Administration — Enrollment, life events, open enrollment, carrier and payroll reconciliation, handled with accuracy and genuine care for the employee experience.

Workers' Compensation & Return-to-Work — Injury reporting and claims coordination, OSHA recordkeeping, modified-duty and return-to-work programs, and the interactive process for injured employees — handled with the depth that comes from a career spent specializing in it.

ADA Accommodations — Interactive process coordination, medical documentation management, and compliant accommodation implementation — including California's FEHA and PWFA obligations, which carry additional requirements beyond federal ADA standards.

These aren't add-ons. They're the foundation of what ClearPath does best.

Investment Overview

ClearPath partnerships are structured as monthly retainers based on defined capacity and the complexity of your benefits and leave programs. These engagements are designed for teams that value consistency, clarity, and predictable execution.

Retainer hours are allocated monthly and do not roll over. Unused hours expire at the end of each billing period. This keeps capacity predictable for both of us and ensures each month begins with focused, fresh support.

Detailed investment information is shared after submitting an inquiry — prior to scheduling your discovery call. This gives you the opportunity to review partnership options in advance and come to the conversation informed and prepared.

How Partnership Works

3 Month Initial Term

Each engagement begins with a 3-month initial term — allowing time for onboarding, alignment, and meaningful compliance progress. Benefits, leave, and accommodation work requires time to build employee trust and understand your specific programs.

Structured Renewal

After the initial term, partnerships renew in 90-day cycles. This predictable rhythm supports continuity and consistent forward momentum.

Defined Scope & Capacity

Each partnership reflects a set number of monthly hours focused on your People Ops priorities, delivered within that defined capacity.

Monthly Hours & Unused Capacity

Retainer hours are allocated monthly and do not roll over. Unused hours expire at the end of each billing period. Your retainer represents reserved capacity — dedicated time set aside for your partnership — and that reservation has value regardless of how many hours are actively used in a given month. If a month is trending toward underutilized capacity, I'll communicate proactively so we can make the most of the time available. If a month requires more than your retainer covers, additional hours may be available at your standard rate — always discussed and agreed upon before any additional work begins.

Notice Period

If either party chooses to conclude the partnership, 30 days' written notice is required prior to the end of the current term to ensure a smooth and organized transition.

Evolving Needs

As your team grows and operational complexity increases, partnership capacity and scope can adapt to match your support needs at the start of any new 90-day term.

What’s Outside Scope

ClearPath focuses exclusively on benefits, leave, ADA accommodations, and workers' compensation — because that focus is what makes the partnership valuable. The following are outside scope for all retainer engagements:

  • Legal drafting, legal advisory, or legal review — ClearPath brings deep compliance knowledge to every engagement, but formal legal counsel always remains with your legal team

  • HR strategy ownership or policy creation — I inform and support; you lead and decide

  • Employee relations, performance management, or conflict resolution

  • Bookkeeping, accounting, payroll processing, or tax support

  • Marketing, social media, or brand management

  • Sales, lead generation, or business development

  • Personal errands or non-business administrative tasks

  • Large-scale non-HR project or launch management

  • Full software implementation or technology migrations

  • Crisis response or emergency same-day work

ClearPath Support Services operates as an external HR partner — not a law firm, a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), a benefits broker, or a third-party administrator (TPA). I work alongside your existing broker, carriers, and TPAs as your internal specialist resource.

Not Sure Which Level Fits?

Here's a simple way to think about it:

  • Benefits & Leave Essentials — You need reliable, consistent execution of core benefits and leave functions

  • Benefits & Leave Complete — Your benefits, leave, ADA, and workers' comp needs have grown complex and you need an embedded specialist

  • People Ops Essentials — You need broader HR operational support beyond benefits and leave

Not sure if ClearPath is the right fit at all? If your team is navigating leave program complexity, multi-state compliance, ADA accommodations, or benefits administration without dedicated specialist support, there's a good chance we should talk.

After you submit your inquiry form:

  • You'll receive a link to schedule your free discovery call

  • Once your call is booked, you'll receive the ClearPath Service & Investment Guide

  • You can review partnership levels and pricing before our call — so you come prepared and confident

Ready to Bring Clarity & Calm to Your People Operations?

Whether you're ready for ongoing partnership or just want to start with a project, the inquiry form is the right first step.

 Submit an inquiry to begin. You'll receive the ClearPath Service & Investment Guide — including detailed investment options for all partnership levels and both project packages — before scheduling your discovery call. Come to the conversation prepared, informed, and confident.

Inquire Here