Interview with Maria Berta, HR & Recruiting Practice Leader

BY MARIA BERTA, SPHR

HR & Recruiting Practice Leader | Berta Consulting Group

We solve your company’s specific HR pain points. We develop strategies to help recruit, retain, and motivate your employees by designing a plan that brings your company's core values to life through improvements in management practices, HR policies and procedures, and recruitment and retention tactics. 

Playing “catch up” with your HR practices and policies is extremely risky and can expose you to unnecessary legal risks. Not only can we keep you in compliance with labor law, but we can also optimize industry best practices tailored to your company’s unique needs, and keep you one step ahead.

Whether you need just one-off, on-call help with specific HR issues as they arise, or if you need comprehensive HR strategic consulting, we can help. 

1. Please introduce yourself and your business?

I am passionate about building great company infrastructures that enable employees to be productive and grow, and small businesses to succeed and thrive! I am a proud Pleasant Hill resident, a graduate of UC Berkeley, and a Human Resources and Recruiting specialist with 20+ years of experience. I provide human resource consulting and recruiting for small businesses. I specialize in keeping small businesses in compliance with labor law, creating policies and procedures, harassment investigations, HR risk mitigation, and more. I often say I do "hiring and firing and everything in between". I'm a mother of 4 and my children have gone from Valhalla to Valley View to College Park (a sophomore and junior), one to DVC, and one at UC Berkeley. 

2. When did you start your business, and why?

In the late 1990s, I was employee #2 of a Bay Area garage start-up. I loved building up the infrastructure of the business from the very start and seeing it succeed. HR was the foundation the company needed for success and growth. The company was eventually acquired by an international engineering firm. I stayed on as HR Director but wanted to get back to my passion: small businesses. I eventually left to work on a couple of start-ups, obtained certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources, and in 2017 opened my own practice. 

3.  What makes your business different?

The most common lawsuits filed against small business owners are related to HR: Employment Discrimination and Wrongful Termination. People are a business's most valuable asset, highest cost, and highest liability. I specialize in helping small businesses protect themselves and keep their staff engaged and productive. Most small businesses can't afford an HR manager or director and find out the hard way that HR can't be an afterthought. I am often an on-call resource for my clients when questions or problems arise. I know that small businesses need flexibility so I make myself available without requiring a minimum number of hours.

4. What is your favorite thing about living and doing business as a woman in Pleasant Hill?

Pleasant Hill is a wonderfully supportive and loyal community. Our businesses tend to go above and beyond in the area of customer service. Our city offices are accessible, helpful and made it easy for us to build an ADU in our yard for a separate home office. We have great programs for continuing education through our very own community college: DVC and excellent community programs and events through the Parks and Rec. Dept. Our city is both walkable and bikeable and has its own BART station. Everything I need for my business I can find within our city limits...and often you can see me biking there. 

5. Any words of encouragement or advice to other women who want to start their own businesses?

Ask for help and advice! People love the feeling of satisfaction when someone succeeds and they had a part in it from the start. Make HR part of your business plan. A small upfront cost to put the right policies and procedures in place can save you tens of thousands of dollars (or more) in the future. (The average lawsuit costs a small business $250,000.)