Human Resources with a Human Touch
PathGoal Employer Services builds and manages custom HR departments nationwide
![The leadership at PathGoal Employer Services is changing the face of human resources services. From left: Jeff Morris, Vice President of Sales; Lori Laubach, Vice President of Human Resources; John Limpert, Sales Consultant; and Adam Doman, President.](storyassets/carolinas/feature_stories/F19_NC_FS4_Human Resources/F19_NC_FS4_Interior1.jpg)
The leadership at PathGoal Employer Services is changing the face of human resources services. From left: Jeff Morris, Vice President of Sales; Lori Laubach, Vice President of Human Resources; John Limpert, Sales Consultant; and Adam Doman, President.
![The PathGoal Employer Services leadership team has been working with government contractors for more than 10 years. Its expert staff members are trained in human resources specific to government contracting.](storyassets/carolinas/feature_stories/F19_NC_FS4_Human Resources/F19_NC_FS4_Interior2.jpg)
The PathGoal Employer Services leadership team has been working with government contractors for more than 10 years. Its expert staff members are trained in human resources specific to government contracting.
Adam Doman, President of PathGoal Employer Services (PathGoal), is passionate about helping businesses grow. His company, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, functions as a human resources (HR) department for small to midsized business and government contractors. Its services cover both government compliance requirements and employee management tasks, including employee benefits, payroll and workers’ compensation insurance, recruiting, risk/safety management, performance management, and training and development functions.
“Our goal is to make our clients’ lives easier,” Adam says. “Small businesses and government contractors are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and we want to help them make a living. We want to serve our clients by taking over their HR needs so they can focus on building their businesses. You have no idea what great things people are doing out there.”
HR isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite topic. Its mere mention can make the strongest entrepreneurs shake their heads, and recent legislative action (including the federal overtime rule and joint employer rule) has made an already confusing issue more perplexing. Taking care of employee relations, training, salaries and benefits are a necessity that, unfortunately, many business owners don’t plan for.
“The best way to describe what we do at PathGoal is to answer the question, ‘Why do businesses choose us?’” Adam says. “Businesses get busy and grow exponentially and don’t have the time to manage or set up an HR department internally. Many of our clients start in garages and at kitchen tables. But then these employers wake up one day and have 20 or more employees and recognize they can no longer easily get their arms around all of the HR-related items on their plate, let alone optimize them. When that realization happens, we step in and give people the peace of mind that everything—from their HR manuals to timekeeping to selecting benefits to payroll—is handled professionally, ethically and on time.”
One of North Carolina’s First PEOs
PathGoal Employer Services opened in 2011 as a subsidiary of Headway Workforce Solutions, initially headquartered in New York City and now in Raleigh. PathGoal is a professional employer organization, or PEO, with 30 employees in-house and more than 5,000 contracted HR professionals. While it operates in all 50 states, the company is North Carolinian to its core.
“I’m a North Carolina native, a lover of chopped barbecue, and I am proud to lead what is amongst North Carolina’s first licensed PEOs,” Adam says. “There are other PEOs in the area, but we’re proud to be headquartered here. The Triangle area is one of the fastest-growing markets in the country for small businesses. It made perfect sense for PathGoal to call Raleigh its home. We have invested our company, employees and families in North Carolina’s future.”
It’s easy to understand why Adam is a passionate advocate for his home state. A native of Wake Forest, he attended North Carolina State University before starting a career in finance. “Later in my career, I was presented with what I call the opportunity of a lifetime to lead PathGoal,” Adam says. Under Adam’s leadership, PathGoal is taking the fear out of human resources. “I understand that HR can be overwhelming, and it’s completely normal for business owners to feel that way. That’s why we offer everything a small business or government contractor would need. We’re the one-stop shop for HR.”
Traditionally, Adam explains, when businesses reached a tipping point, they often outsource all of their HR-related tasks. “We have clients who outsourced their 401(k) plans to one company and hired a law firm to write the HR manuals and hired an accounting firm to manage payrolls. It was unstainable. That traditional method is so expensive and not at all efficient enough to keep up with a successful, growing business,” Adam says.
Enter PathGoal, the company that delivers the “toolbox” of a large company HR department, but “in a way that makes complete financial sense,” says Adam.
The PathGoal team takes pride in its ability to provide all HR services. These HR professionals can manage payroll, benefits and 401(k) enrollment, give legal advice and write HR manuals. “We put our clients first and foremost and hire the right people to come up with bright solutions to almost every HR challenge,” Adam adds.
Cutting-Edge Technology
PathGoal also serves clients through PrismHR, a human resource information system (HRIS) software platform. Developed by a company with the same name, this technology is specifically designed to help PEOs like PathGoal and its clients reduce risk, run more efficiently, expand business and earn more profit.
PathGoal collaborates closely with the software developer to create customizable programs that meet clients’ needs.
“I am proud of our HRIS,” Adam says. “Our information technology (IT) pros can develop a system that just can’t be replicated in larger PEOs.” He explains that many PEOs developed their HRIS programs in the 1980s or 1990s and struggle to keep up with the technological needs of modern clients. “These older systems just can’t be updated as quickly as ours. We have a handful of IT guys who work directly with PrismHR to make it fit the individual needs of the clients.”
Government Contracting
Adam emphasizes PathGoal’s ability to help government contractors. “We understand the needs and requirements of a government contract because we are a contractor ourselves,” Adam says. “That’s why we offer a service model tailored specifically to government contractors.”
The PathGoal leadership team has been working with government contractors for more than 10 years and provides a team of experts trained in HR specific to this market segment.
PathGoal offers pre- and post-award services, including resume sourcing, securing letters of intent, creating job-costing reports for both contracts and projects, and proposal writing.
“Government contractors have specific challenges not seen in other industries,” Adam explains. “Employees aren’t stationary. They often work on a contract-by-contract basis. So, we tailored an approach that allows government contractors to ramp up and ramp down their HR needs efficiently.”
PathGoal employees understand there is a common challenge for government contractors: knowing the real costs of a project.
“We help government contractors reduce their overhead costs in terms of prevailing wage, workers’ compensation and health insurance costs, and in real time,” Adam says. “What makes us more appealing is that we know all of a client’s costs, so clients can have accurate numbers when bidding on a project.”
Path Forward for PathGoal
PathGoal’s local service team presence in almost every major American city, cutting-edge software technology and hands-on approach assures that clients are receiving the best HR resources and customer service at an affordable cost, allowing clients to focus on innovation.
“I’m amazed at what people do to make a living around here,” Adam says. “We see the neatest businesses. If you look at the small businesses in your town, you will see the coolest things going on. It’s inspiring.”
![Allyson Markey](storyassets/contributors/AllysonMarkey.jpg)