The Short Answer
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers work through the facts, policy, records, and next conversation in an employee relations matter. Support can include a decision review, documentation drafts, a meeting plan, and supervisor coaching. Formal fact-finding routes to workplace investigation services; leave casework routes to FMLA and ADA support; group reductions route to RIF planning.
Who does what: we review the available record, identify gaps or escalation needs, and prepare the agreed documentation and conversation support. You provide an accurate chronology and relevant policies, select an authorized decision-maker, and carry out the employment decision and follow-up. Legal questions and litigation strategy remain with employment counsel.
Choose the amount of support: a single review or conflict intervention can be scoped hourly or at a fixed fee; recurring questions may fit a monthly retainer. The scope identifies the matter, meetings, drafts, and follow-up included, so advice on one decision does not silently become an open-ended case.
Reviewed August 30, 2026 by Dr. Thomas W. Faulkner, DBA, SPHR. The service provides HR decision support, not a legal conclusion or guarantee.
The Moments That Create Liability
Employee relations risk concentrates in a handful of moments: an employee complains about a supervisor, two employees stop functioning together, performance slides and nobody documents it, someone mentions stress or a medical issue right after a write-up, or leadership decides today is the day to fire someone.
Each situation needs a fact-based response, consistent policy application, and a record of the decision. Outside HR support helps identify missing information, prepare the conversation, and distinguish a routine management matter from one requiring investigation, accommodation review, or counsel.
What Employee Relations Support Looks Like
You call before you act. We work through the facts, the policy, the documentation you have, and the documentation you need. You get a direct recommendation: proceed, pause, investigate, accommodate, or restructure the approach. When the conversation itself is the hard part, we script it, role-play it, or sit in on it.
Behind each individual issue, we look for the system gap that produced it. A manager who cannot document is a training gap. Repeated conflict on one team is usually a role clarity or supervision gap. Fixing those reduces how often the phone has to ring.
Discipline, Documentation, and Termination Support
Inconsistent discipline and incomplete records make it harder to explain why one employee was treated differently from a comparator. We help build a correction process managers can follow: clear expectations, factual write-ups, improvement plans with defined timelines, and an escalation path.
Before an individual termination, we pressure-test the record, timing, comparators, known protected activity, policy fit, and meeting plan. The output supports the employer's decision process; it does not determine whether a decision is legally risk-free. The EEOC's discipline-complaint guidance explains why independent review and consistent treatment matter.
The Employee Relations Decision Path
- Coach: expectations are clear, the issue is ordinary performance or conduct, and an early supervisor conversation is appropriate.
- Correct: the standard, facts, prior direction, next step, and follow-up date need a contemporaneous record.
- Accommodate: the facts suggest a medical limitation, leave request, religious practice, pregnancy-related need, or another issue requiring a separate process.
- Investigate: a discrimination, harassment, retaliation, safety, wage, or material policy complaint requires defined fact-finding.
- Involve counsel: litigation, privilege strategy, a legal interpretation, or a high-consequence decision needs legal advice.
Depending on the engagement, outputs can include a chronology, comparator check, documentation draft, meeting plan, escalation triggers, and follow-up plan. One-time decision review, supervisor coaching, and ongoing support are scoped separately so the client knows what is included before work begins.
Support for Supervisors, Not Just Executives
Supervisors are often the first to receive a complaint or address a performance concern, so they need practical tools and a clear escalation route. We coach supervisors directly: how to correct behavior early, what to write down, what never to say, and when to escalate. A shared supervisory approach supports earlier conversations and more consistent records; it does not eliminate complaints or claims.
For municipalities and nonprofits, we also work the governance layer: keeping council members and board members inside their lane on personnel matters, which is one of the most common and most dangerous employee relations failures in public and mission-driven organizations.
Good Fit / Poor Fit
This is a good fit if:
- Employee issues currently land on the owner, city manager, or executive director
- A complaint, conflict, or termination is on the table right now
- Supervisors correct inconsistently and document little
- You have had a claim or a near-miss and do not want another
- You want a standing resource to call before every hard people decision
This is a poor fit if:
- You want someone to rubber-stamp a decision already made in anger
- You need legal representation in active litigation. That is employment counsel's role
- You want a one-time policy binder with no follow-through
Where Employee Relations Exposure Actually Comes From
Check a live matter with the retaliation risk checker, the termination risk calculator, or the employee complaint triage tool.
Source: EEOC Office of General Counsel FY2025 Annual Report.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an employee relations consultant do?
An employee relations consultant advises employers on complaints, conflict, discipline, documentation, and terminations. The goal is decisions that are fair, consistent, and defensible, made before a situation escalates into a claim or a resignation you did not want.
When should an employer call before firing someone?
Before the decision is final and before anything is said to the employee. A review can identify gaps in the record, timing, or process before the meeting. If the decision has already been communicated, support may still help with documentation, follow-up, and counsel coordination; it cannot undo the original sequence.
Can you help with a conflict between two employees?
Yes. We assess whether it is a behavior issue, a role clarity issue, or a supervision issue, then give you a concrete plan. Most chronic two-person conflicts are actually structure problems the organization can fix.
Do you support Texas municipalities and nonprofits?
Yes. Public sector and nonprofit employee relations carry extra layers: public records, executive sessions, board and council dynamics, and funder scrutiny. Our practice is built around those environments alongside small business.
Is this a retainer or hourly?
Both models work. Ongoing employee relations support fits naturally into a monthly retainer. Single situations, like one termination review or one conflict intervention, can be handled as a scoped hourly or fixed-fee engagement.
Questions Texas Employers Ask
Direct answers from the Faulkner HR Solutions FAQ library for Texas employers:
- What should Texas HR do when employees complain about a supervisor?
- How should Texas managers document repeated performance or behavior issues?
- What should a Texas employer include in an employee write-up?
- How long can an employer wait to discipline an employee in Texas?
- When should HR review a Texas employee termination before the meeting?
- What should a Texas employer do when employees complain about favoritism?
Work Through the Next Employee Decision.
Use a no-cost 30-minute consult to outline the situation, the decision pending, and any deadline. We will assess fit, identify the appropriate service or counsel route, and explain the next scoping step.
Not ready for a call? Take the free HR System Risk Diagnostic.