ABOUT WINNING ASSOCIATES

Consulting Services: We provide direct, common sense advice on management, compliance, human resources and areas such as...  

• Auditing Employee Handbooks for Compliance
• Policy and Procedure and Management System Audits
• Tailoring Employee Handbooks to Meet the Compliance and Communication Needs of the Company
• Employee Disciplinary Problems, Progressive Discipline, and Counseling
• Advising on Terminations, Resignations, Severance Pay Issues
• Wage and Hour Issues including Overtime and Compensatory Time Off
• Staffing Analyses: Job Descriptions and Job Specifications. Employee Classifications under FLSA and state regulations
• Performance and Compensation Evaluation Systems

We have helped more than 800 companies avoid the pitfalls that are inherent in employee relations. While Winning Associates' clients have been as large as McDonald's and as small as a three-person law office, normally the companies we assist have fewer than 50 employees. The industries our clients represent include banking, medicine, nursing homes, law, accounting, advertising, electronics, manufacturing, engineering, and Internet-based services, among others.

We have also provided expert witness testimony for employers, and acted as their agents in many other legal proceedings.

Coaching and Counseling: We have been coaching executives and managers since 1971. We have assisted these people in improving communication, in planning and organizing, in problem solving and problem prevention, and have trained them in using processes that positively affect the profitability of the company. This service can be hourly or retainer based. As a business owner, if you need a constant available and confidential sounding board, ask about "mentoring for money." Call for more information about the most reasonable retainer available. 1-925-944-1034

Sixty years' cumulative experience has prepared us to take a direct, no-nonsense, and common sense approach to the problems that all businesses encounter. Consulting with us for ten minutes can save your company thousands in potential losses.

[In the San Francisco Bay Area, Winning Associates has specialized in smaller medical, dental, optometric, chiropractic, and veterinary practices, assisting them in balancing the line between the historical, preferred professional aspects of the practice and the fact that these practices are also businesses which are supposed to be profitable.]

The Bulletproof Employee Handbook: Why spend weeks or months developing a handbook when, for as little as $400, Winning Associates also provides a "standardized," fully state and federal compliant, employee handbook for any companies that need a basic handbook to communicate expectations, objectives, and policies? Click on the above link for a complete description.

Auditing for Compliance: We audit policies and procedures and management systems for compliance and to be certain that they are in the best interests of the company.

About Ethan Winning: Prior to independent practice which he began in 1977, Mr. Winning worked for the states of Nevada and California, was a Vice President in Personnel for Wells Fargo Bank, then the only internal Management Development Consultant for Wellsco Data Systems, and then the National Director of Human Resources for Komatsu America. He was vice president of the Executive's Association of the East Bay, and was on the Advisory Board to CCH and the Bureau of National Affairs in the late 70s and early 80s. He was also a senior member of SHRM (ASPA, and ASTD) for 39 years.

Ethan Winning has his B.A. degree, and went on to earn two masters degrees from the University of Oregon, one in industrial psychology, and one in counseling psychology and education. He has a lifetime certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

His first book on legalities in human resources, Common Sense Employer-Employee Relations, was published in 1990; his second, Labor Pains: Employer and Employee Rights and Obligations, in 1995, and the eighth hard copy edition in 2004. The 2008 .pdf version (13th edition) has taken the place of all hard copies.

In addition to publishing more than 500 articles in professional journals and newspapers, Mr. Winning wrote monthly columns for The Personnel News, a national HR publication, and The California Job Journal. He has been a regular contributor to articles in Home Office Computing, Entrepreneur, and The Entrepreneurial Edge magazines. He has been cited in and interviewed for publications as varied as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Sacramento Bee, USA Today, The Las Vegas Sun, Forbes, and Business Week.

As both an author and a recognized expert witness in policies and procedures, employee classifications, independent contractor status, wrongful discharge, and motivation he has been an invited guest on many radio talk shows.

In addition, Mr. Winning has been an award winning and published nature photographer specializing in point-and-shoot digital photography along with a highly praised nature blog with day-to-day overtones.

About Sharon Winning: Sharon Winning earned her B.A. degree from the University of Oregon in psychology. She has been CFO of Winning Associates since its inception, and has consulted with many clients in financial planning, corporate budgeting, and bookkeeping functions. She and Ethan often collaborate in helping start-ups and smaller companies gain a sound footing and decision-making processes. Two heads are indeed better than one, in this instance for more than 44 years.

Winning Associates is not a law firm and, although we have a high regard for some of those firms, unlike most, we provide manuals, forms, and formats that are written in plain English so that there can be no misunderstanding as to a client's expectations of its employees. By using language "properly," we reduce a company's implied contract liabilities and increase employees' comprehension as to what is expected of them.

Winning Associates has been retained by clients in 34 states and Canada, and to help serve our clients from coast to coast, we provide services 12 hours a day, six days a week. If you don't have time to peruse the pertinent articles, call or email us for a no-obligation appraisal of your policy, procedure, handbook, compliance, and compensation needs.