Milestone’s HR function brings continuity to Base, allowing the company to grow quickly and globally

“What stands out to me about Milestone’s service is access to so many levels of expertise. We have both a dedicated team and different layers of background expertise available when we need it.”   Casey Putschoegl, Base – Co-Founder and President

Situation

Base was merging two different companies and had an HR function that was “cobbled together,” with an unclear division of responsibilities. Base had aggressive growth goals and a distributed team which required an HR function that could provide continuity and a full range of People solutions. 

Solution

Base hired Milestone to become their outsourced HR team because of Milestone’s reputation for building scalable HR programs and their ability to deliver multiple levels of expertise.

Outcome

Since working with Milestone, Base’s HR function has allowed the company to operationalize global growth, change internal systems to match that growth, and recruit top talent with Milestone’s compensation expertise. 

Base is a talent intelligence marketplace for executive assistants (EA) that matches leaders with highly qualified EAs through an AI-powered matching system, allowing leaders to find talent quickly without sacrificing quality.  Base provides both fractional and full-time EAs and supports them with learning and development opportunities, a community of professionals, and additional workforce tools. The Co-founder and President of Base is Casey Putschoegl.  

Prior to Milestone, Base consisted of organizations with an HR function “cobbled together.” Both organizations had fractional HR support. One company relied on their VC’s HR plan, which it would soon be rolling off. The other company had multiple members with HR responsibilities. When the merger happened, Base was hiring quickly and setting up new systems. Putschoegl knew that performing the work it in-house was out of the question for their current resources. Base is also a fully disturbed global team, which added complexity to the rollout of new systems and processes. They hired Milestone because of their reputation for follow-through and ability to provide continuity for the team amongst a lot of change.

Currently, Base and Putschoegl feel like “Milestone has become an extension of our team.” Milestone has helped them navigate successfully through change. Putschoegl highlighted how Milestone’s HR team dedicated to Milestone, Jenny Pearce and Carla Shrake, are plugged into Base’s communication and employees to create an environment of trust and access. 

Milestone adds value to Base by being a proactive partner with Putschoegl as changes and growth come to the company. One highlighted example was overhauling the handbook to address different state and global policies as the Base team expands. “Milestone can see the forest and the trees. I really feel like I have a partner in Milestone.” 

Milestone performed compensation benchmarking and total rewards analyses, giving Base an advantage in the marketplace. This information allowed Base to create competitive offers when recruiting highly sought after talent.  Another project completed by Milestone included an overhaul of internal HR systems. Milestone transitioned Base from Gusto to Rippling, re-designed onboarding processes, setup new integrations, and ensured global teammates had adequate support and structure. 

“What I’ve found to be true in my 10 years as an entrepreneur is that when you can access expertise and the right resources fractionally, you can build a team around you that feels like a true team, but without the financial overhead of building full-time roles before you’re ready. I believe this in the fabric of my being as an entrepreneur and business owner.” – Casey Putschoegl.