An external performance improvement team
The office you don’t have.
We come in, fix the specific problem that’s costing you time and money, and leave it running. For schools, colleges, nonprofits and service organizations that never had a team like this. Leaner without layoffs.
6
consecutive engagements with one large metro Atlanta school district since 2023
15
Yellow Belts certified on that district’s HR council
10th-largest
US school district, where our founder directed recruitment and retention
Sound familiar?
The work that keeps breaking in the same places
- “New families and clients wait weeks to get started because the paperwork keeps bouncing back.”
- “Invoices go out late, and we spend half the month chasing payments.”
- “Purchase approvals sit in someone’s inbox, and nobody can tell me where the money actually goes.”
- “We’ve had the same openings posted for months, and good candidates go elsewhere before we call them back.”
- “We found out a certification had lapsed when the auditor did.”
- “Our data lives in five systems, the board wants numbers, and we’re pulling them together by hand the night before.”
- “We know this process is broken. We just don’t have anyone with the time to fix it.”
These aren’t failures of effort. Small organizations rarely have an operations team at all. Larger ones do, but the people who’d lead the change are already at capacity running the work as it is.
The offices
Six departments you’d otherwise have to hire
Each office is a team that fixes one part of how your organization runs, then keeps it working. Most clients start with one.
Most requested
People Office
Hiring, onboarding, pay and retention. Roles get filled in days, not months, and good people stay.
Days to hireOffer acceptanceFirst-year turnover
Most requested
Compliance Office
Licenses, clearances, required training, and grant and audit requirements. You’re ready any day of the year.
Credentials currentLapses caught before audit
Performance and Analytics Office
Your data in one place, dashboards your leaders use, and a scorecard your board reads in five minutes.
Days to produce the board pack
Operations Office
Intake, enrollment, scheduling and handoffs. The people you serve get served faster, with less falling through the cracks.
Time to serveRework
Business Office
Billing, collections, purchasing and the monthly close. Cash comes in faster and less of it leaks out.
Days to get paidDays to close
Funding Office
Grants, contracts and bids found, won, managed and reported on, so money you’ve earned gets claimed.
Late reportsUnclaimed reimbursements
Facing something bigger, like a budget that has to shrink or two programs that need to merge? See transformation projects.
How we work
We fix it, and leave it running
Diagnose (about two weeks)
We look at how the work actually flows today, using your own records, and show you where it breaks and what it’s costing you in dollars and hours. You get a short, plain report and a recommended fix.
Fix (4 to 12 weeks)
We do the work. We clear the backlog, redesign the process and get it running smoothly. You get results, not a binder of recommendations.
Sustain (optional)
Your team carries it with simple procedures and short training, or a vetted specialist from our network keeps it running. Either way, we stay on as the quality check with a monthly scorecard.
Many clients come to us for a moment: a hiring push before the year starts, an audit on the calendar, a grant deadline, a board retreat. We’re built for those, and we’re here if you want us to stay.
Why now
The methods that changed other industries never reached you. They’ve never mattered more.
The process improvement methods that transformed manufacturing, banking and healthcare rarely made it to schools, nonprofits and small service organizations. Now the pressure is real everywhere at once.
Schools and colleges
US high school graduates peaked in 2025 and are projected to fall 13% by 2041, according to WICHE. Fewer students, and costs that don’t shrink on their own.
Nonprofits
Less predictable funding, rising demand, and funders asking for proof.
Service businesses
Scarce, expensive labor on thin margins. Every administrative hour saved goes back to the work.
When the pressure is this real, how the work gets done is the difference between cutting what matters and protecting it.
Who we serve
Organizations that run on frontline people
A recent result
Does this role belong one grade higher?
A large metro Atlanta school district asked us a question its HR chief needed to answer for the board: was one support role paid at the right grade? We ran a document-based classification and market study across eight comparator districts and delivered it on the district’s date. Every figure traced to a cited source. The district got a clear answer, its market position, the cost of each option, three options with their trade-offs, and a plain list of the evidence that would change the answer.
Who you’ll work with
We measure results, not activity
Amanex is led by Edwine Michel, a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with 20 years running operations. He served as Director of Recruitment and Retention in the nation’s 10th-largest school district, where he led a Lean Six Sigma hiring project targeting 10 days or less to fill a role. That work was presented to peer districts nationally. Every engagement starts with a baseline and ends with the numbers that moved. You always know who’s accountable.
Master Black BeltM.S.M.B.A.M.Ed.
Edwine works alongside Idly Etienne, Vice President of Business Development and Client Success, and Idline Dulcio, Vice President of Education Partnerships and Workforce Solutions.
Working with us
Plain terms, from the first call
Fixed fees, agreed up front
No hourly meters. You know the price before we start.
Flexible ways to pay
We work with procurement for public agencies, and many funders will cover our work as capacity building for nonprofits.
Your data stays yours
We use secure, modern tools, including AI, under our team’s direct supervision. Your information is never used to train anyone’s models.
One point of contact
You always know who’s accountable.
Tell us what’s breaking.
In 30 minutes we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help, and what a diagnostic would show.
