Human resources consultant Linda P. Daniel saw her opportunity when a client struggled with regulations on hiring the handicapped, family medical leaves, Immigration and Naturalization Service paperwork and other federal requirements. “When I saw them getting very stressed, I asked, how would you like to outsource the entire department?”

Outsourcing human resources is on the rise, says the Society of Human Resources Management. It reports 69% of HR executives in 2000 outsourced at least some work, up from 58% in 1999. Daniel is riding that trend — with a multinational twist. She designed and implemented the HR system for Bermuda-based Global Crossing’s Global Marine Systems Federal unit in Fort Lauderdale and integrated it with the parent’s system, says Roger Mitchell, Global Marine’s operations vice president. She also set up HR for multinational Mosaic Software, an ATM software firm with offices in Deerfield Beach.

A native of Abingdon, Va., Daniel worked in benefits planning for the Tennessee Bankers Association before moving to Florida in 1988 and taking up pure HR work. She recruited nurses from Canada and the United Kingdom to work as temp nurses for a staffing company and later was HR director for a home healthcare firm and a telecom startup. In 1999, she founded Human Assets Associates. “I really felt like I was on the cusp of outsourcing,” she says.

Daniel pitches herself as paying her own way by finding clients savings on expenses like insurance and risk management. Daniel, 52, also tries to convince companies that HR isn’t some extraneous spending. “You’re really protecting the liability of the company,” she says.