Terran Churcher is the Chairman and founding member of Codegate, an Oxfordshire based software development and system integration company. The business was established in 1994 and like many small enterprises in their early start-up phase the main focus was not on HR.
Then one of the toughest HR challenges Codegate has faced happened, an issue over maternity leave, and, in particular, an employee who wanted more flexible hours when she returned to the workplace. That’s when Terran knew that his piecemeal reliance on accountants, solicitors and other professional advisors for human resources issues was inadequate.
And so he approached Carolyne Wahlen and the team at Gap HR.
“It was very difficult to see how we could work with our employee’s request, given that hers was a full-time role. How we negotiated with the employee was very much down to advice given by Gap HR. We offered her the full-time role again as we were required to do, but we couldn’t agree a sensible pattern of working. Unfortunately, this employee felt unable to work full-time hours again and so she sought alternative employment.”
Maternity leave is one of the most complicated employment issues for small businesses to understand, but having Gap HR by his side ensured that Terran and Codegate resolved the issue amicably and in accordance with employment law. “I have been dealing with Carolyne now for nearly eight years, and when she first came out to see us, she impressed me with her technical knowledge and her history with HR. I was also impressed by her entrepreneurial spirit as someone who wanted to start, grow and build a small consultancy business in this field.
Terran enjoys the easy relationship with the team at Gap HR and says that fortunately his company doesn’t have too many HR issues, although every now and again technicalities will surface that require an expert’s touch.
But resolving tricky concerns, such as this, isn’t the only benefit that Codegate enjoys through using Carolyne’s services. “Well it gives us a budgeted known cost and peace of mind related to HR legislation and directives. What I mean by this is that doing my budgets for next year I can see all the costs associated with HR. And should any issues occur I can actually fall back on experts in the field. “This even includes things like the company handbook, which is updated every year by Gap HR to ensure that we are compliant with current legislation. All of which gives me great peace of mind.”
Terran Churcher
Chairman and Founder