Stephen Ready is the Financial Controller at Rowland, a Leyland-based building firm with new home locations across the North West. They were established in 1993 and sell over 300 homes every year in Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and North Wales.

Rowland are a medium-sized firm with around 63 staff employed on a monthly basis, including 7 apprentices. Due to them typically having 6 or 7 housing sites at one time, they needed a HR solution that would help them manage staff effectively and ensure things run smoothly.

Rowland turned to CG Professionals for HR advice after struggling with some internal issues and no employment law expertise within the business. They wanted to ensure employee relations were dealt with efficiently and accurately to avoid further action such as industrial tribunals.

Stephen said: “I had met Andy a couple of times at CG’s golf networking events. He introduced me to Louise, and I was really impressed by her professionalism and honesty. I knew we would work well together and that we would be able to build a trusting relationship for ongoing HR support.”

Rowland opened a retainer contract so that they could call CG at any time for timely and accurate advice on ER issues.

1:Can you give us brief overview of your company and its history?

We are a new house builder based in the North west of England and trading now for over 25 years, selling approx. 310-350 homes per annum again in the North West. We have around 6-7 sites on the go at any one time with full time monthly staff of 63 and weekly of 17 including 7 apprentices

2: What Problems Did You Need Solving?.

Initially needed some specific HR advice for a particular issue we were having

3: How Was The Problem/Issue Affecting You?

As a medium sized firm we have no dedicated HR department so external advice is sometimes essential to ensure we don’t encounter any potential pitfalls.

4:Why Did You Choose CG Professionals?

I had met Andy on a number of golf days his company had held which led to a meeting with both him and Louise at CG. I was impressed not only with both their professionalism and honesty but also the non-pushy attitude they had towards clients and prospects

5: What Would Have Happened If They Had NOT Used Your Services?

Without the correct advice we would be left open to potential tribunal proceedings and all that entails.

6: What Measurable Benefits Have You Seen?

As part of the initial advice we took out the option of holding a retainer with CG which enables us to call on them anytime for adhoc HR advice and when done so I have found the responses speedy and valuable. The cost of the retainer also was lower than I was expecting so that was a nice surprise!