Where Compliance Meets Compassion — For Your Employees and Your Business
Growing your team is exciting. Managing everything that comes with it — benefits, leave compliance, ADA accommodations, and workers' compensation — is a different challenge entirely.
Behind every benefits question and every leave request is an employee navigating one of the most complex and vulnerable moments of their working life. ClearPath is your external HR partner: HR-informed, compliance-grounded, and steady — so your employees are met with expert guidance, and you stay compliant, protected, and focused on leading.
What I Do
I specialize in the HR work most professionals treat as a specialty — benefits administration, leave of absence management, ADA accommodations, and workers' compensation — and I've spent 15+ years building the expertise to handle all four with equal depth and confidence.
As your specialist HR partner, I bring deep expertise in California and multi-state employment law to structure the programs your team needs to function compliantly and support your employees well. You make the decisions. I bring the specialist knowledge, the organized workflows, and the steady follow-through to help you implement them.
That typically includes:
Benefits administration and open enrollment coordination
Leave of absence management — FMLA, CFRA, PDL, ADA, and state-specific programs — from intake through return to work
ADA accommodation coordination and interactive process support
Workers' compensation program coordination — injury reporting, claims and carrier coordination, OSHA recordkeeping, and return-to-work and modified-duty planning
Multi-state employment law compliance coordination — with particular depth in California
SOP creation and process documentation for benefits and leave programs
Broader HR operational support — onboarding, documentation, and communication workflows — available for teams who need it
This is not task-based assistance. It is consistent, embedded partnership — designed to reduce compliance risk and give your employees the support they deserve, without adding a full-time hire to your payroll.
Who I Support
ClearPath partners with small teams and growing businesses that want their people operations handled with structure, consistency, and professional care — without the overhead of a full-time HR leader.
You might be a strong fit if:
You don't have an internal HR department and you're managing people processes yourself
A founder or office manager is handling HR responsibilities alongside everything else
Your team is growing and the informal systems that worked at five people aren't holding at fifteen
You have employees in multiple states and need someone who understands the compliance complexity that comes with it
You have an HR lead who needs operational reinforcement so they can stay focused on strategy
You need specialist-level expertise in benefits, leave, or ADA that a generalist HR hire wouldn't bring
In every case, the dynamic is the same: you remain in full control of your decisions, culture, and direction. I step in as the organized, HR-informed partner who makes sure the operational side of your people processes is structured, consistent, and compliant.
How I Fit Into Your Team
There's no single version of what people operations support looks like — because every team is different. My role adapts to the structure you already have in place.
If you don't have an HR department: I become your go-to People Ops resource — helping you build the systems, processes, and compliance documentation your team needs as it grows. You set the direction. I make sure the operational side keeps up with it.
If HR is handled by a founder or office manager: I take the people operations tasks off their plate — or yours — so they can focus on what they're actually there to do. You stay in charge of the decisions. I handle the coordination, compliance tracking, and follow-through.
If you have an HR lead: I work alongside your HR leader as an operational support partner — managing execution, documentation, and process coordination so they can focus on strategy, culture, and the higher-level work that actually needs their attention.
Regardless of your setup, my role is always the same: to support your people processes with structure, care, and compliance confidence — while you lead your business with confidence.
About Erica
I'm Erica Winterburn, founder of ClearPath and an HR specialist with 15+ years of hands-on experience in the functions that sit at the intersection of compliance and human care.
Behind every benefits question and every leave request is an employee navigating one of the most complex and vulnerable moments of their working life — a serious illness, a workplace injury, a new baby, a family crisis. ClearPath exists to make sure those employees are met with clarity, empathy, and expert guidance — and that the businesses supporting them stay compliant, protected, and organized every step of the way.
I've spent 15+ years in the trenches of benefits administration, leave of absence management, ADA accommodations, and workers' compensation — the specialist HR functions where compliance and compassion have to work together. I know what it takes to get both right.