Feature: Providing the personal touch

Ollerenshaws is one smaller, regional firm to have seen how developing a flexible-working and family-friendly culture can reap benefits when attracting talent from the top 100.

By Tim Ollerenshaw, senior partner, Ollerenshaws

Employees have been demanding greater job satisfaction and career flexibility for some time now. Retaining staff and recruiting at mid-career level is becoming increasingly difficult, and with a relatively small pool of talent for firms to draw upon, employees of both sexes – and at all levels – are in the driving seat. They want more choice, are moving much more often and have far higher expectations of working practices and culture.

It is no longer enough to reward employees financially. Law firms need to become a workplace of choice, with employers ultimately viewing their employees as customers rather than simply workers.

Historically, law firm culture has been one of male dominance, focusing on long hours and with work/life balance viewed as an irrelevance. The expectation is that lawyers are at the beck and call of clients, particularly with the advent of new technology such as the Blackberry – never out of touch, even on holiday. There is also often a view that you need to be seen in the office after hours and at weekends – regardless even of whether there is work there to do – to demonstrate you are up to being a partner.

Targets for annual chargeable hours continue to increase year-on-year, particularly for assistant solicitors, while individuals with an eye on partnership are expected to participate actively in client events on top of their regular work. Such sporting events, dinners and theatre trips often eat into someone’s home life at evenings or weekends. In addition, employees may be asked to be involved in external committees or organisations, making even more demands on their free time.

But the tide is changing. In March I was encouraged to see the launch of the Law Society’s ‘Quality of Life’ campaign, and hope this will lead to more firms adopting flexible-working processes. Partners really do need to take heed of this initiative and urgently address staff retention if they are
to maintain growth, innovation and competitiveness.

Concerns over impact on budgets and the administration needed to address work/life balance are often at the root of firms’ lack of enthusiasm. But far from being a burden on business, I have seen a real financial return through adopting flexible working. With Law Society statistics showing turnover costs are around £150,000 for every £50,000 of salary, investing in keeping staff on board to minimise recruitment and retraining costs makes financial sense.

The key to making the move to work/life balance is to understand and be aware of individual employees’ family circumstances and commitments. We are easily able to do this due to our size, but I have no doubt it becomes much more difficult task the larger the firm and the greater the divide between management and employees.

With just 15 fee-earners, adopting a culture of work/life balance has enabled us to attract notable talent. Even as an out-of-London practice, the firm has recruited two Legal 500 female lawyers in the last two years. Each was looking for a more flexible approach to work.

This is not to say work/life balance has not been without its problems. In the early days we tried to work to a written policy setting out who was eligible for flexible working, how it could be taken and for how long, but as each individual is different, there simply wasn’t a ‘one size fits all’ policy. In fact, we also found the policy approach tended to put people off asking for flexible working in the first place.

We now take a ‘hearts and minds’ approach by integrating flexible working and diversity into the everyday working ethos. Not only do we actually employ more women than men, but there is also an equal gender split when it comes to partners – and a culture that recognises a life outside the practice is actively encouraged rather than frowned upon.

We also found it better to extend the offer of flexible hours and home working to all employees rather than just those with children. By opening up the scheme we have removed any potential for bad feeling among staff while improving morale and motivation overall.

It is not all about working from home or reducing hours, however. Lawyers remain an ambitious and driven breed, with most thriving on a certain level of stress and pressure. Quite often dissatisfaction with work/life balance can be a symptom of cultural issues – perhaps where there are poor levels of communication or individuals feel their efforts are not being appreciated.

Our support staff in particular have working hours that are a long way from the usual nine to five, five days a week, which not only helps them better meet their family commitments, but also helps the firm provide a better service to clients outside of traditional opening hours. There is also the ability for individuals to alter their hours and days of work from time to time, depending on changes in their personal circumstances.

We have certainly found that attracting good people improves the quality and range of services the firm provides, making us more attractive to potential clients. Retaining employees on a long-term basis not only improves client relationships, but minimises the potentially large costs and uncertainty associated with recruitment. Offering flexible working is not without its disadvantages. It can be tricky covering holidays and sickness absence, but a flexible approach encourages good morale and team working among staff such that cover is secured relatively easily.

It is easy to question whether flexible working is right for the organisation, but we have recognised that a couple of mistakes don’t do any damage when you are constantly trying to develop a better system and drive the business forwards.

Tim Ollerenshaw is senior partner at Ollerenshaws. He can be contacted at tim@ollerenshaws.com