Marketng Socety Awards for Excellence 2013 Employee Engagement Summary Objectve Our objectve was to transform employee engagement and along wth t, the success and proftablty of the frm. We wanted to move from a workforce where morale was low, nformaton sharng was poor and staff felt underapprecated to one where staff felt engaged, postve about the frm and had access to all of the nformaton they needed about the frm s progress, ambtons and the part they could play n ts success. Scale of the task The scale of the task was large, and made more so by our modest budget ( 11,000) and small team of two. We undertook a radcal overhaul of our nternal communcatons ncludng, ntroducng: a staff away day Managng Partner roadshows New regular communcatons from the Managng Partner Clent servce acton groups Informaton sharng events Postve postcards Staff awards scheme Key results In all measures, we have exceeded our targets: By the end of the fnancal year 12/13 the frm s turnover wll have ncreased by 12 per cent (from 10.7 mllon to 12 mllon) and profts by 16 per cent (from 3 mllon to 3.5 mllon). The focus groups after the campagn showed postve change and more of a one-frm feelng. Staff felt that they were more aware of what was happenng n the frm and future plans, and that senor staff were more approachable. The fact that so many of the deas suggested by staff were mplemented was apprecated. Lexcel audt, whch ncludes ntervews wth randomly selected staff across each offce, hghlghted nternal communcatons as an area of good practce. The audt showed that staff reported nternal communcatons had mproved and were now consdered to be good. Improved rankngs for the frm n ndependent gudes to the legal professon.
Marketng Socety Awards for Excellence 2013 Employee Engagement Introducton Ths s the story of a transformaton; of a re-energsed workforce makng a massve dfference to the success of a company, resultng n a 12 per cent ncrease n turnover and 16 per cent ncrease n profts n just two years. And what s perhaps the most remarkable part of our story, s that we are not a huge company wth a massve budget. We could not afford to hre expensve consultants or external support. All of our results were acheved by the commtment and dedcaton of a small marketng team of just two people, wth the support of the HR Drector and senor management team. We are a modest szed frm, wth a modest budget, but we know that our ambton and vson can match any of the bg names. We are Stephens Scown LLP. A frm of solctors based n Devon and Cornwall. Our 40 partners and 200 staff are based across three offces n Exeter, St Austell and Truro and we help busnesses and prvate ndvduals wth everythng from dsputes to dvorces; restructurng companes to nhertance plannng; massve renewable energy projects to buyng a home. Our clent lst s mpressve too runnng from the Dragons from BBC s Dragon s Den and nternatonal frms to some of the bggest landed estates n the regon. Although the endng to our story s happy, the start s not. It starts wth a dsjonted workforce, stuck n slos workng wth colleagues n ther own offce, but not sharng wth others across the frm. Morale was low and we knew that t must be affectng our clent servce and bottom lne. Startng n January 2010 we embarked on an employee engagement programme to do somethng about t. Pre-campagn research To help us understand the ssues we were facng, we carred out the followng research: Full staff survey Focus groups wth staff two for each offce, each wth 10 staff members nvolved. These were used to establsh the ssues, but also to gather suggestons from staff on how we could mprove Analyss of the results of our Lexcel audt the management practce standard set out by the Law Socety We analysed the avalable ndependent assessments of the frm, namely our rankngs n ndependent legal gudes Legal 500 and Chambers, as well as Lex 100, whch revews what tranees thnk of ther frms. Revew of the fnancal performance of the frm
The stuaton The headlnes from ths extensve researched showed: Low morale among staff Staff felt nternal communcaton was poor Staff dentfed wth ther own offce, but dd not feel part of the wder frm. Ths manfested tself n a lack of nformaton sharng across the frm Staff felt that partners and the board were not sharng nformaton wth them, especally nformaton on the frm s strategy, fnancal performance, future plans etc. Staff wanted more dalogue from the Managng Partner and Board, who were also seen as aloof There was a feelng of beng underapprecated and not beng thanked for hard work Staff wanted more tmely nformaton about frm news and staff changes Objectves We set the followng objectves for both employee engagement and the overall performance of the frm. To ncrease turnover by 10 per cent and profts by 12 per cent by the end of the fnancal year 12/13 To ncrease our rankngs n ndependent gudes to the legal professon For nternal communcatons to be hghlghted as an area of good practce by Lexcel, followng an ndependent audt of the frm nvolvng ntervews wth randomly selected staff To ncrease staff partcpaton n frm events and ntatves To ncrease staff awareness of frm values and encourage staff to put them nto practce To hghlght and promote exceptonal clent servce from staff Acton The research phase allowed us to see where we could make the most mpact. We undertook the followng actvty: Breakng down barrers and havng fun: Away Day To address the ssues of staff feelng left out of the loop and not part of one frm we organsed an all-staff get together at Plymouth Aquarum. The ams were to: o Encourage staff from dfferent offces to get to know each other, so that longterm there would be greater co-operaton and nformaton sharng across the frm. o Provde an update on the frm s progress and plans for the future o Have fun! Staff were splt nto groups and gven tasks to complete together, such as a scavenger hunt, Dragons Den challenge or creatng from recycled materals an ultmate Marne Predator or Racer. There were some presentatons on the frm s
progress and future plans and the day was rounded off wth a drum café where staff had a chance to try out ther drummng sklls! Increasng vsblty and creatng dalogue: Managng Partner Roadshows To make the senor team more vsble across the frm and ensure staff were gven all of the nformaton they wanted and needed about the frm s progress and future plans, a roadshow programme for the Managng Partner was devsed. We used feedback from staff on the ssues they wanted to know more about to help drect the content. Ths was very much a two-way process, wth staff encouraged to gve feedback, ask questons and get nvolved. Topcs have ncluded an update of the frm s progress, an overvew of the legal market and local changes as well as clent servce and fnancal performance. The events have been well attended and well receved by staff. An ncreased wllngness to get nvolved and ask questons s a good sgn of mproved engagement by staff. Informaton sharng: Base Camp & The Summt Staff felt lke they dd not know what was gong on n the frm and that partners were not always sharng news wth them. To tackle ths we ntroduced two new communcatons channels. Base Camp, whch s an ad hoc all staff emal from Managng Partner Robert Camp, as ssues arse. Ths s used for tme senstve announcements lke fnancal results, nformaton about the frm s performance aganst targets and news about staff bonuses. Ths s complemented wth a regular monthly emal from Robert Camp, called The Summt. It comes out once a month and updates staff on the bg stores affectng the frm, good news lke clent wns, examples of excellent clent servce, a fun profle on a member of staff and socal news from each offce, to ncrease the feelng of one team across the frm. Gettng better at sayng thank you: Postve Postcards One of the key ssues affectng staff morale was the feelng that they were not beng recognsed and thanked for ther hard work. To help encourage a culture where we thank colleagues properly for ther help and contrbuton we ntroduced new fun postve postcards, wth slogans ncludng You Rock, Top Banana, Wow and of course that good old Westcountry affrmaton Proper Job!. Staff were encouraged to be part of ths process by suggestng desgns and sayngs and then votng for the slogans they wanted us to use. Ths smple dea really took off, wth staff eager to send postcards to colleagues and proudly dsplayng any they receved. Gettng staff nvolved: Clent Servce Acton Groups To help staff have more ownershp of the frm and the changes we need to make to mprove our servce to clents, we have set up a clent servce acton group for each offce, whch s made up of a group of volunteers from a range of roles across the frm. The groups have been tasked wth fndng ways of mprovng clent servce and ensurng deas from colleagues are shared wth the board and acted on. Some of the new ntatves that have already been put n place are new unforms for staff n recepton and at events, the ntroducton of a welcome to your new home card from the resdental property team and better use of on-lne calendars and vocemal.
Recognsng achevement and brngng the frm values to lfe: Scowne clent servce award We have launched a new staff award to recognse excellent clent servce and staff who demonstrate the frm values of: beng frendly, dynamc, commercal, supportve, relable, demonstratng ntegrty and gong the extra mle. The Scowne Award s open to everyone n the frm. Each quarter a wnner s pcked from each offce s clent servce acton group, and once a year an overall wnner wll be voted for by all staff. Informaton sharng and gettng to know colleagues: Lunchbox To help share nformaton between teams and ncrease the profle of staff n dfferent offces a new programme of Lunchbox nformaton sharng sessons has been set up. Ths sees staff meetng over lunch and hearng from dfferent teams n the busness. Ths has been well receved wth the presentng teams feelng that ther profle has been rased and recevng more referrals from clents of other teams. Post-campagn research We repeated the research actvty undertaken at the start of the campagn. Outcomes In all measures, we have exceeded our targets: CONFIDENTIAL The focus groups after the campagn showed postve change and more of a one-frm feelng. Staff felt that they were more aware of what was happenng n the frm and ts future plans, and that senor staff were more approachable. The fact that so many of the deas suggested by staff were mplemented was apprecated. Lexcel audt, whch ncludes ntervews wth randomly selected staff across each offce, hghlghted nternal communcatons as an area of good practce. The audt showed that staff reported that nternal communcatons had mproved and were now consdered to be good. The audt also mentoned the frm away day and regular communcatons from the Managng Partner and Board and sad that the frm goes to qute some lengths to ensure staff are nformed and engaged n the busness drecton and plans, and so that they understand ther contrbuton. We ncreased our rankngs n ndependent legal gudes. Ths s mportant as they use feedback from clents to rank the frm: o Chambers has ranked Stephens Scown n 12 dscplnes, an ncrease on prevous years, wth top rankngs n fve legal areas. In addton 17 staff members, more than ever before, have been named as leadng ndvduals.
o Legal 500 descrbes Stephens Scown as a leadng presence n the regon. The frm s famly team ganed top rankng and the agrculture and estates, debt recovery and property ltgaton teams have also contnued to clmb the rankngs. o The Lex 100 gude for 2012/13, has gven us a rankng of 96.9% and placed us at number 5 of the top 20 frendlest frms n England and Wales, whch s partcularly pleasng as frendlness s one of our frm values. We have also receved a total of fve Lex Medals the hghest number for any frm n Devon or Cornwall. As well as frendlness, the frm was awarded Lex Medals for socal lfe, work/lfe balance, clent contact and levels of stress. Staff are much more engaged, gettng nvolved wth new ntatves and suggestng new deas. Just two examples nclude the number of volunteers we have receved for the clent servce acton groups and the suggestons for the postve postcard ntatve. Resources Budget: 11,000 Team: The core team was our Marketng Drector, Communcatons Executve and HR Drector, supported by the frm s Managng Partner and three heads of offce (1,909 words)