Flexible working: why it’s time we put our colleagues first

Stephenson Harwood announced this week its staff can work from home full time by taking a 20% reduction in pay. They are not the only firm considering the question of work/life balance in a post pandemic world. 

It doesn’t take a leap of the imagination for employers to see that when they have happy colleagues, their business flourishes. The pandemic has made us all assess how we can work together successfully, under the most challenging circumstances. For everyone except key workers, working from home was legally required for a lot of the last two years, and remote working was implemented successfully by many businesses; yet fast forward to now and many are encouraging people to return to the office.

There are, of course, excellent reasons why a move back to office life is welcome to both employers and employees. Face to face meetings and training, as well as general day to day interaction were hugely missed by many. It’s been great to see so many people enjoy getting back to their office and loving being in that environment.

But the office is not for everyone 100% of the time.

The key to our success at Ellisons Solicitors is about achieving a balance. It’s very much about allowing colleagues to discover what works best for them personally and giving them freedom to implement that. While the pandemic has been an incredibly difficult time for so many people across the world, it has allowed us to assess what new opportunities are available to us as a business.

Our colleagues are at the heart of our success, and our main priority for the team is to help them to continuously develop and reach their full potential. For Ellisons to continue to be successful, we need to listen to our people and focus on retention through embracing flexible ways of working that suit the individual, their teams and the wider business.

Working from home isn’t a less difficult option to the office; its simply one of the options open to our colleagues through our flexible working policy. Everything’s about balance. We’re working to preserve our values around teamwork, and continue to provide exceptional supervision to our trainees and apprentices; all whilst helping colleagues achieve flexibility that supports their personal lives.

Throughout my career, I have taken a proactive approach in supporting and promoting a working environment where everyone feels recognised and valued. This approach results in colleague retention, higher levels of productivity and a happy team.

Already we have had excellent feedback from colleagues about our approach to flexible working. Some are simply enjoying being able to take their children to school, while others are savouring spending less time in the car on the commute. The move has also allowed us to deliver what our clients really want, with many now requesting meetings outside of the office environment. Working flexibly allows us to do this seamlessly, travelling to and from clients instead of being fixed in one place.

As for productivity, Ellisons results speak for themselves. Since we embraced flexible working, we have been able to expand our offering for clients in a way we couldn’t before. Demand for home visits skyrocketed 94% in 2021 when compared with 2019, and we are expecting to see another rise this year. We have even extended our phone lines which are now open 8am to 8pm, and introduced web chat so our clients can reach us at a time which works for them.

By placing our colleagues and our clients at the centre of everything we do, we’re ensuring we retain the best talent in the industry and keep our clients happy through delivering an exceptional service. We’re very proud of all we have achieved to date as a team, and we’re excited about the future.

Lizzy Firmin is HR director at Ellisons Solicitors