Needs improvement - Solicitor Eric Robinson Solicitors Employee Review

The firm has received 5 formal flexible working requests in the past 12 months and we have approved 100% of these requests, to support both the employee personal needs and also inline with the needs of the business. This is in addition to multiple informal flexibility requests from employees when there have been unforeseen or emergency situations, and we are very comfortable that employees continue to feel supported by the firm when this happens. As with any medium sized organisation, there is a natural attrition rate, however, we are aware that our turnover rate is the lowest of all local law firms. This is attributed to our loyal and committed staff who continue to deliver excellence in their roles and have been financially rewarded with 3 salary increases in the past 2 years in addition to departmental bonus’s and online review bonus’s, which are paid monthly. Most positions are back-filled or are in the firm’s recruitment strategy plan to be filled, equally where there is proof of no business need, these are not back-filled, however, this is rare. Regarding monthly revenue targets, we are proud that our monthly performance bonus scheme consistently rewards many our fee earners for excellence in their role, of up to £1,000 monthly, which evidences that our monthly targets are absolutely aligned to competency and capability. It is also worth noting that we actively encourage our fee earners to work their normal contractual hours to meet their revenue targets, this does regularly occur, and this ensures employee health and well-being, whilst still feeling success. Fee earners have provided us feedback to confirm their preference is to have daily transparency of their targets and goals, the firm has reacted to this, and invested in up to date IT systems to provide this which in turn empowers and enables every opportunity to achieve their monthly bonus. This is a process we are proud of and supports measurable success and progression opportunities for their future. Like many organisations, we believe that regular employee meetings support excellence in individual performance, provide an opportunity to share appreciation and praise, and also offer a sensible platform to discuss ways of developing performance. We receive excellent feedback from our fee earners about our monthly meetings which have been in place for over 5 years, so will continue to respond to this positive feedback with on-going strong communication. Your claims that most people at the firm are depressed, that there is zero empathy, and that the management team is not friendly is false and you do your ex-colleagues a dis-service by this statement. We are very comfortable that the Partners and our HR function are very approachable, supportive and exhibit all leadership behaviours to support our teams now and for the future. Again, your statement that you cannot visit the pub during lunch hours is false. The firm’s does prohibit the consuming of alcohol in any of its offices during normal working hours but this is a perfectly usual HR policy and exists to meet conditions imposed by the firm’s Professional Indemnity Insurer. Due to the excellent work by our teams, our business goes from strength to strength, we are very proud of this. Our senior leadership team will continue to support our teams to deliver excellence in their roles to support progression opportunities and individual and team success.

We are really proud of the flexibility shown to all our employees as we have upheld 281 flexibility requests in the past 12 months alone and often receive really lovely responses from our employees regarding the level of flexibility we have shown. Based on these facts, the comment that the firm shows ‘absolutely no flexibility’ is simply untrue. There are occasions when an employee’s request does not meet the criteria in our flexibility policy however in such circumstances we allow annual leave to be taken, often on very short notice. We are fortunate to have a team of employees who make sensible decisions around their own flexibility and given that our annual leave allowance is significantly greater than the statutory allowance and sector average, the policy works very well in practice. Regarding remote and hybrid working, this is not our default model of working largely because our offices are regularly visited by our clients, therefore being available and present is a core part of our service objectives so that we ensure that our clients have an outstanding experience. We also promote training and development across our teams, so being available to support one another is again very important and necessary for people development and progression. Well-being and relationships in the work place is considered best practice and one which we actively promote through engaging with our teams every day in our offices. Our positive organisation culture is largely driven by our supportive and friendly leadership team and our engaged, positive minded employees. This is further endorsed by our strong retention, returning employees, positive feedback from employees, the firms performance & also growth in market share which strongly positions us to deliver on our firm wide objectives going forward. Our positive culture is credit to our fantastic teams who work in a professional manner, supporting one another and delivering excellent legal services to our clients.