What kind of organisation are you?

What motivated you as an organisation to start your flexible working journey?

It comes down to our culture. We recognise our team wants a good work life balance and to provide an excellent service to our clients. Our ethos is to be supportive of our staff, and allow them to be the best version of themselves when they’re at work. We pride ourselves on operating as a modern law firm that doesn’t necessarily follow the traditional legal sector norms. We believe if we look after our staff, they will be motivated to provide a better service to our clients.

How and when did you start introducing flex/more flex?

We’ve had several types of flexible working available for many years now. Hybrid working has been well established since the pandemic, and we have people who work part time after maternity leave, or because they are still at university. Our student workers tend to take on more hours in the university holidays too, which benefits us and them.

I put forward a proposal for a condensed 4-day week in April 2023. It was something I’d been mulling over for a while because I personally thought it would be fantastic to have longer weekends I could do more with, and come back to work feeling more refreshed and energised. It took time to do the research and consult with the team to check there was a wider appetite for it. Then we started a trial in January 2024.

Flex today – what are you doing right now?

In terms of our 4-day week, we offer a condensed hours model. Our teams still work their usual number of hours over the week. It’s not compulsory, so staff can opt in or out if they prefer. About two thirds of staff are using the 4-day week. They work four slightly longer days and take either a Monday or Friday off. The days off are managed so there’s always cover for clients.

We did a survey with staff in the first half of 2024 to see how the teams were finding it, and whether they had any concerns but the feedback was all positive. We will keep it under review but for now, it’s a popular option that works really well for lots of our team members and for our business.

What challenges have you faced?

There was some concern about how clients would feel, and how we’d ensure clients always knew who they could contact and when. We’re very clear with clients about our individual working hours and we include this in our email signature. We’re also careful to ensure we don’t all take the same day off. We split this so half of the staff team has a Monday off, and the other half has a Friday off.

We’ve had no negative feedback at all from clients. In fact, we’ve actually had quite a lot of positive feedback because they can speak to their case manager before and after their own normal working hours.

Impact of flexible working

Staff are happier with their longer weekend. They feel more refreshed and productive when they get to work.

The fact we’re working longer days means we’ve been able to extend our opening hours for clients too, which we know many have appreciated if they need to contact us outside of their working day.

Our revenue has increased and we believe our condensed week has contributed to this. Our teams seem more focused and productive as a result of their shorter working week.

We’ve also found our 4-day week is an attractive selling point in recruitment and we’ve seen an increase in the number of solicitors who wish to join our firm.

The future of flex in your organisation

We will keep reviewing how the 4-day week is going with staff and clients but for now it looks like it’s here to stay. Otherwise, there’s nothing specific in the pipeline but we are always open to conversations about flexible working, and we encourage our teams to ask about any flexibility they might need.

Top tips for flex

• Consider what your objectives are. Are you trying to boost morale, productivity and the general wellbeing of your team? If so, then greater flex is certainly worth considering. If it also benefits customers and clients, then that’s a bonus.
• Speak to similar companies in your industry and see what they do and how it works for them. Then create your own version that works for your people, company and customers. You can’t always just replicate what someone else is doing.
• Take your time. It took us eight months to do all the research and consultation. But it was worth it to get it right and know our teams were on board.