Culture of positive feedback
Kelly Pike, head of HR at SA Law, outlines how establishing working groups is an effective way of building a positive feedback culture in a law firm.
Creating a strong feedback culture can play an integral role in building a productive, positive and attractive working culture within a business. So, when all employees are encouraged to contribute to discussions about the firm, it can enhance engagement and make them feel valued. Senior managers and HRs will also become attuned to the needs of their workforce, and ensure firmwide policies and benefits reflect these.
Running working groups on issues important to the firm is an effective way of building this strong feedback culture. At SA Law, we have a number of groups that meet on a monthly/bi-monthly basis to discuss ideas and provide feedback. There is an individual group for each of the following areas: environment, international work, legal technology, best friends network, firm innovation and growth, wellbeing, as well as equality and diversity.
If you’re considering setting up groups yourself, it’s worth bearing our experiences, explained below, in mind.
Since establishing working groups 18 months ago we’ve been able to make some positive differences to the firm’s strategy, and employee experience. Attendance is voluntary, and as the groups have become more established and the benefits realised, we’ve seen most employees join at least one or two.
There are rules and agendas set around each meeting to ensure everyone has a voice. This is with the aim of encouraging the younger generations in our workforce to play an active role. We value their perspectives, and how much they can meaningfully contribute to the success of the business. We wanted to create an environment where, instead of it being difficult to get your voice heard, we actively welcomed it. We’ve done this by ‘banning’ partners and senior leaders from holding a chair position (which is a different individual each time) to ensure views from paralegals, trainees and business management staff are heard.
Each session’s points are noted down by the human resources (HR) team or an appointed secretary, who is then responsible for seeing through any decisions made. Of course, not every suggestion can be actioned, and it’s important to explain why, though we have been able to make some changes which have made a difference. As an example, recent conversations in our ‘wellbeing’ working group highlighted the cost-of-living difficulties that are impacting our employees. Following this, we introduced a cost-of-living payment, free breakfast in the office, as well as financial wellbeing training. We also set up an anonymous reporting ‘postbox’, following suggestions made by members in the equality and diversity group, as it was raised that some people – particularly junior employees across the board – might feel uncomfortable about speaking to senior management and HR if they have ever had an issue or an idea to improve equality and diversity at the firm.
Working groups have been an effective way of improving our culture and the relationships we have with our employees. Through these, we’ve been able to implement changes to the problems that we weren’t previously aware of, and build an ideal working environment for our next generation of partners. We see them as integral parts of our operations, and we would recommend other firms do the same.
