Combining a “humanistic approach” to leadership with action on employee feedback is behind the highly successful people strategy at law firm Mills & Reeve, according to HR director Sandy Boyle (pictured).
This year marks the eleventh consecutive appearance of Mills & Reeve on the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For ranking, making them the only law firm in the country to achieve this.
Boyle told HR magazine the awards are particularly valued because they are “dependent on the views of your employees”.
Some of the success is down to senior leaders within the firm attempting to uphold “adult to adult” relationships with colleagues, according to Boyle. He added that this “light touch” approach helps to foster trust.
“We work on the basis that everyone wants to do a good job. We don’t have lots of policy and bureaucracy around treating people as if they’re all bad eggs,” he said.
Boyle explained he positions this within a wider people strategy that puts individuals ahead of processes.
“It’s a humanistic approach to treating people as individuals – not separating their life outside of work and their life in work,” he said. “One thing that differentiates us is being interested in people as individuals and that comes through in our work.”
Collecting and reacting to employee feedback is also important to Mills & Reeve’s HR strategy, said Boyle. Since 2002, the firm has conducted “internal employee research” every two years.
“One of the most important questions we ask is: ‘Do you think the board will take action as a result of this survey?’ We get a very high number of people saying ‘yes’. We know what people want and we act on it.
“In terms of our comms, we keep looping back. People trust that when they give us their views we’ll do something about it. That’s been important.”
However, Boyle warned that collecting data with no end isn’t sustainable, as it’s human nature to stop giving honest feedback if no tangible results come from it.
