Flying the flag for flexibility

With more employees asking for flexible working options, we speak to solicitor Scott Stevenson about how he introduced the initiative at his firm.

Go back 50 years and probably one of the highest rated criteria on a prospective employee’s list of concerns – other than salary and holiday allowances – was job security. The notion that you could be with the same employer for your entire life was common, if not expected.

For anybody entering the job market in the past 20 years, such expectations are something of an outdated concept: young workers understand they will move jobs, sometimes due to career progress, sometimes due to redundancies or other issues outside of their control.

To make up for this relative lack of job security, new generations are looking to other ingredients when it comes to work, or rather, their ‘work-life balance’. And one key element – which was already establishing itself before being bolstered by the remote-working experiences of the Covid pandemic – is flexible working.

Hybrid versus flexible

Before we look at flexible working further, it’s important to understand just what the term means and how it differs from another similar concept: hybrid working.

Hybrid working is where employees fulfil their contracted working hours with time spent divided between their place of work and working from home. Flexible working, on the other hand, is where an employee fulfils their hours at their place of work, but their required hours are completed in a way that doesn’t adhere to the traditional Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. With the agreement of their employers, staff taking part in flexible working schemes have a measure of choice as to when they work their hours.

Such a scheme has been put in place by the Clarity Simplicity firm of solicitors, with senior solicitor Scott Stevenson the driving force behind the initiative.

“Most of the legal industry has mentioned the idea of flexible working at some point. Our firm already had what we call ‘agile working’, so there was a degree of flexibility. If you had an appointment, you could go and do that and then make up the missed time later on,” Scott says.

“But the reason why flexible working is so important is because the idea of a healthier work-life balance has increased massively over the past few years. At Clarity Simplicity we believed, if we could create a process that would allow our team to have flexible working, it would increase their happiness, improve their mental health and their personal lives, and it would also increase productivity and allow them to deliver to a higher standard.”

Personal choices

It’s important to note that flexible working schemes are not a one-size-fits-all approach that work for everybody. Firms have to tailor their options to suit their staff and their businesses. In Clarity Simplicity’s case, flexible working took the form of a four-day working week.

“We have developed the opportunity for all staff – fee earning and non-fee earning – to opt into a condensed working week,” Scott says.

“Those people who have opted into the scheme have either a Monday or a Friday off each week, but they work their full contracted hours over the other four days. So generally speaking, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays are slightly longer days – 8am to 6pm – and Monday and Friday, if you haven’t chosen to have them off, are 8am to 5pm. The business has a minimum of a half complement of staff on Monday and Friday, so it can still operate fully on those days.

“But it’s important to point out that not everybody had to sign up to this. There are reasons why certain members of staff are not able to or do not want to, and I think it’s important that staff have that choice. As a rough guide, around two-thirds to three-quarters of staff have opted in, and the remainder have opted out. The initial feedback is that it has worked well for the vast majority of staff.”

Challenges and outcomes

As with the introduction of anything that affects people’s lives in any practical sense, there have been challenges to overcome.

“We are a civil law firm, which means that we have several court cases underway at any one time. The court is still open Monday to Friday, so therefore we realised that there was a requirement for us to ensure that we were always open whenever the court is open,” Scott says.

“Obviously, there are cases when hearings are relatively last minute or there are deadlines that need to be adhered to. One of the biggest challenges is making sure we cover all of those times. In terms of other challenges, we’ve had to look at an annual leave holiday policy and bank holidays and how we treat those. There have been other challenges as well, but nothing that has given us reason to feel this hasn’t worked.”

And with initial signs suggesting the initiative has been a success, Scott is now looking to hone the scheme further.

“We set this out as a trial for six months and we are still within that trial period. At the moment, we are of the view that it has been a success. I think we can improve it further; we can tweak the process slightly. The next stage will be to decide whether we keep the current format after the six-month trial, and if we do keep it, do we look at alternative options? We’ll ask our team what they would like to do.

“From my personal view, because I’m never working more than four days in a row, I feel refreshed. Law is a busy and stressful career but this allows you to do various other things without the need to take annual leave or really impact individual jobs themselves. You effectively have a long weekend every single week and that really helps you to reset.”

How to be flexible: learning from others’ experiences

Part of the reason for Clarity Simplicity’s success in installing its flexible working scheme is the research and preparation made before any changes were enacted.

“I had a really good conversation with the director of a firm based in Manchester who had implemented flexible working for a team but not across the whole firm, and it had been a great success. So we really tried to look at different angles and perspectives on what works, what doesn’t and what considerations we needed to take into account,” Scott says.

“Ultimately, though, you need to put staff at the top of your priority list. Understand why they want flexible working and understand the impact it might have on them – that will allow them to make better decisions in terms of the process and the plan that they set out. Of course, there are other considerations but I would say put staff front and centre. If the staff are on board, then you will have better results all round.

“I think it’s also important to say that we have developed our own version of flexible working that suits us. Other businesses should do the same: create your own version of flexible working that suits you and your staff, and your clients or customers.”

Flexible working: professional viewpoints

Naomi Pryde, Partner and head of DLA Piper’s Litigation and Regulatory Department; Scottish Lawyer of the Year 2021 

Flexible working allows me to do everything that I want to do. By that I mean I am a partner in a law firm and a head of department, but I’m also the mum of a toddler, a charity ambassador, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend. I approach my life holistically, so if I have a personal duty to attend to during the week, I can do that, but then I also have weekends that are completely devoted to work.

When I was in the earlier stages of my career, I remember hearing people who said you couldn’t be a law firm partner and a mum. I thought: how sad, I’m going to show that you can. Flexible working plays a key part in that, but it’s not just the domain of working parents, it’s for everyone.

So, as a department leader, I’ve been honest about what I do and how I do it. I’ve told staff that I trust and respect them – lawyers are generally very conscientious anyway – and I have been relaxed about when they do their work, within reason. The result is happier and healthier staff who then work harder to show they are not taking advantage, and the result for the firm is significantly higher turnover.

Meya Phiri, Solicitor and Law Society of Scotland committee member

As a lone parent solicitor, flexible working allows me to balance my legal duties and parenting responsibilities seamlessly. DJ Mackay & Partners LLP enables me to schedule adjustments around my childcare needs, resulting in a healthier work-life balance and reducing stress. This arrangement enhances satisfaction in both my career and family life. Without flexibility, frankly, I would not be a solicitor today. 

Nicholas Scullion, Solicitor and Managing Director, Scullion Law

In my experience, flexible working allows firms to get the best out of their people and for people to get the best from the firm.

At Scullion Law, all of our people are different. We are a team from diverse backgrounds with differing goals, needs and wants, united by a common desire make a difference by doing great work for our colleagues and our clients. Before flexible working, our team sometimes had to sacrifice personal goals to accommodate career goals.

Flexible working removes this pressure

We have been able to attract and retain great people who then do great work. Our people are happier, less stressed and can focus on what is important to them in the moment, be that work or personal. If they had to come into our offices five days a week, it would diminish their contribution to our success. 

Flexibility works and I would encourage you to give it a go!

Written by Matt Lamy