Page 12 - Annual Review 2015-2016

2. Engaging Our People

Engaging our people Why this is important
The way we do business is based on our make a difference and don’t shy away from We recognise that by engaging our people
core values and reflects the behaviours that challenging the norm. This, we believe, is what we will drive our business responsibly and
we want to be known for. We strive to recruit, enables us to attract the best people, work for effectively. We want to create opportunities
nurture and retain high quality and motivated the best clients, collaborate with outstanding for our people to make a difference, further
lawyers, talented managers and inspiring organisations and to attract future business. their careers and generate a sense of pride
leaders. We look for people who want to and belonging to DWF.

What we achieved Why it was important How we delivered

We focused on leadership • To support our leaders who are required to inspire • We introduced a C Suite Executive Development
development. and motivate our people through transformational Programme
change, recognising that leadership matters
• We designed and delivered a leadership
• To help create strong and coherent leadership workshop for 90 of our business leaders. Key
role models at all levels of the business, now and outputs and themes were cascaded to our wider
in the future leadership population
• To develop inspiring leaders who will ensure our • We introduced 360 feedback.
people connect with our strategy and vision.

We established the Engaging • To ensure our people feel connected to, and • We identified EPE Members from across the
People Executive (EPE). interested in, our business so that they can business to reflect a broad range of career levels,
contribute fully career paths, experience and views
• To promote ownership of our people • We led engagement activities that supported our
investment strategy. business strategy and positively influenced the
employment experience of our people.

We conducted our first People • To inspire honest feedback and identify the areas • Teams were encouraged to create action plans in
Engagement Survey. of improvement we need to focus on response to the feedback
• To successfully create a culture which supports • We maintained the visibility of the survey outputs
openness and honesty, it’s important that we and communicated progress
listen to the opinions and ideas of our people.
• The EPE created momentum to address the
firm wide priorities identified and continue to
communicate progress.

We launched the next phase of • To empower our people to drive their own personal • We strengthened our 70:20:10 blended
the dwf academy. development plans, and build skills outside of the learning offering
core role requirements
• We made online learning material available to
• To continue investment in learning and all and accessible via mobile devices
development, a top priority identified by our people.
• Face-to-face programmes aligned with our
performance criteria.

We enhanced our agile working • To address the changing expectations of how our • We saw 28% of our people designated as agile/
offering – including a focus on people want to work flexible workers
supporting working parents.
• To be able to provide support through life’s • We focused on creative workplace design,
transitions innovative technology and workplace culture
• To ensure our people had a positive experience • We enhanced Maternity/Adoption Pay, Paid
when using our working policies Paternity Leave and launched our ‘Baby Buddy
Scheme’ for new parents
• To learn from the experiences of our people so we
can then replicate that learning and improvement • We launched a Hub containing policies, guidance
process in other business areas. and support to enable different work styles.

We developed our performance • To help our people see the connection between • We reviewed our Performance Management and
Management. their individual objectives and the wider enhanced our Objective Manager software to
objectives of the business make it easier to align individual objectives to
business strategy.
• To ensure we are all actively working towards the
achievement of our business goals.