#TimetoTalk: Employee Wellbeing and Burnetts Solicitors

Recent articles released by BBC News and The Law Society Gazette detail the fight for staff as UK job vacancies reach record highs since the reopening of the economy post lockdown. In the legal field, particularly in London vacancies for lawyers have risen 131% in the last 12 months, which means newly qualified lawyers at top London firms can expect to earn over £100,000 before bonuses. However, the downside to this is the 100-hour working week and the expectation to be on call 24/7 which is leading to a major staff retention issue and not to mention issues with employee wellbeing.

In an interview with BBC Business Daily our Senior Associate with our Employment team Anna Lovett spoke at length about staff retention for law firms. She firmly believes that that the relationship between employer and employee is evolving and the employees will have more influence in the modern world of work. In order to recruit and retain the right staff it important to listen to their needs and implement new ways of working such as flexible working and hybrid working. Instead of measuring success through hours spent at work, employers need to be looking at the productivity of employees and how we can better support them in their career path as well as with their day-to-day wellbeing.

Here at Burnetts we recognise that everyone is different so a one size fits all approach to employee wellbeing won’t work for us. We are a certified Great Place to Work^© and, as a result of the feedback from our employees, we have implemented hybrid working alongside flexible working patterns for our staff. We have also increased our holiday entitlement for all staff to 30 days (excluding public holidays) as well as giving them their birthday off too. We genuinely care about the wellbeing of our staff and to ensure they are able to access timely healthcare, especially with the increased pressure on the NHS, we provide full AXA private healthcare with nil excess for all our employees. We appreciate our staff as individuals and understand that hard work should always be appreciated.

Jack Mitchell, a newly qualified solicitor in our Employment team says:

“This is a much more sustainable way of attracting and retaining new staff than offering an inflated salary that comes with 100+ hour working weeks. Since the pandemic, work-life balance and wellbeing have become key issues. Being part of a friendly and supportive corporate culture with a history of internal promotions means that I am on the right path to advance my career without being worried about suffering a burn out. Also living and working in the Lake District means I am only ever 30 minutes away from a peaceful escape on my paddleboard!”

If you would like to speak to Anna and Jack alongside the rest of our employment team, you can reach then on 01228 552222 and hello@burnetts.co.uk

Find out more:

Like what you hear? We are recruiting, click here to see visit our careers page.

Aged between 16-18? Our work experience programme for years 12 & 13 has just opened. Click here for more details.

If you would like to speak to someone about mental health, information about Mind mental health charity can be found here and information about legal mental health charity LawCare can be found here.