Leeds law firm Clarion has once again been recognised as one of the UK’s ‘Best Companies’ to work for. Having achieved three star accreditation in the small companies category in 2020, it has this year again been awarded the top accolade, this time in the large company category in recognition of the ‘world-class employee engagement’ of its 288-strong workforce.
Clarion once again took part in the nationally recognised and respected ‘Best Companies’ scheme which is a standard of excellence for UK businesses. The initiative assesses workplace engagement and measures it against the rigorous Best Companies Index score, which covers factors such as leadership, wellbeing and personal growth, in order to celebrate and showcase outstanding employers.
With a turnover of over £23m and with 30 partners, Clarion recognises that people are at the heart of its success and the firm has made attracting and retaining talent central to its culture. It has consistently achieved high levels of employee engagement in its internal annual surveys with 95% of colleagues reporting both that they are ‘proud to work at Clarion’ and that they would recommend the firm as a place to work.
Helen Saunders, head of HR at Clarion, said: “We are extremely proud to once again be recognised in these prestigious national awards. To receive the highest three-star accreditation is testament to our success in ensuring we are focussed on all elements of our culture and the impact that has on our people. From ensuring colleagues are kept fully informed and have opportunities for regular feedback, to participating in innovative CSR activities with community partners and providing mentoring and coaching opportunities to support career development, we care about our people. We believe colleagues should be recognised and rewarded for their contribution, and also undertake regular employee engagement surveys as well as developing our award-winning BeingWell programme as part of this commitment.
“To be able to always put our people at the front comes from authentic leadership – we are committed to living our values and making our culture stand out. This has been particularly evident over the last two years as colleagues have faced difficult times amid the pandemic disruption, but have remained engaged, working hard within their teams and supporting one another as they swiftly adapted to new ways of working. Our aim is to make Clarion a fabulous place to work and this latest award shows that we are making that happen.”
Joint managing partner Roger Hutton said: “As a relatively young law firm, we have put people at the heart of what we do from our inception. As we have grown, we have not lost sight of this focus and, indeed, our unique Clarion culture has been vital to retaining and attracting talent as the team has expanded – we welcomed another 41 colleagues last year alone.
“Excellent communications with two-way listening is vital, as well as providing constant ongoing support. We have worked hard to ensure that our positive culture is purposeful through every touch point internally – it has to be true and lived in order to thrive, and it is only by having a truly engaged team that we can continue to provide outstanding service to our clients.”
