Harper Macleod LLP
As one of Scotland’s so-called ‘big four’ law firms, Harper Macleod LLP acts for some very big clients, ranging from the Scottish Government to the Scottish Premier League.
In the 20 years since it was established in 1988, the firm has earned a reputation not only for the quality of its legal expertise, but also for providing a positive working environment for its staff.
Harper Macleod – which has offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Inverness, employing 230 people – is proud to be the only law firm in Scotland to have been recognised by the Healthy Working Lives Award Programme. The firm achieved the Bronze Award in January 2008, and is already planning some new initiatives to help it upgrade to the Silver Award.
The firm has already achieved recognition as a good employer, and recently featured in the Managing Partners’ Forum’s 'Top 100 Professional Firms to Work for in the UK'. But HR Director Rona McPherson explains that the firm is not content to rest on its laurels. She says that the Healthy Working Lives Award Programme offered them a structured way for the firm to build on its existing efforts to promote health and well-being.
“We already had some things in place, but we wanted to improve,” she says. “We had policies in place about smoking and health and safety, but we had no overall strategy. Part of our objectives for employees is that we are committed to their welfare and well-being. We thought it would be a good way of engaging people as well.”
After deciding to sign up for the Award Programme, the firm’s first step was to set up a working group to find out what staff thought would help to support a healthier environment in their workplaces.
“The group brought people from all different levels and departments,” adds Rona. “We thought it would be a good way of motivating people. We wanted to do a couple of initiatives to get everybody involved.”
Top of the group’s list was to see more done to encourage healthy eating, so the firm decided to supply free fruit, delivered to the office daily.
Rona says, “Healthy eating was highlighted by the staff – we did a survey and that came out on top, really. We thought that supplying free fruit in the office would help, and we now supply it to all our offices. It gets delivered on a daily basis, and it has been really popular.”
She adds that a healthier diet may have helped to reduce the rates of sickness absence at the firm. “The absence rates have gone down, though you can never attribute that to any one thing.”
Staff were also keen to see the firm provide more information on preventing back pain, and Rona says a ‘Better Backs’ campaign was popular. “It was looking at posture and exercise, and taking breaks from sitting at your desk. That’s something we felt would be beneficial for the firm and would help to reduce absence rates.”
Smokers have been encouraged to quit, with a higher than expected success rate. Efforts to support staff to quit smoking by providing smoking cessation sessions after work also went well, she adds.
“Someone came in from the NHS and around half of those who took part stopped smoking, which was great. There was a bit of a buzz about it because they were all talking about it.”
Overall, Rona says the Award Programme has enabled the firm to be more targeted in the way it promotes and supports the health of staff.
“It’s definitely helped our overall strategy of being an employer of choice,” she says. “The staff are definitely more engaged, and it’s something that the staff find motivating."
“We are the only law firm to go for the Award and get it.”
