The Needle Starts to Shift
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30% Club Professional Services Firms’ Initiative The Needle Starts to Shift Case Studies: Change Efforts Since 2013 @30percentclub www.30percentclub.org Associate Career Model Participating Firms Page Allen & Overy 4 INITIATIVE: 20:20 Ashurst LLP 6 INITIATIVE: Resource Management pilot Bain & Co. 8 INITIATIVE: Senior Women’s Sponsorship programme Baker & McKenzie 9 INITIATIVE: Associate Career Model Clifford Chance LLP 10 INITIATIVE: Building Personal Profile Course CMS Cameron McKenna LLP 12 INITIATIVE: The Athena Project Deloitte LLP 14 INITIATIVE: Work Agility Eversheds LLP 16 INITIATIVE: Coaching Plus and the Client Speaker Series EY 18 INITIATIVE: Everyday Inclusion Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer 20 INITIATIVE: Global Female Sponsorship Programme Herbert Smith Freehills 22 INITIATIVE: Working Smarter: working from home initiative Hogan Lovells 24 INITIATIVE: StepUp Network KPMG 26 INITIATIVE: Inclusive Leadership Strategy Linklaters 28 INITIATIVE: Global Women’s Leadership Programme PwC 30 INITIATIVE: Breakthrough Reed Smith 32 INITIATIVE: Women in Reed Smith Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co 34 INITIATIVE: More Women 3 Allen & Overy INITIATIVE: 20:20 1 | Describe the context of the initiative 4 | What is the initiative all about? The 30% Club’s 2012 report Shifting the Needle provided How does it work? the A&O Board with much food for thought. The David Morley invited partners and senior associates progression of women to partnership and ensuring that to consider what A&O needs to do to increase the our numbers in partnership were more evenly balanced number of our female partners to at least 20% by the had been a recurring agenda item for some time and had year 2020. This invitation drew almost 200 responses led us to make a number of changes, e.g. the introduction from across the firm. Of those respondents, 26 partners of a part-time option for equity partners. and 105 senior associates and counsel from 29 different However, the stark findings of the Shifting the Needle offices went on to actively contribute to the report, and in particular the report’s findings that the real programme. issue was not that women leave the profession but that They formed nine working groups of fee earners, they are not promoted at the same rate as men, gave the each of which was supported by two or more partners. discussion a renewed focus. As a firm that prides itself on These groups then met to discuss the barriers emphasising the importance of talent regardless of the package that it comes in, the idea that we were part of highlighted in the 30% Club research and identify this industry wide problem did not sit comfortably. initiatives that they felt could address the challenges within A&O. The resulting discussion led to the A&O Board setting our 20:20 aspiration. A total of 14 suggestions covering a broad spectrum of ideas with accompanying business cases from the nine groups were submitted to the 20:20 Steering 2 | What are the objectives of the initiative? Group who assessed the benefits of each according to their quality, feasibility and likelihood of having the Our objective is simple, we want 20% of our partners to greatest impact. be women by 2020. The four strongest suggestions were: • a programme of unconscious bias training for partners 3 | Who are the project sponsors? and embedding unconscious bias into existing A&O training programmes, David Morley, Senior Partner Wim Dejonghe, Managing Partner • a new programme to proactively manage A&O’s emerging top talent, • a structured programme of sponsorship with training for sponsors, and • a development programme for associates that allowed them to get client relationship management experience at an earlier stage in their careers. OUR OBJECTIVE IS SIMPLE, WE WANT 20% OF OUR PARTNERS TO BE WOMEN BY 2020 4 5 | What obstacles did you encounter and 7 | Provide examples of metrics/indicators how did you surmount them? you are using to track success/effectiveness We knew that, in order to succeed, we needed to secure of the initiative. Or any employee feedback/ buy-in from key decision makers as well as the broader quotations you would like to share. firm. As with all change initiatives this was challenging at Over 40% of our last global partner promotion group times and we had to work hard to ensure that the were female bringing the proportion of women in the messages were clear and people understood what their partnership up to 17% (from 15% in 2013). There is a role was in creating the change and how they stood to lot to do but a number of our offices have already benefit. We have kept this conversation alive and 20:20 reached 20% and we will continue to work toward our is now a well-known initiative and broadly embraced firmwide 20:20 goal. across the firm. 6 | What has been most effective about the initiative? How are you monitoring success? We have an established talent dashboard that is used to facilitate discussions between the firm’s most senior partners. These discussions are chaired by David Morley and are used as a forum to share best practice and identify local actions to help us reach our 20:20 aspiration. The scope of this strand of work has now WE CLOSELY MONITOR THE FEEDBACK been expanded to encompass our sponsorship FROM PARTICIPANTS AND CHECK THAT initiative and we will be launching firmwide training OUR METRICS TELL US THAT WE ARE soon which will be sponsored by David Morley. MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION We have successfully piloted and launched a second phase pilot of a client relationship management programme which sees associates from a number of offices given early and supported responsibility to develop their client relationship management skills. We have completed the first phase of our unconscious bias training for partners and will be launching the second phase shortly. We closely monitor the feedback from participants and check that our metrics tell us that we are moving in the right direction. Each of these initiatives has been successful in its own right but collectively they have allowed us to keep the 20:20 discussion alive and maintain momentum as we climb toward our target. 5 Ashurst LLP INITIATIVE: Resource Management pilot 1 | Describe the context of the initiative 4 | What is the initiative all about? The original 30% Club PSF project highlighted the How does it work? potential impact on career development of work The initiative focusses on improving the efficiency of how allocation through unconscious or conscious bias. There new work is allocated internally, by using a professional was anecdotal evidence internally that women and men resource manager to staff transactions based on an perceived the allocation of work differently and not assessment of availability, suitability and skill set rather always on the basis of skills and ability. There was also than partners choosing their preferred lawyers each time. concern for those on remote working arrangements or The approach is designed to ensure that all skills and who might have left the office to meet caring abilities within a team/department are recognised, both responsibilities but logged on again at home, that with a view to utilising them effectively, but also in order physical absence from the office would affect allocation to develop new skills. This will ensure a well-rounded and of work by partners who walk the floors. skilled-up team overall who provide a more fungible talent pool with which to staff future matters. 2 | What are the objectives of the initiative? The initiative has been established and run by a professional resource manager with previous experience The objectives were to even out utilisation rates, improve of setting up a function in a law firm. the actual and perceived fairness of work allocation for all, ensure that perceived or actual under performers were identified and appropriate action taken, and 5 | What obstacles did you encounter and improve conditions for those habitually overburdened. In the longer term the objective is also to explore global how did you surmount them? utilisation – using offices in different time zones to Inevitably, doubts were expressed by partners and staff support each other rather than expecting associates about how this could work – how would an outsider and partners to work unsociable hours. understand how best to staff a transaction, how would clients be kept happy if their ‘favourite’ lawyers were not allocated to their deals. It is clearly a major break with 3 | Who is the project sponsor? tradition in terms of how things are organised, and it was to be expected that there would be concerns at Simon Beddow, global co-head of Corporate Division perceived threats to status and authority. The solution was to recruit an individual with relevant personal experience who had the authority, confidence and skill to reassure lawyers and demonstrate swiftly the significant benefits for all in freeing up lawyer time to focus on transactional work and in reassuring all that work was being allocated fairly, transparently and with a view to developing key skills as well as to balancing out working hours. This individual operates with impartiality IN THE LONGER TERM THE OBJECTIVE and objectivity, balancing the needs of the lawyers, IS ALSO TO EXPLORE GLOBAL partners and – crucially – clients, to achieve the best UTILISATIOn – uSING OFFICES IN outcome for all. DIFFERENT TIME ZONES TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER RATHER THAN EXPECTING ASSOCIATES AND PARTNERS TO WORK UNSOCIABLE HOURS 6 6 | What has been most effective about the Quotes about the pilot: initiative? How are you monitoring success? Partner: The rapid time scale (less than six months) within which “I’ve enjoyed my experience with the resource many (even previously sceptical) partners in particular management project.