Case studies
Workforce monitoring: TLT Solicitors
TLT is a responsible business and, through its policies and practices, promotes a safe working environment for every employee, its clients and its service providers. TLT also has a programme of corporate social responsibility activities, encouraging and supporting involvement in the wider community, which includes staff volunteering and pro bono legal advice to a variety of charities. TLT is committed to improving the firm's sustainability, and an environmental audit rated TLT above the ?Best Practice' benchmark for carbon emissions.
TLT prides itself on creating and maintaining an environment that is accessible, free from prejudice and mirrors the environments in which we operate. Therefore, we are keen to understand our employees, what is important to them and the challenges that they may face; this extends to all areas of diversity. We also want to our employees to understand our clients' needs and, through maintaining a diverse workforce and creating an environment that encourages people to share their experiences, we can ensure that our clients know that they are dealing with a firm that is sensitive to their requirements.
TLT is keen to go beyond its legislative and regulatory requirements to ensure that our employees enjoy a comfortable environment in which to work without fear of discrimination. We have a number of initiatives to increase the general awareness of all protected characteristics and believe that this education leads to a respectful and inclusive environment and builds on the mandatory equality and diversity awareness training that all employees are required to take. In conjunction with Human Resources, initiatives are driven by our Equality & Diversity Officer and supported by our Equality & Diversity Partner. We have staff forum set up specifically to deal with the areas of equality & diversity. We believe that a workforce that feels valued in all aspects of their work, but equally importantly, as an individual, leads to a happier workplace and increased productivity.
We undertake annual diversity monitoring which requests information relating to all areas of diversity. We believe that the success of these questionnaires is due to our culture of inclusion, encouraging a safe environment that is free from prejudice. In our experience, one of the key factors when requesting this information is to be honest and open about why you are asking for it. Our invitation to complete the optional questionnaire spells out why this information is important to us but we also stress an employee's right to decline to respond. Our 2010 assessment results show that 90 per cent of employees understand why we are asking for this information and 89 per cent of employees believe the results will be used to benefit them.
Also, in response to the question regarding an employee's religion or belief, only 2 per cent of people declined to answer this question compared to 8 per cent of people who declined to answer this question in the government's 2001 Census. This further demonstrates that our employees are happy to respond to questions of this nature because they understand why we are asking them.
We believe that our employees, with their professional and life skills, are our most valued commodity. Through consultation we are able to mainstream diversity throughout the firm, making it a part of everything that we do.
By embracing diversity and not being afraid to tap into our employees' wealth of knowledge, we have created a safe, happy and respectful environment that affects everyone who deals with TLT.
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