Sills & Betteridge LLP

The Firm is fully committed to equality and diversity in the workplace.

As a starting point the Firm has adopted its policies to ensure diversity and inclusion across the board. The Firm’s Equality and Diversity Policy covers the working environment. An employee’s employment throughout their time at the Firm ensuring fairness and a consistent approach no matter what their characteristics in regards to job advertising, recruitment and selection, training and development, conditions of promotion, conditions of service, pay and benefits, conduct at work, disciplinary and grievance procedures, and termination of employment. The policy also covers the communities surrounding the Firm’s branch offices to capture clients and potential clients of the Firm.

Recently the Firm has invested in a recruitment platform to assist with the hiring of employees and the selection process. This platform collates equality and diversity information to monitor the characteristics of the people who are attracted to the Firm as well as the people who are actually hired which the Firm already monitors through its existing HR platform. The Firm intends to use this information to ensure it is attracting and recruiting a more diverse workforce.

Another initiative recently rolled out by the Firm is an employee cash plan for all employees which includes various therapy treatments, counselling, optical, medical GP - second opinion services and much more. This has been greatly received by employees.

The introduction of a homeworking policy recently and a more relaxed, flexible approach to childcare policies helps to attract people to the Firm who want to obtain a better work-life balance.

The Firm is currently rolling out Mental Health First Aid training to expand on the Mental Health First Aiders the Firm already has. It has also rolled out training for Mental Health for Managers which equips managers on how to deal with employees with mental health issues. This is a big focus at the moment in ensuring we are supporting staff to recognise, support and direct people who are suffering with mental health correctly.

Lincolnshire, the location of most of the Firm’s offices and its headquarters, is a lot less ethnically diverse than other counties in England which in some ways held the Firm back in terms of diversity and inclusion. Over more recent years and since the Firm has expanded out into the neighbouring counties of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire it has lent itself to us being able to attract a much more diverse workforce and client base. Google reviews have also helped in this respect.

The Firm is definitely moving in the right direction when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the Firm which is not always the case for Law Firms and we feel proud of this achievement so far.