We continue to evolve our workplace policies to ensure all our people are supported, engaged and rewarded to be at their best and to work in a connected and agile way. We strive to create a diverse and inclusive culture, while embracing new technology and flexible ways of working.

Some of the highlights from this year include:

Having conducted a firm-wide culture survey in 2022, over the past 12 months we have focused on enhancing connection and collaboration with our people through more celebration of our collective success. Our return to the office, post pandemic, has allowed us to gather more frequently in person, both as a firm and on an individual team basis. In the past year, all our teams have held ‘away day’ sessions to align on business priorities and reinforce connections.

We also continue to improve our feedback culture and to address the work life balance challenges our people experience. In September 2022 we updated our Partner Annual 360 feedback process to ensure we get the right feedback and input from all our people. Over the coming year we want to ensure that we provide the appropriate tools as we enhance our peer-to-peer feedback at all levels across our firm.

Flexibility is key for our people. Our hybrid working survey, completed in 2022, confirmed that the option to periodically work remotely, is really valued. Communication and engagement continue to be an area of focus. We ensure that hybrid meeting capabilities are provided to help teams keep focused and connected.

We also recognise that the traditional working model is evolving in the workplace and to address this in May 2023 we launch a selection of Alternative Working Arrangements as a pilot programme. To date we have 15 ‘early adopters’ and we will report on our progress in this area next year.