How JourneyHR helped EJ Legal transform its employee engagement
Employee engagement is a key ingredient of business success, but it’s become something of a pain point for many companies over the past few years.
The Covid-19 pandemic threw businesses and employees into unchartered territory overnight, with many forced to work from home while juggling the demands of home schooling, isolation and health worries.
Perhaps not surprisingly, 34% of companies said employee engagement had declined over the past 12 months.
But for legal recruitment agency EJ Legal, the story has been altogether more positive. The firm, which prides itself on its innovative approach to addressing the needs of both its candidates and clients, wanted to ensure that its own team felt engaged and empowered in their roles. When JourneyHR first began working with EJ Legal on its journey of change in 2018, their employee engagement score was 67%. In just three short years, and despite the turmoil of the pandemic, EJ Legal was able to transform this number to 88%.
People are, without a doubt, a business’ biggest and best asset. Without engaged employees, it can be an uphill struggle to grow and flourish, particularly in challenging times. But keeping people happy and motivated requires more than simply upping salaries or adding employee benefits to the list; it requires a deep understanding of what makes them tick – what motivates them, what they care about and what their needs are.
EJ Legal began its journey to transform its employee experience with JourneyHR’s employment engagement survey. True and effective change relies on employee insight; giving people a voice and letting them know their thoughts and feelings are valued. The beauty of an employee survey is the ability to allow everyone to share their thoughts honestly and anonymously without fear of judgment.
George Catt, managing director of EJ Legal, says: “We knew there were things we wanted to change but we wanted to make sure we were identifying the right problems so that we could make a real impact where it matters and improve our employees’ experience.”
Employee growth and development
One of the biggest discoveries for EJ Legal was the need for greater support and clarity around career progression.
George explains: “The quick wins are those around improving technology and systems but it’s the emotional side that we really wanted to focus on, and which has the biggest, long-term impact. A critical finding for us was career development, which led us to think about how we could develop a framework that would enable each member of our team to see a clear future with the company.”
JourneyHR worked alongside EJ Legal to co-create a behavioural framework, which provided employees with a shared purpose, a roadmap of expectations and a clear understanding of the skills and behaviours required for each role.
From hiring and training to appraisals, promotion and the way in which teams work together, model behaviours were embedded across the entire fabric of the organisation and interlaced with the wider company values. But more importantly due to the work that JourneyHR did the values and behaviours were owned and defined by the employees themselves.
George says: “JourneyHR was extremely helpful in creating a simple but very effective framework that offered our team clarity around what model behaviours look like and what would be required of someone before they could progress to the next level professionally.”
Somewhat uniquely, for a business in an industry that can often be at pains with its reputation, everyone who completed the most recent survey say they believe in EJ Legal’s business goals, how their work contributes to the company’s goals and would be willing to go the extra mile for the business as well as feeling that the company is doing the right thing for its clients.
Like so many businesses over the last 2 years one of the areas that has presented the biggest challenge has been in balancing work and home life. JourneyHR were able to run mental health workshops during the course of 2021 in recognition of the enormous impact the pandemic had – and continues to have – upon employees.
George says: “Working with JourneyHR has been invaluable. They have been an amazing partner for us because their ethos and values really reflect what we are trying to achieve as a company which can be rare to find. Carrying out the employee engagement survey and working with JourneyHR has given our people the confidence and voice they needed.”
The success of EJ Legal, at a time when many other companies have been struggling to engage and motivate their staff, highlights the importance of having an HR function that understands the value in creating strong people and culture organisations. At JourneyHR, our purpose has always been a simple one - to create great places to work – and we are here to help you achieve that.