Clyde & Co believe that creating a diverse and inclusive working environment, where people from different backgrounds can thrive, is critical to the success of their global business. They are committed to ensuring that there are no barriers to progression, and that everyone is treated equally and with respect. Below, the firm tell us more about their commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
Our Commitment
Through collaboration with clients around the world, we understand and appreciate how important it is that our partners and employees both respect and reflect our commitment to diversity. In the last two years we have made significant progress in this area but there is always more we can do. We have been working hard to improve our policies and practices across the firm to ensure they support us in developing our culture in an inclusive way. Our key areas of focus are:
- gender
- LGBT+
- mental health and wellbeing
- culture and ethnicity
Balanced Brand Initiative
In line with our firm wide values of respect and inclusion, we are committed to continuing to improve diversity at every level of our business. We, like many of our clients and other firms, know that we still have much more to do to showcase the best of our firm today, and to enable greater diversity across our business and profession.
For that reason, we launched a new initiative to encourage and ensure greater diversity in our business development, marketing and communication activities. The three aspects to the initiative involved:
- equipping all of our lawyers, female and male, to be confident communicators
- working towards gender balanced business development
- maximising our female media spokespersons
Encouraging Engagement Amongst our People
Our employee networks provide a forum for discussion and action surrounding particular diversity issues. In the last year our Pryde & Co (LGBT+) employee network has grown and officially launched in Manchester and London, with involvement from people across our international offices.
Our gender equality network, GECCO (Gender Equality at Clyde & Co), has also experienced an increase in engagement and activity. From exciting new partnerships to inspirational events for our people, GECCO has been busy driving progress in this area. Both Pryde & Co and GECCO are open to all and have representation across all levels, business functions and regions.
Equal Opportunities in Graduate Recruitment
Our graduate recruitment team in the UK has been focusing on improving access to the legal profession through a number of initiatives and partnerships.
In October 2017, we launched Rare’s contextual recruitment system (CRS). This allows Clyde & Co to review achievements in context so we are able to better judge potential and gain a greater insight into each individual applicant. Rare CRS is now a key component in our graduate recruitment process and it:
• ensures we are able to identify top talent
• increases our chances of hiring students from disadvantaged backgrounds
We’re pleased to reveal that in 2018, 10 out of 12 Rare flagged candidates were offered training contracts at the end of the 2018 London vacation schemes.
We have also been working with the Bright Network, Aspiring Solicitors and myGwork to ensure we engage and recruit with the brightest students from a range of different backgrounds.
We have set key areas to concentrate our efforts on and deliver tangible change. These are:
- Improving gender balance at senior leadership levels
- Increasing the spread of our work around the globe
- Involving more of our offices and establishing (how many in what) employee networks in more regions
- Support our people’s health and wellbeing with more resources and training
We will continue to monitor our efforts in these areas as well as the level of support we provide to our people.
To find out more about Clyde and Co and to view their opportunities, click here.