Why flexible working works and how it can help to grow your business: Hannah Strawbridge

Of course, there’s an argument that every business is entitled to operate how it chooses to. And if they think that will work best, then ‘good on em’. The oft-used argument is that there can be little or no collaboration or team spirit when people work remotely. But perhaps they just aren’t doing it right?

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In our experience at Han Law, forcing employees to work in this way, in a Victorian-style culture, hinders diversity in the workplace, impacts on quality of service, and makes for an unhappy team.

Collaboration isn’t about everyone sitting in an open plan office (in silence, from my experience). Much of whether collaboration and teamwork works, comes from the top down, encouragement from good leaders and from the right culture. ‘Collaboration’ is a nice buzz word but what does it actually mean?

It’s about checking in regularly on all members of the team and ensuring they meet socially to build relationships and encourage collaboration at work. By setting up various channels of communication and crucially, your team knowing you are (within reason) available. There’s absolutely no point in having an open-door policy if every time your team visits, you’re unavailable - subconsciously showing them that they aren’t a priority.

By accident, at Han Law our team of employment lawyers and HR professionals are all women. Most joined us after given up on the traditional legal industry or corporate environment. Sick of office politics, the commute, and wanting more freedom in how, when and where they work.

Thanks to our ways of working, those of us with children now have more time for them, whilst at the same time fulfilling our career goals. Two of our team are diagnosed ADHD and the flexibility and lack of micromanagement help manage their ups and downs enabling them to complete two weeks work in a day, when they feel they can. And giving them down time when they need to take it.

Others are going through the menopause and it’s a comfort not to have to battle through work with brain fog or fatigue or to try to draft a defence for a client on minimal sleep.

It just feels that there are so few traditional law firms who genuinely want their employees to be happy and enjoy the work they do. That can’t be achieved by ignoring what they want. Pizza Fridays don’t make up for a two hour commute every day.

But does a remote, happy team, mean happy clients and a successful business? It’s not the only factor, but it has a massive impact on business growth and success. Our business has grown 500 per cent over the last four years and honestly that is down to our talented team. The more ‘big law’ forces out the well-rounded, diverse talent by treating them like children, I believe the more businesses like ours will thrive.

Hannah Strawbridge is founder of Han Law Co.