In this latest discussion, we spoke to Macfarlanes Director of Inclusion and CSR Louise Zekaria and Senior Recruitment Manager Jeyda Yilmaz about the importance of DEI.

Prioritising diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is crucial to the sector’s evolution. Increasingly, candidates want to know more about a firm’s culture and the action it takes to create an inclusive environment.

One firm leading the way is London-based Macfarlanes, whose human approach to people development and recruitment is embedded in its culture.

How would you describe the DEI journey at Macfarlanes?

Louise: I joined Macfarlanes several years ago at a point when there was a renewed focus on DEI. Since then, we’ve been working hard to weave inclusion into the fabric of the firm, making it an integral part of everything we do – from the way we approach events to the pronunciation tool on our internal directory (where you can record the preferred pronunciation of your name). 

Once I arrived, we quickly established our firmwide DEI staff networks, which have been fundamental to our approach. They are:

• Balance – supporting a fulfilling personal life alongside a sustainable, long-term career
• DAWN – our disability and wellbeing network
• Pride – supporting an inclusive environment for all LGBT+ members of the firm
• REACH – our Race, ethnicity and cultural heritage network

We are also due to launch a new social mobility network shortly.

The networks are led by steering groups, made up of people from across the firm. Recent activities have included the Balance network’s children’s party, the REACH cultural lunches (marking different religious and cultural celebrations) and the Pride network’s Pride Month client event.

When I first joined the firm, much of the communication and activity was led by the Inclusion team (we have grown to a team of four). However, now, with support from our staff networks, our Diversity Partner Committee and our senior leadership team, DEI is being championed across the business.

What steps have you taken to build inclusion?

Louise: In 2021, we published our partnership targets: Macfarlanes is aiming for 7% ethnic minority partners and 30% female partners by 2026, then 10% ethnic minority and 35% female partners by 2030.

Alongside these targets, we created an action plan which details what we need to do to achieve our ambitions, as well as to drive inclusion across the whole firm. Each year, we publish an update report to show how we’re progressing and to keep us accountable.

As part of the plan, we have introduced specific initiatives, for example reverse mentoring. Our pilot year focused on race and ethnicity, when we worked with writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch. She supported the mentors to have honest conversations about their experiences with the senior leader mentees. 

These leaders were keen to share their learnings with the whole firm, so we created our Conversations about Race video series. We encourage everybody in the firm to watch these and they are included in our induction programme for all new joiners. 

The reverse mentoring programme has been growing every year and, pulling on the perspectives championed by our staff networks, has expanded to include multiple different experiences across the firm.

What role has the recruitment team had in this?

Jeyda: To help support a more diverse culture, when recruiting, we combine direct sourcing and working with recruitment agencies to ensure we are considering talent from the widest range of backgrounds and experience.

In 2022, we introduced an Inclusive Recruitment Policy (which Totum has signed up to). This policy commits recruiters to providing us with a diverse shortlist of candidates for our vacancies or, alternatively, an explanation as to the steps they’ve taken and why this hasn’t been possible.

At interview stage, we welcome candidates to speak with us about our culture, and diversity and inclusion. We also offer individuals the opportunity to have a conversation with Louise directly – and we’re finding more applicants are asking for this. In our experience, candidates want to make sure the firm they are considering joining shares the same values they do and we are very happy to expand on this!

Finally, we’re bringing in a new Applicant Tracking System later this year. This will send candidates an automated diversity questionnaire to complete, which will allow us to better track the diversity of candidates put forward by recruiters and, as a result, to be more accountable to our targets.

How do you measure the impact of your interventions?

Louise:  We measure progress against our targets and provide updates to the firm, but we also use both qualitative and quantitative feedback from our colleagues when assessing the impact of our inclusion initiatives.  It’s great that people feel comfortable telling us their thoughts!

The culture of Macfarlanes is such that you are encouraged to try new things, see how people respond and then tweak or allow things to develop.

For example, our Legal Women’s Network was championed by a junior associate as a way for women in the firm to meet each other and network. As the programme has developed, and following feedback from members, in addition to speaker and panel events, the format of meetings has evolved to incorporate drop-in lunches for women to get to know colleagues they don’t often work with. 

What impact does this have on your culture?

Louise: One of the benefits of working at Macfarlanes is that it’s easy to get to know people from across the firm because of our size and structure. This helps create a supportive culture where people are comfortable sharing their experiences and stories.

For Neurodiversity Week this year, we held a panel event with individuals from across all areas of the business who spoke about their own neurodivergent conditions. They spoke candidly to a room full of people about what their conditions meant for them in the workplace and how they manage their day-to-day activities at work.

For Mental Health Awareness Week, we’ve had colleagues talking about their experience of having to step away from work and how the firm supported them to return. This event is one of the ways we demonstrate the support the firm offers, and encourage others to speak up by talking about mental health to remove the stigma surrounding it.

Creating an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their experiences and stories is something I’m very proud of as it is incredibly powerful – we aim to be ‘human-centric’ in our approach to DEI and this is one of the most important ways we demonstrate our approach.

We are always happy to showcase the great work of our clients, especially as candidates frequently ask us about these aspects when considering a role. Additionally, our own DEI targets and commitments are outlined in our Purpose Impact Report and DEI Report.

To discuss Totum’s DEI targets and commitments, please contact Totum’s Head of Marketing & Projects, Sarah Broad at [email protected]