A friendly, supportive atmosphere

MASTERCLASS CASE STUDY:This month, Alan Murphy and Sharon Scally of Eversheds O'Donnell Sweeney explain how, having made the decision to offer redundancies, they concentrated on ensuring that remaining staff feel valued and motivated

DUBLIN-BASED law firm Eversheds O'Donnell Sweeney was voted one of the top 50 Irish companies to work for in 2008 by its employees. Eversheds prides itself on its friendly and supportive working environment and has an open-door policy that aims to create good communication across the organisation.

Like many Irish businesses, Eversheds made job cuts at the end of last year, when 15 of its 174 staff were made redundant.

"It was a very difficult decision to make, but we were determined to be as open and upfront as possible with people about it," says managing partner Alan Murphy.

"We had a meeting of all employees in October when the situation was outlined to them. We lost both administrative and legal people and did our best to ensure they were helped towards finding new employment.

"After that it was a question of reassuring those remaining that, with this event behind us, we were in a much better position to move forward."

Eversheds believes in looking after its employees. It offers facilities such as flexible working hours, health screening and corporate gym membership and encourages staff to avail of further education opportunities.

It keeps in touch via an in-house magazine and recently introduced an intranet site, on which each department has its own page. It has an active social club that organises year-round events, including a summer barbecue and a Santa party for children of employees. The firm has an

informal support network to assist employees at times of personal difficulty and there is also a formal employee assistance programme (operated by the VHI) which provides counselling for employees under duress.

"We feel such HR initiatives are important because they contribute to the positive culture of the organisation," says the firm's head of human resources Sharon Scally.

"We don't have issues with absenteeism or punctuality because people are well-motivated and generally feel supported by the system here. People are very willing to help each other out and there is a good team spirit. We have a number of people who are very committed to organising the social side of things and we are also committed to being good corporate citizens.

"We are involved with Barretstown children's charity and, from June, staff will be taking part in a reading and writing initiative aimed at national schoolchildren."

Murphy believes that looking after employees is even more important when times are tough. "People are our primary asset and we have to protect that," he says.

"We are constantly looking at how we can develop employee benefits in the interests of keeping people happy and sustaining the good atmosphere we have within the firm."