The Business Exchange Bath & Somerset Issue 13: Autumn 2019 | Page 21

BUSINESS IS PERSONAL For almost 150 years Abel & Imray has been assisting businesses with protecting one of their most important assets - their ideas, innovations and brands, yet how a business cares for its people (its greatest asset) has become a key measurement, alongside more traditional benchmarks such as financial success. Senior partner and patent & trade mark attorney Jim Pearson explains why initiatives to support the people in the firm are important to its past and future success. In the 1980s when the firm was opening its first office outside of London, here in Bath, some of the partners had already begun exploring how we could offer more as an employer with the aim of attracting and retaining great people. Some of these ideas were considered quite radical in our industry back then, however two of the partners involved in our expansion, Ceris Humphries and Julian Bardo, were instrumental in developing a culture that was family-friendly and offered opportunities. At Abel & Imray we believe that offering people (regardless of role) useful and practical benefits supports the culture of our firm and is an important reason why many of the Abel & Imray family have celebrated decades of service. Earlier this year enhanced flexitime was introduced in the bid to make life a little less 9-5 and more about offering flexibility for individual travel arrangements and other commitments – all whilst maintaining our high standard of customer service. As a family-friendly employer, this initiative follows our commitment to offering part-time working arrangements (up to and including partner level) that can help our team spend more time with loved ones, and selfishly allows us to keep team members who might otherwise have to give up a role that ‘had to be fulltime’, benefitting our firm and our clients. We are a firm that respects and embraces the positive difference diversity can make for us and our clients. IP Inclusive is the intellectual property community’s own charter for equality and diversity, and we are proud to have been an early signatory of this and to be one of the leads on IP Inclusive’s South West committee. Our in-house Diversity & Inclusivity Group is active within our firm, and works closely with our team to ensure we are delivering positive outcomes in an area that is important to the identity of any modern business and this is making a real difference to how we recruit and develop colleagues through to the day-to-day working environment. The increased visibility and discussion of mental health topics is welcomed by many in the legal community and like a growing number of employers we understand the importance of having an openness about mental health and if you were to visit our office you would see the ‘elephants in the room’ to remind colleagues that its ok to talk about mental health and that help is at hand. We are in the process of training colleagues to be mental health first aiders, a further example of how we are adapting our firm to the needs of our community. With offices in London, Spain, Cardiff and Bath we bring our firm together at least once a year to share companywide updates alongside the groups that meet more frequently to discuss and act on topics that are suggested by members in the firm. One such topic in the recent past is exploring our ‘why’. Why do we come to work and why do our clients value working with us? Those readers who have an interest in Simon Sinek will be familiar with his concept ‘start with the why’. Our why is: “To look after your ideas so you are free to do what matters most to you”. We achieve this because we take the time to understand, we collaborate with you and with each other, we strive, in what might be difficult circumstances, to find a way, and we truly care about each other, about our work and about the individuals in the companies/clients we represent. As a local business we are mindful of the challenges of attracting and retaining talent to this beautiful city. By our 150th anniversary in 2021, we will have grown to over 100 employees across the country – a milestone we will reach thanks to what Bath has offered us over the years. @abelimray [email protected] 01225 469914 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2019 21