Legal services organisation's employee engagement strategy leads to 33% reduction in employee turnover and increased applicant pool

What they needed

Citation’s leadership team recognised they needed to pay attention to the factors which drive profitability in the service chain. This included an investment in people, technology that supports all colleagues, revamped recruiting and training practices, as well as compensation and benefits that linked to performance for employees at entry level.

Reward loyalty is hugely important to Citation and so retaining successful, ambitious, hardworking colleagues is key to achieving business objectives and attracting the best people to work with them. To do this, Citation knew that changing to a client centric organisation would take time, effort and resilience. It’s about focusing on the mindset, behaviours and practices that create better internal relationships, whilst still rewarding their colleagues for the work they do.

How we helped

Citation began a five-day story campaign to relaunch their Discounts and Various Exclusives platform, affectionately known to everyone at Citation as DAVE. They sent out one image a day to tease the relaunch and ended it with the big introduction of Miss Benefit – DAVE’s new girlfriend.

The following Monday, every colleague received a gift box containing a Miss Benefit Book which launched the new benefits, an invitation to the We Love Clients conference, a service book called Raving Fans – which everyone was given the afternoon off to read – and chocolate. Ahead of the conference, colleagues voted for who should receive an annual award and why. It included the categories Colleague of the Year, Service Star and Above & Beyond, in which every single colleague nominated someone.

Citation’s conference centred around service and set out their future vision and direction, they even invited the Customer Service Director from John Lewis in as a speaker. The Year of Service to encourage colleague engagement was launched and a life-sized cutout of DAVE and Miss Benefit were welcomed to the stage. To cap it all off, Citation’s workforce was split up into groups and challenged to implement 15 new actions around customer service within three months. The best idea would win a £10,000 prize.

What they achieved

With the evolution of their company benefits being so successful, DAVE and Miss Benefit is used on all job adverts to attract candidates who have the same cultural mindset. Citation now fills over 90% of job vacancies through direct application – opposed to 50% filled through agency just 12 months before. Employee turnover has also reduced by 33% and the amount of applications received has risen 300% since the previous years. More and more employees are also referring Citation to their friends and family as a great place to work, with 10 new starters to date as a result of a referral.

25% of colleagues have taken advantage of the first Holiday Trading window and they’ve had a further 30 applications for the latest window to open. In a recent poll, 14% of Citation employees said they were interested in a Cycle to Work scheme, which has now been opened.