Taking the pulse at Blake Lapthorne

With over 100 partners and a total staff of over 700, Blake Lapthorne provide a full range of integrated legal services for companies and also have a large team focused on services for private individuals. One of the leading firms in the South East of England, Blake Lapthorne have a network of offices including in London, Southampton, Winchester, Oxford and Portsmouth.

With their main assets being their people and reputation for excellent client service, Blake Lapthorne are committed to measuring both via an ongoing programme of pulse surveys.

How People Insight has helped

We were originally commissioned as the survey consultant back in 2005. At that time, we explored the business issues of relevance to Blake Lapthorne and designed a bespoke survey focussed on topics such as business planning, management effectiveness, internal communications and client service. Focussed measures of employee engagement were also incorporated.

It was agreed that given the nature of the organisation and patterns of projected organisation growth, the best method of surveying would be to deliver a series of online pulse surveys every 6 months for a 3 year period. The objective was to create a set of baseline measures and then keep track of changes as the organisation developed and grew.

By their nature, the pulse surveys do not cover every member of staff, with a random but representative sample being selected for inclusion each time.

The results

The first series of 6 pulse surveys took place between 2005 and 2008. They consistently achieved excellent response rates and provided real clarity on developments in employee engagement over time. Originally we also helped by providing interpretative feedback to the client, but they are now completely self-sufficient in interpreting and responding to the survey findings.

We are pleased to have been commissioned to run a further series of 6 pulse surveys from 2009 onwards.