Their challenge
The current Variable pay approach for fee earners has been in place for several years and as working practices were reviewed in light of the pandemic, it was felt to be a good opportunity to take stock, review the current approach and consider if a new direction for variable pay was needed to continue to set the firm apart in a competitive landscape.
Our solution
Bird & Bird chose to work with Innecto as we have experience in both supporting the legal sector and broader cross-industry expertise of variable pay. The scope of the project was to review the existing scheme and advise on potential options to ensure a unique proposition is delivered that provides the best return on investment, fits with culture and drives the right behaviours.
It was important that any proposed changes acknowledged the ‘One Firm, Your Firm’ culture and balanced simplicity with fairness. To ensure the review reflected various perspectives, a series of stakeholder sessions were held with Associates, Partners and the HR team to explore current views of variable pay initiatives in place and test aspirations for the future.
As well as collating feedback on perceptions of the existing scheme, we also conducted a detailed analysis of historical payments to understand how the scheme operated in reality, how fair it was in the application and if it achieved what it intended to. Whilst the analysis reinforced expected findings, the depth of the analytics also highlighted some previously unknown outcomes, providing a rationale to make changes around scheme application. Market insights were also overlaid providing a broader context for future decision making.
The outcome
The result of the project was a series of proposals that enabled the Bird & Bird operational management team to consider how far they wished to go in making changes. This ranged from outlining quick wins that would not be too disruptive, further scheme reframing options that would mitigate some of the existing challenges through to complete revolution and fundamental scheme redesign that would require a change in variable pay philosophy.
The project was delivered in a very short timeframe and the insight provided by the Innecto team enabled meaningful decisions to be taken about the future direction of existing variable pay plans. Innecto brought an external frame of reference, enabling challenging questions to be asked about current practice and tested appetites for true change, balancing aspiration with practical implementation.
Client feedback
"We had a brilliant experience working with Innecto – Justine, Cathryn and Mark. They delivered our brief, with incredibly tight deadlines. They had just the right balance of sharing their expertise and market insights as well as listening to our views and objectives. The focus groups and feedback sessions with employees and senior stakeholders were skillfully managed to enable the facilitators to obtain good feedback and innovative ideas. Overall a very successful and enjoyable collaboration.”
