Family Farce; Spotlighting Corrs’ Parental & Flexible Work Policies

One of the ways that firms on the threshold of “top-tier” status try to lure good quality laterals and graduates is through a point of difference. Be it pay, working hours, work benefits  or a mix of all three, mid-tier firms tend to differentiate themselves in ways that appeal to quality candidates. For Corrs Chambers Wesgarth, Australia’s 7th largest firm by revenue, this has resulted in the firm strongly marketing its credentials as a “family-friendly” firm. It extensively promotes its parental leave and flexible work policies on both its website and in the glossy brochures it hands to university students:

fiskal shock

Balancing a busy work-life with the demands of running a household, caring for significant others in your life as well as fitting in study, sporting and community activities is not always easy. Corrs flexible working options are designed to suit the needs of our people at different times of their careers.

It is ironic that Corrs has gone for the family-first marketing line, given that it was cited by the AFR (25/6/10) as having one of the lowest proportions of female partners in Australia (17% – more than 15% below the industry average. However, to its credit, Corrs began offering 14 weeks parental leave in late 2005, well ahead of the legislation that made such leave mandatory. Corrs HR guru Alexis Navie told Lawyers Weekly last year:

We have been well ahead of the pack for a very, very long time … For us it’s more about retention of our existing staff [and] of course it’s going to help us attract new recruits to the firm as well.

Well, contrary to Ms Navie’s claims, we received the following tip-off from an anonymous Corrs spy in January (yep, we’re still catching up on old goss):

Corrs Chambers Westgarth – leaders in parental leave, 4 years running employer of choice for women, yet how flexible are they really with their return to work policies?  Corrs have made it very known at every chance how committed they are to supporting women returning to work etc, but I bet it would be quite interesting to ask the question, how many flexi work requests from women wanting to return are actually approved? The firm has even approved return to work arrangements then suddenly done a 180 when they have realised it will cost them too much and have then said only a full-time positon (the clincher it was a member of their HR TEAM!!!) is available when a part-time position could be very much provided for. Of interest also is their tactics in applying their first class parental leave 18 weeks paid leave – some female members of staff have been threatened that they will get it, but not to bank on returning part-time as they won’t be approved, so don’t spend the money if you plan on coming back part-time cos you will have to pay it back, we have no intention of accomdating your request. WOW!!!! Our firm talks about how amazing it is with leading policies on flexibility at work and leaders in parental leave, yet it only applies in circumstances where it suits them, and where it won’t cost them much!!!

Oops! Shouldn’t have knocked her up back!

We put the substance of these allegations to Corrs and received the following response from the National Human Resources Manager

Dear Firm Spy,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

We are serious about creating flexibility in the workplace. In the last two years we have implemented a Flexibility@work policy that offers a range of formal options for working flexibly. This has resulted in nearly 15% of our people working part time, and even more working flexibly. Of legal staff taking parental leave, 85% have returned to return to work at Corrs so far, 65% of them part time.

We noted the absence of any denial that staff were told to “save parental leave cash because you might not get your job back” too. To contextualise the stats quoted by Corrs, note that:

• BRW reported that at 31 June 2010, Corrs has 893 staff;
• The National Human Resources Manager noted above that 15% of Corrs staff work part time – 15% of 893 is 134;
• Corrs has 106 partners (AFR 25/06/10);
• Only 7.3% of Corrs partners work part-time (The Australian 5/11/10);
• 7.3% of 106 is 8;
• 17% of Corrs partners are female, that is 18 partners in total;
• There are 425 non-partner fee earners at Corrs, 116 of whom are SAs (AFR 25/6/10). Together with partners, thats 531 fee-earners in total.
• 8.1% of Corrs fee-earners work part-time (AFR 5/11/2010)
• 8.1% of 531 is 43.
• 134 – 43 = 81.
• There 893 staff at Corrs, of which 106 are partners, 116 are SAs and 309 are other fee-earners. This means there must be 362 non-fee earners at Corrs.
• Of those 362 non-fee earners, 81 are part-time. That’s 22% of non-fee earner staff.

This analysis shows that as a percentage of all people working part-time at Corrs, only 32% are fee-earners. This is despite the fact that fee-earners account for 60% of the Corrs workforce. As a percentage of its total workforce, less than 3% of Corrs workers are female partners. Less than 0.5% are likely to be part-time female partners. So if you’re a female considering a graduate job or lateral movement to Corrs because of its flexible work policies, and you want to be a partner with a family, maybe call Steve Fielding for some Family First fiskal advice…Just don’t go to work at Corrs.

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