Canadian HR Reporter

BEST PLACES TO WORK 2021 SPECIAL REPORT 4 www.hrreporter.com "That's been my mandate… to keep trying to have the infrastructure we need with our policies and consistency and things and yet keep our small firm friend- liness and culture and open-door poli- cies." As part of that, the firm offers employees several benefits, such as performance bonuses. "I'm always looking to our performance evaluation system to improve, to see how we can keep that updated and fresh," says Mysyk. "They're not a yes or no, they're more 'If you' ve done something outstanding…' they're more just this sort of a statement, a 'Thanks very much, good job, we appreciate what you're doing.'" Mentorships are another important offering at the firm, with each associate assigned a partner who is not in their practice group, such as commercial liti- gation or personal injury, she says. "The partner mentor is more of a general career coach because they're not practising the same area of law, they're more [about] general life practice skills, as opposed to 'This is how you work on a personal injury file.'" Training is another big focus at McLeod, as it's in the firm's best interest to ensure employees are always up to date with changes to law and keeping fresh with ideas and practice management, says Mysyk. "For instance, almost two years ago now, we implemented a document manage- ment system... So there has been a lot of training, of course, going on around that," she says, adding a dedicated trainer has also been hired to handle more in-house training. Of course, with the pandemic, many employers have embraced a more flexible work system, and McLeod is among them. "We [did not have] a lot of people who have been able to work out of the office before COVID, we were way too paper- based, being a law firm. But… we're working very hard at digitizing more and more practices… [and] we tried to get almost everyone out of the office," she says. "Like most businesses, we have learned that we can do this to some extent on an ongoing basis." CANADIANS IMPRESSED BY EMPLOYER'S PURPOSE M c L e o d L a w c e l e b r a t e s 40 years of success Looking to celebrate 40 years of business, law firm McLeod Law saw its plans detoured by the COVID-19 pandemic, so the 145-employee company instead asked 40 employees to share their stories on social media. "Half of them were from support staff and half of them approximately were from lawyers. And they just talked about McLeod Law, and their experiences in the time that they've been here… their thoughts and opinions," says Karryn Mysyk, manager of human resources and facilities in Calgary. McLeod started has a small firm that's grown steadily and the challenge is keeping that small firm feel while intro- ducing the larger infrastructure that a larger firm needs, she says. Source: Argyle Percentage of workers who believe their employer performs strongly on social issues, such as equity for women 73% Percentage of workers who know their organization's social purpose and believe it lives up to this purpose 71% Percentage of workers who agree that their organization "shows concern about ordinary people" 74% Percentage of workers who believe that they can personally influence the direction of their organization 40% Percentage of workers who believe their organization shows leadership in its industry, community or the public domain 74% "I'm always looking to our performance evaluation system to improve, to see how we can keep that updated and fresh." Karryn Mysyk, McLeod Law

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