Articles From the Team

Three is the magic number – Why BCL Legal is one of the best companies to work for in the UK

Yes it is, it’s the magic number. Or so said De La Soul. I tend to agree. BCL Legal has scored a hat trick, won the Treble, got three in a row – call it what you will, but this week saw BCL Legal being recognised as one of the UK’s Best 100 Small Companies to Work For for the third consecutive year. What’s more, we are getting better – we came in 64th in 2016, 56th in 2017 and this year we broke the Top 40 and finished 35th. To say we are all rather chuffed is an understatement.

So. How did we achieve this? What makes us special? The survey itself is based on anonymous surveys of every employee in companies which enter (and, FYI, around 3,500 companies entered last year). The survey covers a variety of criteria from Wellbeing to Fair Deal. So let’s look at the three (it is the magic number after all) where we scored highest.

My Manager Cares About Me as an Individual. 100% of people at BCL responded positively to this. Every single one of us. Now that’s something we should take for granted, right? I suspect we all know that’s not always the case. I think in our culture it extends beyond the “How was your weekend?” niceties, it’s something deeper – just being decent, grounded, pleasant, civilised people and treating each other with respect runs in our DNA. Norway has won 35 medals at this year’s Winter Olympics and their success is apparently due, in part, to their “No jerks allowed” selection policy – basically, if you’re a bit of a prima donna, you don’t get selected. It’s like that here at BCL.

Senior Managers truly live by the Values of the Organisation. 98% of people agreed with this statement at BCL. It’s easy to slap a load of vacuous guff on a wall and talk about culture and values and then stomp around like a four year old who’s drunk a pint of Red Bull and then been given a baseball bat, feeling convinced all the while that those values hold true. At BCL we care; we are accountable; it is OK to make mistakes; we are positive and work for the good of the team; we all have a responsibility for setting a positive. Words, words, words, but 98% of our employees feel strongly that we practice what we preach at BCL.

I Feel a Strong Sense of Family in my Team. We came in with 96% approval rating on this one. Again, it should be taken for granted, right? However, I’ve worked in teams where Person A loathed Person B (and vice versa) and I had to referee between them; I’ve worked in teams where we all bitched about the boss (and, probably, vice versa). We are perhaps tragically short of gossip and the like here (or perhaps it’s all about me? Who said I’m paranoid?), but in my experience there is a strong sense of fun, positivity and purpose which runs through the teams here. It goes hand in hand with having each other’s back, about living the values and it’s about character – recruit and develop people with character and something special happens.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Sounds as if we all sit around in The BCL Circle of Bliss, holding hands and singing Kumbaya (we do, but only on the second Friday of the month…). Sounds like we might really have a back room in which we stick pins into voodoo effigies of kittens because nowhere can really be that pleasant (we do, but only a few of us have the key…). However, this is a special company, a special place. So if you are feeling a little unloved; if you wonder if you could do better for yourself; if you want to see the difference is between a “me too” company and the 35th Best Small Company to Work For in the UK, then call me on 07341 561962 or drop me Rob Barklamb a line at robbbarklamb@bcllegal.com. Let’s have a coffee and I can tell you about The BCL Circle of Bliss…