Development & Engagement
Development & Engagement
Work is a big part of your life – but not everything
A healthy balance between work and private life is necessary for a successful career. We offer a working environment in which people are valued and everyone is given the opportunity to develop. The combination of challenging work with the best possible development of our people leads to a win-win situation. We actively support our employees on their career path. We encourage them and challenge everyone to develop their skills. Adapted to their field of expertise and professional experience, you can choose from a wide range of training opportunities.
In summary, we focus on more than our daily work in the areas of Learning & Development, Diversity & Inclusion, Corporate Responsibility and Mental Wellbeing.
How we work together determines what we achieve together
Being part of Freshfields means being part of a global team. As with any high-performing team, we all have a role to play in delivering world-class work. A crucial role in this is having confidence in each other. We support each other and inspire each other to get the most out of ourselves. At Freshfields we follow 4 pillars: we respect each other, we are there for each other, we are open to each other and we lead by example.
Learning & Development
Learning & Development
Within our office you will experience that your career is dominated by ambition and development. We pay a great deal of attention to legal development, but also to the development of both professional and personal skills.
Starting attorneys, tax specialists and candidate civil-law notaries follow the regular professional training courses. Lawyers also follow the Law Firm School (LFS).
With us you learn the profession primarily through ‘training on the job’, because from day one you are intensively involved in cases by partners and experienced associates. You will soon be working independently, with the responsibilities that go with it. This is noticeable in the work you do, but also in the contacts you maintain with clients, colleagues and other associates.
Occasionally, it may feel like you are being thrown at the deep end, but we will keep a close eye on you! You will share a room with an experienced associate. You will hear and see how he or she handles things and you can spar with each other about the work you are doing. You will also paired up with a Connector within Freshfields. This is an experienced associate who will guide you through your development curve at set times throughout the year. He or she will periodically take the time to talk to you about your performance and development.
Freshfields itself also offers an internal training programme that has been set up locally, regionally and globally. We encourage you to take external courses and attend seminars. Think, for example, of a Grotius specialisation course or Harvard Summer School.
We encourage our associates to publish in professional journals or through other media. Many of them are involved in internal and external education and training activities.
Within Europe, we also offer every associate the opportunity to go on Explore Europe (EE). This means that you will be working for a short period of time (1-4 weeks) at one of the offices within Europe to meet your colleagues there, learn from each other and enrich your own experience. Each associate also has the option of going on secondment for a short or longer term, at one of the other offices worldwide or at a client.
In order to function well in an international and dynamic setting, you need more than just legal expertise. Our internal training programme devotes a great deal of attention to developing these and other professional skills. This is evident, for example, from our “Advance” programmes, which are an integral part of each associate’s programme. These multi-day international meetings are particularly suitable for meeting peers from various Freshfields offices and exchanging experiences. In addition to paying attention to professional skills, a lot of time and attention is also paid to personal skills, such as coaching and the vitality programme including mindfulness and learning to deal with work-life balance.
Diversity
Diversity
At Freshfields, we are all about the person and it does not matter who you are, where you come from, what your background is, what your preferences are.
Quality is important, but at the same time it is just as important not to be obsessed by own talent, knowledge, success and to be open to new ideas and developments.
“Excellent, and not too serious” is a good description of our culture, mentality and ambition. It is reflected in the way we work with each other and with our clients. Talented, driven and inquisitive people with a sense of humour and a healthy sense of perspective are well-suited to our work. To promote diversity and integration, we bring together people with common goals and interests and create information platforms. Our internal office networks are, therefore, an essential part of our Diversity & Inclusion policy.
Halo Some time ago, we launched our LGBT+ network “Halo” and signed the Diversity Charter. Halo promotes the global integration and equality of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual colleagues. In addition to people who identify themselves with the LGBT+ community, employees who want to support the network – our so-called Halo Champions – are invited to be part of Halo.
Women networking
Our Women’s networks, are active within our offices around the world and work to improve gender relations within the office. Their ambition is to create an environment in which women and men are equally able to develop their potential. They organise a wide range of different activities and events, including collaboration with clients and external organisations.
We recognise the importance of creating a working environment that is equally attractive to everyone, regardless of gender. That is why our Women’s networks launched our Every Day Gender Equality Commitment (EDGE) in November 2018. It aims to promote gender equality throughout the office worldwide. For more information, click here http://responsiblebusiness.freshfields.com/rb-edge.
Inclusion
Inclusion
At Freshfields we are convinced that we should have focused initiatives and programmes on the subject of inclusiveness.
We have, therefore, developed a number of initiatives aimed at creating an inclusive culture. Examples of these initiatives are:
– Inclusive Leadership Training – a training programme to help partners & managers find out how to reduce their potential bias / bias in talent decisions and strengthen their inclusive leadership skills.
– Reverse Mentoring – a programme we launched in January 2019 in collaboration with our internal diversity networks. As part of this programme, partners, principal associates and counsels were coached by a more diverse junior colleague for a period of six months.
– Unconscious Bias training – a training to raise awareness of our cognitive bias (unconscious bias) such as prejudice, stereotypes or other forms of bias and to investigate our own unconscious bias.
Responsible business
Responsible business
Freshfields Amsterdam’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy consists of pro bono work and community investment. The pro bono activities of Freshfields focus on the core of our business, legal support of charities and initiatives.
Within the Freshfields network, one month a year is dedicated to the Community Challenge. This is an annual international volunteer initiative in the context of corporate social responsibility. All Freshfields employees are invited to take part in this Community Challenge during working hours. Freshfields Amsterdam also takes part in various other initiatives to ensure the diversity of our policy. We are always open to suggestions for initiatives that are in line with our CSR vision
Mental wellbeing
Mental wellbeing
Both professionally and privately, we receive the most diverse stimuli every day and it is a challenge how to deal with them. We strive to create an environment that offers the openness to talk about mental challenges. Freshfields directs this conversation at all levels of the office around the world in many ways and has set up various programmes aimed at preventing and/or finding ways to tackle potential mental stress. The mental health awareness training and the mental health mentor training are examples of this. We also offer a very extensive vitality programme at the Amsterdam office, including free workouts at various gyms in Amsterdam and in consultation coaching for all employees.