Coodes Solicitors

Coodes Solicitors has seven offices across Cornwall and North Devon.

Since introducing flexible working, the company has reaped the benefits of increased efficiency and productivity, as well as improving the work life balance of staff.

Managing Partner Jeremy Harvey says: “Flexible working is a huge benefit. It is in the nature of our work that some tasks require a lot of concentration. This can sometimes be difficult to achieve in an office environment with all the inevitable distractions.  I now work from home one day a week, where I work in the dining room on the family PC and connect to the office virtual private network.

“Apart from it being easier to concentrate at home, I also save the two hours I would otherwise spend commuting to and from the office. Now I can use that time to work instead. And the benefit is greater than just the time saved– I also avoid the stress and aggravation of driving, which means that I am at my best to work. There are also fuel savings, of course.”

Coodes has introduced flexible working for twenty of the solicitors, managers and partners. The lynchpin of the system is the virtual private network, which they call ‘the Coodes Virtual Office.’

ICT Manager Julian Holmes says: “the Coodes Virtual Office allows secure access to our whole system online. It works on a remote desktop basis, so our staff can work just as effectively from home, on the move or even from an internet cafe in the Bahamas, if they so wish!”

Julian continues: “I find that working from home increases my personal productivity in a number of ways. As well as being easier to focus on the task in hand, it means I can plan my time more effectively and reduce travel. For example, if I need to make a site visit that is in the opposite direction from my own office, I will work from home instead and travel direct from home, saving time and fuel.  I find that when I am in the office, too much time is wasted by unsolicited telephone calls from people making sales pitches of one kind or other. Away from the distractions, it is easier to work. From my sofa at home, I have access to every computer and every server for each of the seven branches.  It is a terrific advantage, not just for me but for the solicitors and managers too  - and perhaps even more so for some of the solicitors who also have families at home  and for whom it is now easier to juggle work around family responsibilities.

Jeremy Harvey agrees. “This is not a 9-5 job. Things happen out of hours and now it is easier for us to deal with those emergencies and therefore provide a better service to our clients. We have access to our legal reference libraries online and now I can use the system in the evenings and at weekends if I have to. What’s more, if I am at a meeting at one of our other offices, I can just as well stay on and catch up with my work there rather than have to waste time returning to my own office.

“Some of the criminal lawyers are also able now to make use of any time that they may have to wait at court by using their laptop to go online and  connect to ‘the Coodes Virtual Office.’

“Flexible working has been a real step forward for Coodes, allowing us to provide a better service to our clients whilst improving productivity and work life balance.”

coodes.co.uk