The team-based culture is focused on helping colleagues, their communities and clients to thrive.

Central to this is attracting talented individuals who value a culture of mutual respect, collaboration, positivity and transparency. In turn they will then carry and amplify the culture.

Day to day, the approach to nurturing Knights’ culture is simple. Focus on what people contribute, not rhetoric or their background. Reward people who lead by example in deed not word. Help each other. Be candid.

The Group is proud of the results that flow from this approach.

Further improvement in the Group’s employee net promoter score, an increase of three versus a year ago to +39, reflects the supportive environment that empowers colleagues to be themselves, and use their judgement to do what’s right for clients, the business and the wider community. In professional services, empowered and content individuals are key to providing great client service, as is reflected in our client net promoter score of +75.

The inclusive approach has resulted in a diverse organisation when measured against various vectors of diversity, such as the percentage of female Partners being in the top 10 percentile of the industry, over half of mid and upper quartile earners being female, and benefits from a mix of talent with a diverse range of ethnicities and religious backgrounds as well as sexual orientation.

Whilst proud of what we have created, we continue to focus heavily on sustaining and improving an environment where everyone can thrive.

Creating a supportive environment in which professionals can pursue their aspirations is highly valued by colleagues and a key differentiator of our business.

Offices

Investing in modern grade A office space to provide a quality working environment for colleagues and fosters teamwork and supports modern ways of working, remains core to our model. In FY21 we moved in to new modern offices in Birmingham, Leeds and Nottingham to provide a quality working environment, whilst creating the capacity to cater for future growth.

Learning & personal development

Investing in the growth of our people is important to the business. Excluding the 25 Trainee Solicitors and 20 Apprentices who are part of formal training programmes, colleagues have received c.18,000 hours of formal training ranging from technical skills, business skills and health and wellbeing.

Flexibility

Knights aims to offer a working environment to suit everyone’s work and personal life balance. 20% of colleagues work part time, including 15% of Partners.

Promotions

This key part of career progression continued throughout the pandemic with the Group announcing a high single digit percentage of promotions, including 35 Partner and Senior Associate promotions. Over half of colleagues promoted were female.

Employee ownership

Knights is proud to be able to offer colleagues the opportunity to hold shares in the business. Currently 570 colleagues are shareholders via the Group’s various share plans, reflecting the strong sense of ownership they feel and their direct interest in its future prospects.

Our strategy to maximise our positive impact is simple. Create the healthiest working environment possible so that people can thrive, and make it as easy as possible for people to have an impact beyond the business.

Knights believes that people who help other people are more engaged and have deeper perspectives on their community. It’s those people who are best placed to drive the business forward in the long-term.

Knights’ 4 Our Community programme provides colleagues with four hours per month of work time to spend helping their local communities.

Knights believes that the opportunities given to its colleagues to volunteer, fundraise and support a cause that is important to them and has a positive impact on their wellbeing whilst supporting our communities.

4OC is our community volunteering framework, giving Knights’ colleagues four hours a month to dedicate time and resource to a charity or cause of their choice.

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many charities and community projects face hardship. Our aspiration to deliver 50,000+ hours through our refreshed 4 Our Community programme has continued throughout the year, with Knights connecting colleagues with community projects.