Pat on back for legal aid board

Moira Williamson and Kingsley Thomas from SLAB

The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) has scooped the prestigious annual Employer of the Year award.

The award is designed to reward innovation and creative thinking in establishing a work-life balance.

It also acknowledges best company practice and pioneering approaches to improving working lives and building business success.

The Edinburgh-based firm received the trophy from Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Darling.

'Spirit of trust'

The award highlighted the 2001 introduction of a flexible-working pilot process at SLAB which allowed individual teams to find ways to match flexibility with business needs.

Since then the scheme has gone from strength to strength and was rolled out to all staff this year, bringing many benefits to the organisation, including reduced absence rates and recruitment costs.

Lindsay Montgomery, chief executive at SLAB, was delighted to accept the award.

She said: "This provides the recognition that our staff and their representatives deserve for their willingness to work together to improve our business.

"In a spirit of trust and co-operation they have worked towards a win-win solution to meet our business and their personal and family needs."

The award is sponsored by Lloyds TSB Scotland.