Have you heard? The 2016 Alberta’s Top Employers competition winners were just announced and LESA made the list! Being recognized as one of Alberta’s Top 70 Employers is exciting for us because it speaks to LESA’s vision and commitment to setting standards of excellence.
As you know, we are committed to setting standards of excellence in the education of Alberta’s lawyers, articling students, and their staff. Like you’ll read in our press release, we know that to offer you exceptional continuing legal education opportunities, we need to value our greatest asset – our employees.
At LESA we strive to be collaborative, innovative, professional, and responsible with our resources. How do we engage our staff and encourage them to live out these LESA values? Today’s blog shares some of examples and reasons why we have been recognized as one of the distinguished 2016 Alberta’s Top Employers winners.
Collaborative
LESA’s physical workspaces encourage collaboration. Our meeting room – and recently, our offices – have writeable walls. Besides being incredibly fun, these gigantic whiteboard walls make it easy to brainstorm, get creative, and keep organized – all important aspects of coming together and getting things done as a team.
Innovative
To respond to the diverse learning needs of our community and succeed in offering high quality continuing legal education, LESA knows we need to be innovative. One way we stay on top of current knowledge and technological advances is to invest in the professional development of our staff. Staff attend training sessions, engage with other organizations, and participate in quarterly team development activities, amongst other things.
Professional
Last January, LESA forged ahead with an exciting change in structure that, in part, reflects our desire to effectively and competently serve the Alberta legal community. Our reorganization to a structure of responsible autonomy fundamentally reflects the values LESA holds most dear: it favours empowerment, fosters accountability and communication, helps people develop leadership competencies, and embraces collaboration and innovation. Essentially this new structure allows LESA’s staff more flexibility to do our jobs well and grow as individuals.
Responsible
Being responsible with our resources – being fiscally responsible now and investing in a sustainable future – entails many things. Since our employees are our greatest asset, responsibly and conscientiously managing our human resources is incredibly important to LESA. Our earned days off program is hugely popular, letting staff enjoy every third Friday off. LESA staff also appreciate flexible work hours and telecommuting options that let staff balance their work for LESA with the other family and personal commitment. LESA’s commitment to helping staff achieve a healthy work-life balance benefits everyone and makes for a positive work environment where staff are engaged and productive.
What do our staff love most?
We’re proud of the many reasons that LESA is a 2016 Alberta’s Top Employers winner, but we’ll wrap things up by letting you hear straight from some of our staff why they love working at LESA.
LESA is an organization that genuinely cares about the well-being and interests of its employees. It encourages and fosters growth on both an individual and organizational level.”
Kelsey Dick, Counsel
LESA has a very positive work environment where your ideas are listened to and your accomplishments are celebrated.”
Chris Hayek, Integration Assistant
I love that I love coming into work; the people that work here are an amazing group who create a positive and pleasant atmosphere. I like that even though our focus is on serving Alberta’s lawyers, articling students and their staff, we are also committed to making a difference in our community through volunteer activities.”
Bronwyn Connolly, Education Coordinator
