Law firms triumph in Great Place to Work survey

Three law firms are included in the first ever DTI-sponsored survey of the best places to work in the UK.

Wragge & Co achieved an impressive fourteenth place on the list. Senior partner John Crabtree puts Wragges' success down to the openness of the firm. "There is a real sense of proprietorship with everyone. We want to get everyone to feel that they own a chunk of the firm and get involved in it. We are a pretty meritocratic bunch," he says.

National firm DLA is ranked the sixteenth "Best Company to Work For" while Simmons & Simmons came 24th. Robert Halton, DLA's director of human resources, says: "From the top line, it is a great endorsement of the effort that lots of people have been putting into the firm since our merger four years ago, when we established a set of values that we wanted to develop." Last year, DLA launched DLA Consulting, aimed at providing advice to human resources professionals.

First place went to internet product giant Cisco while fellow IT companies Microsoft and Intel also made it into the top 10.

The survey canvassed 16,000 workers and two-thirds of the results come from confidential employee surveys. The remaining third is based on a company questionnaire or "culture audit" as referred to by Great Place to Work, which compiled the list.

Although the "Best Company" listing is not based on the company's financial performance, Mark Adams, Great Place to Work project manager, says that companies which do best financially tend to be higher on the list. The full list was printed in The Sunday Times yesterday.