tribunal claims and that cost the client more money . If it wasn ’ t for the data visualisation , we would never have seen it because there were too many claims for any individual to have noticed this pattern .
“ We had a look at those files and it turned out there was a particularly activist trade union rep who was trying to force the pace . And so we took action and engaged with the trade union rep to say , ‘ if you give us a chance , you don ' t need to take these to a tribunal , we will settle them but you need to understand that we are dealing with a large volume of claims so settling them will take a little bit of time ’.
“ We were able to then show the client that , over a period of time , that big blob of tribunal claims became a smaller blob because we ' d taken action as a result of the data .”
Reaching potential through partnerships As with many organisations , Weightmans has a number of partnerships that help both the firm and its suppliers reach their potential .
“ I had an experience as a lawyer where one of my clients was more difficult to deal with than the other side ,” says Whittle . “ It was quite a hostile relationship , and one of the things I remember thinking at the time is , ‘ this client isn ' t getting the best out of me ’. When I came into our IT department , I saw that we had similar sort of relationships with some of our core suppliers .
“ I wanted to change that around because we would go into meetings and nobody was having a good time . You didn ' t need to be a big reader of body language just to read the hostility in the room . I wanted to change that around . And I recognised that that ' s a two-way thing .”
226 February 2023