We spoke to Katie McIntyre, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Manager, Data Analytics at Eversheds Sutherland, about how her team uses Pirical On Demand (POD) to streamline its diversity reporting.

Thanks to Pirical, the firm can save time, exceed client expectations and get more out of its internal data.

Keeping clients happy

When you answer a diversity data request, your submission has to be perfect.

By delivering accurate data ahead of time, Eversheds Sutherland can keep clients (and relationship partners) happy.

The challenge

Like every firm, Eversheds Sutherland gets lots of requests for diversity data. This includes the big annual industry surveys, such as those carried out by The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). But it also means more short notice client requests, as well as data compiling for internal use.

For Katie, one challenge was sourcing data from teams with their own priorities. “When the surveys are due, my recruitment department is overwhelmed with summer associate résumés,” Katie told us. As if contacting multiple, busy departments wasn’t hard enough, each survey also had different definitions of diversity. Plus, these definitions changed each year. “It was difficult for me to set myself up for success,” Katie said. 

At one point, these surveys were creating weeks of work for Katie. And any delays could have a real impact, especially when the requests had come from valuable paying clients. “Money is on the line when it comes to these surveys,” Katie told us.

The solution

By prepopulating for the most common questionnaires, Pirical’s Survey Filler tool saved Katie a huge amount of time. “A lot of the client surveys would take us two weeks, with industry surveys taking much longer,” Katie told us. “Now it takes two clicks and a maximum of 15 minutes. It's literally a drop-down menu, with the exact wording as what’s in these surveys,” Katie said.

It has also taken the pressure off Katie’s interactions with other departments, which protects client relationships too. “It’s difficult to go to a relationship partner and say, "can you please ask your client for an extension?" Katie said. “Now I never need the extensions.”

What’s more, because of its point-and-click interface, Katie’s less technical colleagues can take over when she’s away. This same functionality has also freed her up to do other data projects. “I don’t have to focus as much on the grunt work of filling these surveys,” Katie said. “Pirical’s worth more than we’re paying for it. It gives us the power to truly look at our firm: here’s our wins, here’s our opportunities, here’s where we can go.”

“One issue we run into when it comes to processing and coordinating data is that the software systems holding all of that data don’t necessarily ‘talk’ to each other.

"Pirical’s product is user-friendly and helps us coordinate the data we receive from multiple systems, making that data more accessible for internal purposes and for our data-based responses to client surveys.”

Survey Filler

Survey Filler helps you answer diversity-related questions in one place, and avoid the pain of gathering data from multiple teams.

It does this by providing easy access to hundreds of the definitions and metrics used in the most common requests.

Survey Templates

This tool is designed for surveys that require multiple cuts of data, or even hundreds.

Built alongside Survey Filler, it has all the data tables you’ll need for each survey pre-configured. So you can load them in just a few clicks.

Pirical's people analytics software equips law firms with the HR, rewards and diversity data they need to make smarter and fairer people decisions.

HR data is messy, hard to analyze and difficult to distribute to people leaders. With Pirical On Demand (POD), it's a lot easier for people leaders to get value out of it, without the need for an army of analysts and engineers. With Pirical, you can save time, get people engaged and take a more sophisticated, data-driven approach.