Legal Week has teamed up with leading employee survey company Best Companies Group to identify the UK's best legal employers.

The Legal Week Best Employer ranking and report, which will be published in July, will be the culmination of a major initiative by Legal Week's research arm, Legal Week Intelligence, to further improve its market leading Employee Satisfaction Report, which was launched in 2004.

The partnership will see Legal Week harness Best Companies Group's expertise in order to significantly increase survey response rates at participating firms, while at the same time making the data gathering process itself less obtrusive.

There will also be a new element to the research in the shape of an HR directors' survey, which is designed to quantify and compare the employee benefits on offer at the UK's leading law firms.

The resultant Legal Week Best Employer ranking will take into account both the HR directors' survey as well as the results of the employee perceptions questionnaire.

Sally Andrews (pictured), director of HR at participating firm RPC, said: "The report has always provided us with a valuable measure of what is important not only to our own associates but to the profession generally. "

She added: "The need for such an objective measure is becoming particularly acute with a much greater proportion of current associates belonging to 'gen Y,' and people's expectations from work and their careers generally changing more radically than ever seen before."

 Robert Halton, director of human resources at Burgest Salmon, said: "I have always found the survey to be a good barometer and the consistency of the survey together with its rigour mean that it produces valuable insights and trends."

Unlike most employee engagement surveys, the employee questionnaire is specifically designed to gauge the satisfaction of associates.

Respondents are canvassed on the most important factors affecting their working lives and how their expectations are being met at their firms. They are asked about the quality of work they undertake, their treatment by partners, career opportunities, the prestige of their own firms and the other firms they most admire.

It is also possible for law firms to survey their legal support staff.

As well as the chance to be named as one of the UK's best legal employers, participating law firms will also be able to benchmark their scores against both the average scores for law firms with similar profiles and – given Best Companies Group's experience running employee engagement surveys in a variety of sectors – employers operating in different sectors.

So far more than 20 law firms have agreed to take part in the survey. Last year firms that took part in the research – and were named as best employers – included Burges Salmon, DWF, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Reed Smith, Weil Gotshal & Manges and RPC.

The deadline for registering to participate in Legal Week Best Employer 2015 is 17 April and the employee survey will take place in May.

For more information about the survey process and to register visit legalweekbestemployer.com or email [email protected]. 

Click here for information about Best Companies Group.