To provide our clients with effective legal advice, we need to employ talented individuals. To ensure we attract and nurture this talent, we strive to create a diverse, inclusive and supportive culture in all our offices throughout the world.
One of the ways we achieve this is through our promotion of gender diversity and inclusion of diversity as part of our appraisals. We also focus on ethnic diversity in order to attract talented professionals from various backgrounds. To this end, we work closely with universities, recruitment agencies and student bodies to create opportunities for them.
In 2008, we signed the Talent to the Top charter in the Netherlands and we recently also joined the Woman in Law and the Legal Profession initiative in Belgium, which both call for an increase in the number of women in leadership positions. Please read more on this below. Part of these initiatives is to allow our people the flexibility to combine their work with family life. At Stibbe, both men and women take parental leave and we are very open to adaptable work arrangements.
Furthermore, we invest heavily in the personal and professional development of our people. For example, junior associates attend internal training programmes that increase their personal effectiveness and professional abilities. We are also dedicated to developing our people worldwide and send both associates and clients to the Stibbe MBA Highlights Programme.
Our commitment to creating a diverse, inclusive and supportive culture is something that will continue to grow and evolve, benefitting all our lawyers and staff members present and future.