We are committed to training and education, both as ways to keep ourselves up to date on current issues and to support our communities. By gaining a better understanding of subjects such as mental health, unconscious bias, social mobility and the changing landscape for trans and non-binary individuals in the legal sector, we feel better able to advise and assist our candidates and clients.

Ardent is a proud signatory of the Recruitment Agency Race Fairness Commitment. The Race Fairness Commitment (RFC) was launched in 2020 and aims to move organisations on from conversations about race, towards practical solutions for building workplaces free from racial discrimination. You can read more about the RFC and our commitment here: Recruitment Agency Race Fairness Commitment 

Global Butterflies raises awareness of trans and non-binary issues. They provide workshops and consultancy support to help businesses create a diverse and inclusive culture where every single person can excel. We wanted to better understand trans and non-binary inclusion, specifically in the legal sector. Global Butterflies founder Rachel Reese delivered a powerful and thought-provoking training session to Ardent staff and shared with us her thoughts on the changes she would like to see in the legal profession over the next 5 years. You can read our interview with Rachel here.

We actively consider the wellbeing of our candidates and clients in addition to our own. We often speak to candidates and clients who are dealing with stressful work and personal situations and, of course, busy workloads. This led us to undertake training as Mental Health First Aiders. All members of our team are certified by MHFA England as Mental Health First Aiders.  You can read more about the training, with the brilliant team at Stress Matters: here

We also ran an interesting and enlightening series of articles and interviews about mental health in the legal profession.
Taking a Team Approach to Mental health Awareness: View Here
Interview with Vanessa Whitman: View Here
Interview with Ashurst: View Here
Ardent Supports Better Mental Health: View Here

We support a range of charities and organisations. We are delighted to be in our sixth year of supporting Building Malawi, a charity that is committed to improving opportunities for children in Malawi. Our team also individually support local communities through volunteer positions with the Careers & Enterprise Company, on School Trust Boards and through running and sponsoring local sports clubs and teams. Click on our Community page, to see more.

Our team at Ardent have many years’ experience working for businesses of varying sizes, with vastly different cultures. In coming together to build Ardent our aim was to create a business that enabled all team members to have a balanced approach to their work and home life.

It is important to us that we build an environment in which people feel they can be their authentic self, in an environment they look forward to working in, and where they feel supported both in and outside the office.

As well as educating ourselves through training in areas of DE&I we have explored mindfulness as part of a holistic approach to saying healthy and happy in our day to day lives. To further develop our understanding of mindfulness and how it can bring peace into everyday tasks, and our work, we had an enjoyable session with James Scholfield of A Mindful Earth. James is a mindfulness/awareness teacher with a background in recruitment. The team talked openly about the challenges they face in their work and gained some understanding of how to unveil the peace that is always within us.

When we are not working, we enjoy many team get togethers outside the office, often including mini Ardent family members.