Quality figures large in the lexicon of today's business world.

And so it should.

For many, however, the use of buzzwords such as 'commitment to quality' can suggest a case of all form and no content.

Law firms, like all businesses, need sound management, and a systematic quality structure for providers of services can be no bad thing.After BS5750, legal aid franchising and the practice management standards comes investors in people (IIP).

The first three are largely about procedures: the latter, unsurprisingly, concentrates on people.

IIP appeared on th e scene as the result of a series of government initiatives.

It has existed in its current form since 1990, but in October 1993, a new company, Investors in People UK, was set up to promote awareness of the programme.

The company is responsible for overseeing the programme's delivery and assessment by the training and enterprise councils - which receive government funding for the task - to offer a national assessment system for large organisations and to develop and maintain the standard itself, which is reviewed every three to five years.

Currently, only a handful of law firms have acquired the IIP standard, with a few working towards it.

Cameron Markby Hewitt (CMH) won accreditation this year, and was the first professional City firm to do so.According to the firm's personnel director, Roy Lecky-Thompson, CMH felt that it was a natural quality standard that any 'people' business should go for.

'It is only through our people that we can get a competitive edge,' he says.

It took CMH two years to acquire IIP.

'Like any high quality standards, these are extremely tough,' Mr Lecky-Thompson says.

Applicants must produce a 'storyboard', describing how it meets each of 24 indicators, backed up by written evidence.

The information is presented to an independent assessor, who visits the firm and undertakes in-depth interviews with a random cross-section of partners and staff.

In CMH's case, this comprised some 12% of the total, and included both the senior partner and the caretaker.The benefit to the firm of IIP accreditation can be evaluated in several ways, according to Mr Lecky-Thompson.

'First, in savings on costs using the bottom line,' he says, 'we can identify how staff costs have come down over the two years.

And staff turnover has fallen from above the City average in 1989 to below that average now.

Our sickness absence rate - which if high can be a signal of malaise - is now 2%, around half the national UK average.'Mr Lecky-Thompson says that CMH employs proportionately fewer support staff than other top 20 firms, because those there are have become much more productive following the IIP-led training.

Direct training costs are greatly reduced.

'I underspent my training budget last year by 40%,' he says, 'This was because we are more focused, concentrate on on-the-job training, and only give training where it is needed.

Another by-product of accreditation is that we can demonstrate how we targeted training to our business goals; we identified several business needs and succeeded in penetrating those markets.

We quite clearly demonstrated that IIP directly led to increased profits.'The 'upfront' costs of IIP accreditation lay mainly in an opinion survey which CMH carried out at the start of the exercise, but this was partly funded by a TEC grant, as was the occasional day of consultancy help.

(Occasional, Mr Lecky-Thompson says, because of the importance of retaining 'ownership of the process'.) But there is no doubt, he says, that the payback on costs is 'many hundreds per cent'.Fiona Bruce & Co of Stockton Heath was the first solicitors' firm in the north to receive IIP accreditation.

'We wanted to improve the quality of our work for clients,' according to Ms Bruce, the firm's sole principal.

'We looked at BS5750 and at IIP and decided that because we offer essentially a service rather than a product, IIP was a better vehicle.

It concentrates on people and helps a business maximise the output of each member of staff.

It seems to have worked.'IIP involves the continuous training and assessment of every member of a firm, M s Bruce explains.

'It sets in place a system, which, once we have learned to operate it, should then ensure that business goals are targeted in line with training and other staff activities.' Nobody, she says, gets out of it.

'IIP is a rigorous standard.

That's why it is so important that the senior partner is totally committed - otherwise it won't work.'Ms Bruce set up her property-based firm nearly four years ago.

There are ten members of staff including another solicitor, a legal executive and a surveyor, who is also the practice manager and her husband.

A major advantage of IIP is that it helps you manage your business, Ms Bruce says.

'You might be a good lawyer but have no training on how to motivate your staff, or create and implement a business plan.

It helps you put in place management structures leading to a successful business.'My firm is completely different from the way it was two years ago.

Now, we have a structured approach to running the business.

We are setting objectives and the whole team understands our business goals.' She admits to some initial resistance to imparting what she saw as a confidential information to staff, but this was quickly overcome.

'As a result, staff feel very much part of things and there has been a substantial effect on staff turnover,' she says.

'We can also attract the calibre of people we want.

People want to be part of a firm going somewhere.'The firm took just a year to acquire the IIP standard.

'A lot of people think it is only for big firms, but it is easier to implement in a small firm,' she says.

'There are fewer layers of managers and decision makers and fewer staff.' IIP accreditation has brought the firm several benefits, not least increased profitability and credibility with other firms.'It is no panacea for all ills, but it certainly creates a net through which fewer errors fall, and hopefully a happier working environment.' The sentiments are echoed by Pauline Daubney, the training manager at Irwin Mitchell and responsible for co-ordinating its IIP programme.

The firm has a year to go before acquiring accreditation, but, says Ms Daubney, many of the necessary standards were in place already.'We have BS5750,' she says.

'That, if you like, is the strand of commitment to systems for the provision of legal services.

From a business needs point of view, it is probably the best.

Now, we will demonstrate the quality of our people.

The overriding factor is the provision of services to the client.

The second major factor is motivating the people who work for Irwin Mitchell.''Motivation is the key, that makes us focus on our business goals, what our business plan is, what factors will affect people,' Ms Daubney adds.

'At the same time, we need to make sure that IIP does not get too bureaucratic.

We are trying to do it with as little paper as possible.'Implementing IIP is expensive, she acknowledges.

However, Irwin Mitchell is receiving up to £10,000 on a 50/50 basis from Sheffield TEC for delivery and implementation.

Redundancies following on IIP are unlikely, she says.

'If anything, it may free people to do different things for the firm.

We are quite informal, so we tend to know people's strengths and weaknesses.

We hope that IIP will make us more effective, make the client happier and maybe even make work more fun.'