Vested Interest: How to Get Staff Buy-In

Good help is hard to find -- and keep.  It’s that latter part that you tend to hear less about, and often that latter part that managing attorneys tend to focus on less.  In many ways, lawyers treat their employees the same way that they treat their clients.  They work very hard to acquire them,  and then roundly ignore them, as communication slows to a drip.  Neither situation is good, as both clients and staff become disgruntled over time. 

And, this isn’t any way to get buy-in from your staff.   

 

So, if you want hard-working, modern employees to join, and choose to stay with, your team, you’ll likely need to modernize your staff management tactics. 

 

Here are some ways to do that: 

 

-Focus on professional development.  Law firm employees, like most other employees, are heavily interested in developing professional skills.  Yet, most law firm business owners tend to focus their professional development budget on themselves, or on associates, instead of administrative staff.  But, everybody in your business deserves a chance to further their careers.  And, while the common belief among attorneys is that they’re just training their current staff to become more marketable, and grow into a better worker for their next job, the fact of the matter is that, if you’re the kind of boss that offers professional development opportunities, those same employees are more likely to stay with you -- for more of the same.  Trainings, certificate programs, courses – it’s all in play, and it all has extreme value for modern employees. 

 

-Build systems.  A common staff complaint from law firm employees is some variation of: ‘I feel like we’re always just putting out fires’ or ‘We’re so disorganized, and no one seems to know what they’re doing’.  No one wants to work in an environment like that – especially law firm staff, who are largely powerless to change the management philosophy of the principle of the law firm.  So, it’s on the managing attorney to build a structure for effective work.  And, that starts with ‘workflows’ = repetitive case-related tasks that are time-sensitive and assigned to specific individuals.  Watch morale improve with each workflow you build.  Workflows also have the byproduct of reducing micromanaging by attorneys (attorneys are horrible micromanagers, because they’re always worried about someone making a mistake that will lead to an ethics complaint), because lawyers can check in on case status using the software that manages the law firm’s workflows – instead of hovering over the backs of their employees’ shoulders. 

 

-Be transparent.  This is probably the most important aspect of effective staff management: Just being open and honest.  Law firm staff are generally left in the dark about business operations; sometimes that’s intentional, sometimes that’s because the managing attorneys are themselves in the dark about business management – but, either way, committing to be accessible to staff is a good forcing function to get managing attorneys to pay better attention to the health of the business.  Transparent law firm owners and managing partners will share the financial health of the law firm, develop and collaborate around defined KPIs, solicit feedback and involve staff in major decisions, like choosing new software. 

 

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Need some more tips for improving staff morale and performance?  We can help. 

Through a unique partnership between the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar and Jared Correia’s Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, Maine attorneys have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discounted rate. 

To get started, visit Red Cave’s landing page for Maine attorneys, and start running your law practice like a business.