
Employee turnover is usually negative, irrespective of the nature of the business. Losing employees requires your law firm to invest significant amounts of time and resources, all of which are non-billable. Further, high turnover rates compromise morale, taint reputation, and disrupt and challenge firm culture. In short, lawyer turnover is harmful to your business and you need to confront it.
Your employees are the lifeblood of your business; therefore, you must retain them to keep your firm humming. The hardworking attorneys, clever paralegals, and passionate administrative staff are important pillars of your company, and losing a few of them means, you lose knowledge, time, and productivity. The best way to reduce employee turnover is by offering more value to your employees. Sometimes that means offering a high salary. However, there are many other important components to ensuring your employees feel valued.
In this article, we will discuss the strategies law firms can employ to curb lawyer turnover and ensure that more lawyers are satisfied, challenged, and committed to their current firm.
Provide Flexible Work Arrangements
Most workers nowadays consider work-life balance and flexibility to be the most important factors in considering job offers. For law firms, it will be a great initiative to embrace this demand for flexibility as it cannot only help attract top talent but also provide several performance benefits. Forcing employees to come into the office today for a nine-to-five when they have technology readily available that allows them to work anywhere and anytime is not going to help your family law firm.
If you are considering offering flexible arrangements that include off-site work, determine your firm’s current condition first. It includes surveying workers’ preferences, analysing your current practices, and the tools you use such as family practice management software. If you are well prepared and understand how flexibility will affect your employees and their performance, you can provide flexible working arrangements.
Support Your Team
Are you giving your employees what they need to perform at their best? A detailed job description, training, and proper tools are some of the basic things that you need to provide your team. Ask your attorneys, paralegals, and administrative staff about their needs and meet those needs. For instance, your lawyers may need family law software to perform better. Look for customisable law firm software like Lawsyst that ensures flexibility and scalability. If you cannot meet your staff’s needs, at least inform them why those resources are not available at this very moment. This will make your employees feel supported and valued. If you want your lawyers and other staff to stay for years, support them.
Create a Positive Culture
Creating a positive culture of engagement and sharing in law firms is more important than ever when promoting job satisfaction. A workplace culture where everyone feels valued, welcomed, and respected can encourage more employee engagement and boost retention. To create a positive work culture, define your company values, establish clear guidelines, and clearly define expectations and job descriptions for all employees.