Using automation to solve the retention problem

A law firm is only as good as its team, and for an SME firm with tight resources, high volume and often stressful cases, workers may feel expected to overexert themselves in the name of productivity,

As the world becomes more advanced with technology, we could assume that the problem of intense workloads is somewhat relieved. However, over the past year, we have seen a great strain on the retention of workers within a legal firm.

Why is the legal workforce becoming a revolving door for starters and leavers and what can be done for firms who wish to retain their staff as well as keep them happy in the long run?

Although many factors such as pay or location may come into play for why a new starter begins to look elsewhere having only recently joined a team, a problem area that has been brought up frequently is the difficulty in handling workloads and communication among the team and clients. Perhaps there is room to ask whether more can be done to relieve the workload of the team and make the work process more efficient for everyone involved.

Research has shown that within legal tech and automation, the average spend as a percentage of an SME firm’s revenue is only 8.6%. So, could now be a good time to explore integrating effective automation into your firm? Making this investment can be the difference between an overworked employee and a happy employee. Remember – people and tech are meant to work hand in hand with one another.

Your firm could be fully maximised with innovative automation that significantly reduces the amount of manual work for the team, while cutting the administrative burden on fee earners through digital solutions. Additionally, with the right automation on your side, your firm can make space for flexible and remote working, which is a top aspect that employees at SME firms look for. The five-days-in-the-office week is becoming less popular and a hybrid approach is now taking the lead with two to three days of flexible working to cater for people’s work-life balance.

To accommodate this change in working, various tools within tech and automation are available in the market right now. Thoughtful automation such as secure, cloud-based legal platforms can provide your firm with apps and software that work hand in hand with each other.

A legal platform offers countless benefits across the different departments and can quickly transform your firm into an interconnected utopia. It makes retrieving important information such as matter updates, project status reports, documents, knowledge, and insights about cases as well as pulling billing information and reporting so much easier. When joined up with automated legal software, your firm will be able to use apps centred around reducing the amount of manual work and data handling seen within the firm. Examples of this can be seen in prospect time recording and other areas in which valuable data can be automated and analysed ­­– such as digital onboarding, website lead tracking, web payments linked to your PMS and much more.

Just imagine – at your fingertips could be a world full of smart, data-driven decisions that are made to improve and benefit the firm.

Keeping your clients happy is very important, but ensuring your team feels like they are being invested in and helped at every corner is just as important. Partnering with a Legal IT Software Specialist will guarantee your investments go further and ensure your team is given the best start when getting to grips with these new challenges.