How leaders can foster a culture that helps to retain and attract great employees
Effective business habits and a positive culture are critical to success for a law firm, says Amy Bruce, marketing manager at Osprey Approach. Technology plays a critical role here.
Law firms can thrive or die on their culture evidenced by a recent survey that stated 73% of legal workers wouldn’t accept a job with a firm known to have a “toxic” work culture. A toxic culture can affect existing staff too – 55% said they had previously left a job due to a bad workplace culture and 50% said bad workplace culture had impacted their productivity.
The culture of a firm impacts long-term success because it directly affects the ability to attract and retain talent and new clients; the experience of clients; the ability to stay compliant; and a firm’s reputation and profitability.
It’s not just about what you deliver as a law firm, but how you deliver it. The success of your culture relies on the connection and relationship of processes, people, and technology, which is why many leaders have begun to consider the effectiveness of their legal operations to enhance the service they deliver.
Building the right culture in a law firm
A firm’s culture is how you do what you do in the workplace. It’s a combination of systems, mindsets, behaviours, and values that create experiences for employees and clients.
A thriving culture promotes teamwork, togetherness, and connectivity because everyone is working towards a common goal. With the right values, systems, and behaviours in place, workplace culture can flourish, but the same can be said in reverse. If the behaviours of employees don’t reflect the firm’s values, the culture can quickly collapse and have negative effects on performance.
A key element of success is leading by example. Workplace culture isn’t just about words – it’s formed in people’s actions and daily habits.
The effects of daily habits and behaviours
Your teams’ daily habits define your firm’s personality and how you’re perceived by clients, prospects, and employees. Your employees’ habits and behaviours need to reflect the goals and values of the firm for an effective culture to thrive. If your employees’ goal is simply to increase billable time to earn more money, their actions will reflect that without consideration for client satisfaction or innovation.
Leaders need to decide what is important to them so the goals can be communicated to the team. For a modern law firm to succeed in the long term, they need to – think digital-first, be client-focused, improve continuously, and empower employees.
Your subsequent habits, processes, and systems then need to reflect those values to ensure you deliver on what you promise. This helps to shape the business decisions you make, the people you hire, and the technology you implement to help build a successful culture and operation within your firm.
The role of technology in facilitating effective habits
According to Briefing’s 2022 Frontiers report, firms are threatened by peers with more tech-driven operational models, which is putting pressure on practices to advance their digital strategies to stay competitive. Using tech enables lawyers to do what they’re hired to do – lawyering, not endless unbillable admin.
But it isn’t the decision to embrace tech that causes challenges within firms, it’s the implementation, adoption, and utilisation. Firms – and their clients – will never reap the rewards of any tech investment if no one is using it. But the adoption of tech is influenced by culture because it determines where it’s encouraged, prioritised, or seen as a benefit.
The role people play in technology
When new processes and systems are implemented, you may be asking some of your team to change decade-old habits, so be sensitive to how change is introduced. Employees need to feel empowered by tech, not scared by it, which is why a people-centric approach to tech is key to success.
To optimise operations successfully the gap between technology and legal processes needs to be bridged. This means assigning the right person/people at the firm to take responsibility for implementing and adopting legal technology to improve operations.
A people-first approach to tech puts humans at the heart of processes to ensure employees and clients benefit and are empowered by the digital tools. When people feel connected and included this can be felt in a company’s culture.
Build better habits for your firm’s culture to thrive
To build a thriving culture within your law firm – to help attract and retain clients and employees – you need to start by asking yourself what is important to you. Determine what your values and associated mindsets are. When you know what’s important you can begin to implement daily habits and processes, utilising technology, which align and help you to reach your goals and follow your values.
For more information on bridging the gap between legal processes, people, and technology register for Osprey’s Build Better Habits four-part webinar series. Joined by expert guests, each episode focuses on the core challenges faced by SME law firms including, client expectations, innovation, empowering employees, and utilising technology.
