Part two: our secretaries are now time recording as well

Michelle Jamieson, head of legal services at Higgs, talks implementation and benefits of secretarial time recording – in the second of a two-part article about the firm’s innovative approach to better performance visibility.

In the previous article Glyn Morris, partner at Higgs, set out the compelling case for time capture by secretaries (for ease, we’ll use this generic term to refer to personal assistants, secretaries, administrative support and legal support) from a management perspective. The three key benefits were: true cost capture, productivity and efficiency, and visibility and recognition

On my list, the ability to manage and allocate resource effectively features very highly in addition to the above, given the swift transition to a hybrid-working model within the business.

Having managed legal support teams for a long time, I always found it difficult to assess the true capacity levels within a team – and up until now I had limited insight as to how long tasks were taking to complete and how work was being prioritised. The pandemic made this even more tricky since for the first time our secretaries were working from home for an extended period.

After a few attempts to find solutions in other firms, the opportunity to collaborate within Higgs LLP to solve this dilemma arose – and we chose our firm’s time-recording system to do the job.

How did we do it?

Within our time-recording system, we configured codes to allow for capture of:

• The nature of the task being performed, such as filing, archiving or typing
• The amount of time spent engaged with a task
• Identity of the lawyer and department for which a task is being performed

We communicated openly for a long time about the reasons for the new approach, both in team meetings and on an individual basis, answering questions and managing the change.

We formed an early adopters’ group who went live with the system before everyone else and we learnt a lot from them about how and when to offer training and what materials were useful to provide.

The look and feel of the system were familiar to the teams – and although intense training was not required, we did offer two training sessions per user – the first on how to use the system, with a follow up a fortnight later focused on how to get the most out of the functionality of the system.  The second session was incredibly useful to the project team since people shared ideas on what had worked well for them. We also managed expectations within the group – telling them it was alright to hate it for the first 24 hours, and reassuring them that we wouldn’t be reviewing any data until the change was embedded. We also used a Microsoft Teams group, making it quick and easy for users to ask any questions and share experiences.

The response

Our teams have responded brilliantly.  Understandably, some were initially apprehensive about the proposals, but as soon as their contribution was visible, confidence increased.  There is an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction among our people, as full visibility over work done in weekly measures makes them feel good about the part they play, especially when lawyers don’t always put some of their work through digital dictation. We believe as a business that empowering people and encouraging them to try new things brings out the best in everyone. I have not heard one piece of negative feedback about this process. If our secretaries can see they are progressing and achieving meaningful output, their work becomes more rewarding.