Tips for Improving Associate Satisfaction and Firm Culture

Q. Liz, what can I do to improve my company's culture? A. Here are nine ideas: 1. For jobs that can be performed from home, let employees decide when to work from home and when to commute. You hire adults. They can decide for themselves where to work. 2. Make work hours as flexible as possible. There is no reason for everyone to start at the same time and leave at the same time. This is a holdover from the factory era. 3. Get rid of performance reviews. Employees and managers hate them, HR hates administering them, they are a huge time suck and they rest on the anachronistic notion that "everybody needs formal feedback." The best feedback, as you know, is timely and specific - not an annual or quarterly overview. Pay people based on the market rate for their roles, give feedback when employees want or need it and ditch performance reviews. 4. Evolve past formal dress codes. Funeral homes and a very small number of other businesses can still reasonably require formal attire. Otherwise, it's a pointless expense and hassle. 5. Let employees transfer internally without requiring their manager's permission. Managers don't own their employees. Anyone could leave the company without their manager's say-so, so why make it easier to leave the company than to transfer internally? 6. Let employees keep the frequent flyer miles they earn with their own rear ends in airplane seats (and generally, by traveling for business on their own time). 7. Add a RIF policy to your handbook that says that employees who are terminated without cause will receive severance pay. Everyone deserves that. Remember that the US is the only industrialized country where working people don't have contracts. That lack of basic worker protections hurts employers as much as it hurts employees. When business owners wonder, "Where has employee loyalty gone?" the answer is, "It's off in an abyss somewhere right next to job security." Give employees the security your companies executives enjoy and working people in every other industrialized country take for granted, and you'll get more from them as well - but of course! 8. Make any sort of team-building event or personality assessment (MBTI, DiSC, etc.) optional and take care not to stigmatize people who don't want to participate. Team building events are unpleasant for lots of people for various reasons, and for some they are downright torture. Personality tests and assessments are not for everyone, either. Make the decision to participate or not each employee's choice. Never, ever use personality assessments in the hiring process. 9. It's easy and free to redesign your recruiting process to be faster and friendlier, and it'll help you with your recruiting and retention when you do. Get rid of terse autoresponder emails and the Mad Men era interview script. Reply promptly to the folks you want to hire and the ones you don't. This is an easy way to upgrade your culture. Here's to you and your team!

Culture isn't just a buzzword. It's the lifeblood of any law firm. An environment in which every team member feels valued because they ARE valued should not be a pipe dream. It should be the standard. Consultants, mastermind groups, and conference speakers often advise personal injury law firm owners to emphasize metrics/KPIs that take humanization and individuality out of the practice. They insist that things like the number of cases signed, time on desk, average settlements, etc., rule the day. Some of the better ones will also discuss the importance of client satisfaction (because everything we do should have happy, raving fan clients as an endgame, right?). But what most they forget is that the success in these areas is a secondary, derivative result of the much more critical first area. The secret ingredient to surpassing our goals and having our clients turn into raving fans? Investing in our own people and their happiness. I'm terrible at the x's and o's of business ownership. Our firm's marketing efforts are uncoordinated, spontaneous, and in a state of flux (hence the need for an in-house marketing director!). But our office is at a point of unprecedented success. Why? I'd argue (successfully) that it's due to creating an environment where our team feels (and is) genuinely supported, loved, and appreciated. Creating a culture is not easy. As much as I love everyone on my team, there are days when many of them are justifiably frustrated with my mistakes. These are things that would have been avoidable had I been better at implementing a more dedicated training program, identifying more uniform systems for case handling, or devising a more clear-cut and transparent incentive-based compensation model for non-lawyer performers (any advice on this challenge is appreciated!). Thankfully, these frustrations are typically resolved in no time. Because we do have a great culture. Half of my job each day is making sure my own people are doing ok. Not just here. But overall. I want to hear about their children's successes. I want to know about anything going on where I can help. And the most awesome part of this? My people then do the same for our clients, making the second half of my job (making sure my clients are taken care of) much easier. As law firm owners, by taking care of our people first, we're nurturing a family. A family that fights tooth and nail for each other and for every client. This approach transforms our firms from a place of work to an army of unified warriors in our dedication to client success, ready to go above and beyond. So, let's invest in a culture that lifts everyone. Because when we take care of our people, the results speak for themselves. I would love to hear the thoughts of others.

Listening to my friend Carla McCall, CPA, CGMA, Vice Chair of AICPA discuss Firm Business Model Evolution was truly enlightening. Carla emphasized the importance of adopting a people-first approach within firms. By prioritizing employee engagement and fostering a positive firm culture, organizations can achieve remarkable outcomes: 🔸Increased Revenue: When employees feel valued and supported, they are more motivated and productive. This directly impacts the bottom line. 🔸Reduced Turnover: A people-centric approach leads to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover rates. Retaining skilled staff is crucial for long-term success. 🔸Meaningful Work: By creating an environment where employees find purpose in their roles, firms can unlock their full potential. Meaningful work drives passion and commitment. 🔸Transparency: Carla highlighted the significance of transparency. Open communication fosters trust, encourages collaboration, and ultimately contributes to positive firm evolution. I thoroughly enjoyed Carla’s presentation and believe her insights are invaluable for any organization. 🌟 Carla is not only the Vice Chair of AICPA but also the Managing Partner of AAFCPAs a prominent CPA and consulting firm based in New England. She has been instrumental in driving innovation, diversity, and excellence within her firm, and her commitment to mentoring young professionals and serving nonprofits is commendable. Her leadership exemplifies the positive impact that a people-centric approach can have on organizational success. #peoplefirst #culture

Firms develop a positive culture not through grand gestures but through daily acts and gestures. Celebrate victories, even small ones. Talk to your team. Listen. Learn about them and their interests and passions and concerns. Take time from your busy schedule to be with your team. And stop talking so much. Stop talking about your weekend, and your trip, and whatever else you're doing. Listen more, talk less. The thing about grand gestures is they're not done much and by the time the next big gesture comes along it may be too late to do it, because the subject of the big gesture may have moved on. Culture is about the little things.