Productivity is essential in a law firm or legal department, where firm deadlines dictate which tasks must be completed and when.
A workplace’s culture contributes heavily to productivity. Supportive workplaces foster engagement and productivity, while unsupportive ones undermine engagement and can cause productivity to lag.
Here’s How to Build a Work Environment That Encourages Your Staff to Work Productively:
1. Establish Values
It’s difficult to focus on completing tedious or repetitive tasks if you don’t understand why they are important. As a result, workplaces that establish their core values tend to have better productivity because their staff understands why their day-to-day tasks are important.
Once you’ve set core values, help staff members understand what it looks like for each of them to put that value into practice. For instance, if one of your law firm’s values is “client communication,” that may mean that your legal support staff prioritizes weekly check-ins with each client.
2. Provide Authority, Not Just Responsibility
When you assign responsibilities to legal support staff, make sure they also have the authority to complete the work. This may mean that administrative staff understands that legal support staff will ask for help, or it may mean that a legal assistant will need access to certain lawyers or documents. Providing authority removes hurdles and allows people to work more effectively.
3. Delegate
Micromanagement can decimate productivity by increasing stress and self-awareness. Instead of completing a task and moving on to the next one, staff fret over whether their current task is done perfectly, knowing they’ll be asked to dismantle it and start over if it’s not.
Instead, set clear goals and expectations; then let go of the project until a portion of it has been completed. Check-in at each step to answer questions, but allow legal support staff to take ownership of their work.
Looking To Boost Your Talent Pool?
At Kent Legal, our recruiters focus on connecting Toronto area law firms and legal departments with some of the best legal support staff available, so that you can focus on building an environment that fosters engagement and productivity. Contact us today to learn more.