Creating a Welcoming Environment for All
Law firms know they need to recruit new blood and they need to keep those people around to provide new ideas and renewed energy in the firm - especially as the baby boom generation cuts back on its work hours and even retires. There are not even enough younger lawyers to match that attrition rate and those that are available won't accept the old culture and old work patterns.
It is a new workplace and there are new demands that must be met to ensure the perpetuity of the firm. The new generation of lawyers has an internal commitment to, and values that, support having a life and a career. Law firms must be proactive and respond to this global trend in order to retain their valued resources, avoid wasting their training dollars, and attract qualified lawyers. It is well-established that the cost of replacing lawyers outstrips the measures that must be taken to retain them.
A recent international survey found that young associates are refusing to commit to excessive annual billable hours and rejecting the path to equity partnerships. Twenty percent rejected the trade-offs for an ownership share. In fact, salary is no longer a motivator - it came 10th out of 17 factors. The top priorities were
- more time away from the office,
- opportunities for professional development
- career advancement
- job security.
In particular, research confirms that women lawyers leave law or private law firms because they:
- lack mentors,
- feel excluded from informal networks within firms,
- see that work and training opportunities are not equitably distributed, and
- find it difficult to balance work and personal life.
The ongoing US study: After the JD, is following the career paths of 5000 lawyers called in 2000. So far, they have learned that women record lower levels of satisfaction relating to their job setting, social interaction, and the "power track". They report more discriminatory treatment than do men.
A US Families and Work Institute report shows workers ages 18 to 37 are more likely to view family as an equal or higher priority than work. And older workers are finding that they have new family responsibilities: to care for their elders.
The new Canadian workforce is older, ethnically diverse and includes proportionately more women, working mothers, dual-income families, and fathers with responsibility for dependent care, workers with dependent parents, and workers in sandwich generation with responsibilities toward parents and children.
Younger lawyers are leaving firms within 2 -3 years. They feel they receive no assistance from the firm to climb the ladder of success; there is no formal advancement program within the firm; and there is no support for their professional development. They may also feel that the existing legal culture excludes them or their personal vision of success. They fear they must abandon their own values to succeed and prefer to find work in alignment with their values.
Experience in North America has proven that, when asked, employees can identify the factors that will be most helpful to them. And sometimes employers are surprised to learn that such solutions not only contribute to better productivity and talent-retention, but also improve the employer's image in the community and among its clientele.
For example, employees have asked for:
- Time to volunteer with community groups and charities
- Formal support for company teams in community activities
- Formal company teams to work on charitable activities
- Company support for employee-favoured charitable organizations
Why would employees seek this? Because these activities add meaning and purpose to their lives - thus improving their spiritual quality of life. Good corporate citizenship and philanthropy are important to most people.
Generations X and Y
Gen Xers are not slackers but they reject workaholism. They saw workaholism produce divorce, fatigue, illness, substance abuse and one-track lives. They actually attach great importance to accountability. Generation Y and Generation X attach great importance to family responsiblities and family life.
What Needs to Be Done
To create the necessary change in the firm culture, the law firm partnership needs to articulate a vision for a healthy and resilient staff, a productive and successful firm, and satisfied clients. Managers need to model healthy habits and "balance behaviours" not merely manage them for others. Staff needs to take responsibility for their own choices.
Let me identify for partners and managers some specific issues they must address for the benefit of the firm:
- Adjustments to programs and policies to eliminate overt or covert discrimination and harassment of women and others
- Adopting practice expectations that address quality of life concerns for all lawyers, both women and men
- Developing and maintaining internal training and mentoring programs
- Designing and accommodating work structures that allow for alternate work arrangements, reduced hours, and flexible work schedules
- Strategies for respecting generational differences
- Managing, motivating and maintaining culturally and racially diverse professionals
1. Define the firm's core values
Values such as teamwork, diversity, work/life balance, accountability,
respect, balance, integrity, teamwork, openness, customer focus, innovation, speed, and learning.
The soon-to-retire Baby Boomers bring the bottom-line mentality to their work as professionals. Shareholder value is their idol and purpose. Later generations are more likely to cling to their original motivation to practice law: to do noble work, to help others, to give back to society, to serve a cause.
Younger lawyers also want their work to be in alignment with their personal values. They need to see a clear articulation of the firm's values. They want to see those values actually implemented in the day to day practice that defines the firm's culture.
Values are one of seven attributes of organizational design and behavior that explain the difference between success and failure. Values are the set of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that describe "the way we do things around here." If corporate values and the resultant culture do not align with the mission and strategy, individuals experience cognitive dissonance and the firm eventually collapses. Values are a tool to create value; applied/experienced values are a tool to create longevity.
2. Ensure equitable distribution of work and opportunity
Women especially complain that work is not distributed equitably but according to personal alliances and favoritism. They believe they are denied opportunities to learn, excel, advance because they are not given the work that will be noticed or generate billable hours. Lawyers from minority racial and ethnic groups also express these concerns.
Lawyers want more control over their worklife - more autonomy and independence in determining how to carry out their work. Getting the work done and keeping clients happy should be the goal - not putting in face time or being at one's desk for interminable hours. Lawyers want to be awarded or acknowledged for time spent on practice management and client development.
Workloads must be reasonable, goals attainable, resources adequate, and timelines realistic. Professional and other skills training must be provided. Offer development and advancement opportunities. Provide opportunities for young lawyers to enhance their communication skills and build their resiliency and leadership abilities.
Quick tips: Provide mentors. Provide orientation to the firm personnel and its procedures. Provide acculturation to the firm practices.
3. Provide a healthy workplace with a welcoming culture
The culture must support fairness and just treatment and recognize work/life balance and family-centric values.
Firm leaders and managers must model balanced behaviours. The criteria for hiring and career advancement require a demonstrated commitment to work-life balance and well-being.
Steps taken to facilitate the participation of lawyers who face discrimination based on physical abilities, sex, sexual orientation, and race and other diversity factors also serve to create a more acceptable environment for all.
- Prevent discrimination and harassment
Experience in British Columbia and Canada shows that women still suffer discrimination and sexual harassment, whether overt or covert. The law firm must become a reflection of the outside world - including all races and ethnic groups, sexual orientations, the disabled and others.
- Acknowledge generational differences
Think about it: there are three generations working in your firm and a fourth just entering. There are bound to be communication gaps and differences in outlook and values.
Recognize that the outlook of Baby Boomers was shaped by their circumstances and the newer generations came up in different circumstances with more concern for other dimensions of their lives. Professional recognition and monetary compensation don't have the same meaning to all as rewards or incentives.
An ABA survey in 2000 of the Young Lawyers Division showed 65 percent would consider switching jobs within the next two years. The reasons included the inability to contribute to social good through the practice of law; too much time spent doing administrative work instead of practicing; limited advancement potential; the desire for more family time; and the feeling that they have no control over their lives.
Phyllis Weiss Haserot, a consultant in inter-generational issues at Professional Development Counsel suggests these efforts to manage younger lawyers:
- Make sure regular associates get the same opportunities and attention as summer associates.
- Focus also on "real life/quality of life" and what life will be like as a regular associate living in that city/region (economic, social, cultural factors) - Give briefings.
- Do mid-point surveys/interviews and exit interview to enable adjustments, show caring. Involve attorneys as well as professional development staff.
- Recognize that what the young people want from their lives will make the firm a stronger, more successful institution and is worth the investment.
For differences between Generations X and Y, see Haserot's chart.
4. Develop and implement a work-life strategy and flexible work schedules
It is imperative that firms facilitate opportunities for lawyers to harmonize their personal and family lives with their work commitments and ambitions. Permanent balance is an oxymoron, but an equilibrium can be built that permits all individual obligations to be met.
Individuals define work-life and well-being for themselves; solutions must be customized; and no solutions are prescriptive. Making changes without first surveying employees is a mistake.
A 2004 UK survey of 250 management-level employees showed that 3 out of 4 would sacrifice money for a better work-life balance and 84% would move to a new job that provided a flexible work week for the same money.
Geraint Evans, of the Woodhurst management consultancy, said: "Offering your staff more flexibility in how they work, can be as effective a retention strategy as throwing money at the problem."
See my article on flexible work.
See my article on balance and quality of life.
Read a success story at Alston & Bird discovers the laws of low turnover
