Finding employees who have high levels of engagement and workplace satisfaction in your law firm is a valuable resource. The good news is that you don’t need to spend so much on human-resources just to find these rare gems. Instead, you can enhance employees’ engagement by developing an engaging workplace where workers feel valued.
Employee engagement provides your law firm with a competitive advantage because having a highly engaged workforce means having higher employee retention, better customer loyalty, and improved business performance.
Richard James, a law firm advisor and an expert in building thriving law firms shares with you the 3Rs of Employee Engagement: the rationale for developing work engagement, routes to arrive at an engaged team, and results of having worker engagement. Read on to learn about the drivers behind high employee engagement levels as well as disengagement, guidelines to increase employee commitment.
A high level of engagement within your business tells you that your staff is motivated to reach your vision and is emotionally invested in the work you do. If employees feel respected by you, they see themselves as valued members of the company.
Employee empowerment strategies are reflected in the management of an observant and caring business owner. This enables business managers to increase their work output, satisfy their clients better, and sustain their staff’s competency.
Rationale: Why Should Employees be Engaged in Work?
Maintaining employee satisfaction in a company is one of the key engagement strategies employed by well-trained executives. Regardless of the size of your law firm, workplace engagement can impact your legal firm’s productivity and reputation.
There are three main reasons as to why you should consider employing strategies to have an engaging staff:
- Engaged workers do their jobs more efficiently. When you engage workers, they feel more connected to each other, more involved, and more enthusiastic. This creates a positive atmosphere in the office.
- Engaged members communicate better. When a company engages employees, they feel supported and valued, they are open to share information with the team and display higher social cohesion. This becomes easier for supervisors or head attorneys to cascade instructions.
- Engaged employees lead to better profitability. When your employees are engaged, they don’t just show up for work, they add value to your business. They want to contribute to your success so they use their time efficiently and take customer service seriously.
Routes: How is Employee Engagement Developed?
Now that you’re convinced of the merits of having your team engaged at work, the next step is to determine the different pathways to help increase employee engagement.
When determining if your employee is engaged, it’s vital they answer YES to these two questions: Do they truly enjoy their work? Do they feel their pay is fair according to the market? If the answer is NO to either of these, you’ll never develop an engaged employee.
If you believe that your staff is unhappy, or if you’re unsure what motivates them and makes them feel engaged, seek advice from a business consultant or law firm expert to help you get on the right track.
There are four routes or ways to build engagement of employees: by knowing, equipping, encouraging, and recognizing their needs and abilities.
- Knowing. Spend time getting to know each of your workers: their families, personal goals, hobbies, and skills. This can help you find a way to develop a good rapport or connection with them.
- Equipping. As an attorney managing your solo law practice you must provide your team with the relevant tools and training they need to meet what you require from them. Employees who undergo training feel more confident to do their jobs and face complaints from clients. Proper training helps them troubleshoot issues on their own and which saves you a great amount of time.
- Encouraging. An engaged employee knows how the company is doing and how their actions can contribute to the success and failure of the business. But instead of installing fear, great business leaders encourage their members to overcome struggles and work for the best interests of the company. Use your authority to provide support to those going through a difficult work situation. Encourage teamwork by letting them share their ideas within the group.
- Recognizing. A top talent who puts in his time, commitment, and love for his work deserves to receive employee recognition. Recognizing employee performance shows the organization that you value individual contribution to the company. This may even encourage some of them to hone their other skills and talents so as to seek the award given to a peer. Give employees some leeway to branch out to other tasks other than what they normally do. Part of this route is the act of listening to employee feedback about how you run things and what may need improvement.
When you ensure that employees go through these four routes, you are essentially creating a work environment where they are free to grow and explore and are free from fear. These routes also ensure that staff engagement does not decrease.
Results: What Happens to Firms with Satisfied Workers?
What happens when you seek to inspire, motivate, and hone your team members? How does your firm benefit from a positive workplace environment?
When you engage your employees, you are able to develop multiple specializations. Every employee has his skills developed at optimal condition. The bottom line is that every employee has an ‘expertise’ and is able to work well with any other member of the team with another ‘expertise’.
Another benefit is that you have team members who not just know what to do but also want to do it and know how to do the work properly. Engaged employees go beyond what their job descriptions say and show innovation in their job assignments, or even day-to-day communications.
In contrast, disengaged employees feel disconnected from the work that they do and are more likely to feel burnout. Disengagement may also lead to a mediocre job and disputes within your legal company.
If you have just started running your own small law firm business, or if you need getting your team “in sync” or achieving your business goals, learn from our law firm consultant’s years of experience.
Don’t let your employees stick to a clock mentality or remain socially distanced from their peers. Begin focusing on your small law firm today. Consult with Richard James to assess your firm and learn techniques on how to run it better.
Our Consulting Firm offers a series of webcast training on “How You Can Create Superstar Staff Members That Will Set You Free” for FREE! Slots are limited so register now to reserve yours!
