September 2020 - Back Office Betties

Betties Book Brief | The First 90 Days

September 29, 2020

Most failures can be traced back to the first 90 days of a new job or changed position. Crazy, right? We were really curious about this, so for this month’s book brief, we read The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter by Michael Watkins.

At Back Office Betties, we really care about our team and want our employees to have the success we know they are capable of when we hire them. While this book was written for all levels of management, up to the CEO, much of it can also be applied to new entry-level employees.

Watkins explains throughout this book that it’s imperative to manage your transition well in any career change to ensure your success. Okay, so how can we help our new hires and promoted employees to manage their transition?

Tips to Starting Off on the Right Foot

The following tips are for employees making a transition. How can you help your new hires to understand that their success relies on the first 90 days?

Take a mental break before starting a new position. The danger of sticking to what you know is failure. Employees need to do a mind shift to prepare for their new role. This is especially true for anyone who believes they were promoted due to their stellar skills. For example, Julia was amazing at marketing and was promoted to project manager for a new product launch. She immediately failed because she couldn’t let go of micromanaging projects, causing her to alienate her team. The strengths that made her great at marketing were liabilities in a management role.
Assess the situation and make a plan from there. Your approach will need to be different in a startup versus an established business. Consider your role, as well. Moving from marketing to sales or production will need a new plan.
Secure early wins. Build a productive relationship with your new boss and learn what their expectations are.
Create coalitions. Figure out who is most important to your success and nurture those relationships.

Recruiting is Like Romance, Employment is Like Marriage

Your team has built their relationships and know each other inside and out. Hiring management from outside the organization can oftentimes seem like an affair and the organization may reject the new hire. Reasons most often cited for rejection:

The person is not familiar with the informal networks of information and communication
They’re not familiar with the corporate culture
They are unknown and lack credibility
There is a long tradition of refusing to hire outsiders, making it difficult for the organization to accept this one

It’s important for new leaders to build relationships with their peers, top to bottom.

Embrace the Need to Learn

New hires, especially managers, need to spend time learning as much as they can about the history of their new company. This is especially important to keep in mind before coming in with guns blazing to fire up change.

Learn why team member performance is poor or why they’re good at what they do. Do they have issues residing in strategy, structure, culture, or the individual?
Learn what the vision and strategy are. Do the team members know this information?
Learn about your people – understand who is capable and who is not, who is trustworthy, who has influence, who takes ownership in their work.
Begin to document a list of challenges and opportunities, as well as any barriers. Do you have the resources to overcome any barriers?
Meet with every direct report and ask them 5 questions.
Find out from the current team what they would like to know about the new leader. Ask what they would like the new leader to know about them and the business. Facilitate a group meeting to discuss with all.

Other Takeaways From The First 90 Days

There are 5 common situations a leader might be moving into: STARS. Start-up, Turnaround, Accelerated Growth, Realignment, & Sustaining Success. It’s important to understand which you are entering to have a solid plan of attack.
It’s okay to have different styles as long as everyone’s work is done as promised and on time. It is also okay to push back on the boss. For example, Michael was pressured by his boss at 3 weeks to make a final decision on a major purchase. However, he had told her that he needed 30 days to evaluate it. Michael pushed back and held firm to the 30-day schedule by acknowledging that their styles are different, but that he should not be judged on how he gets his job done. He should only be judged on the fact he is doing his job and doing it well.
Clarify communication styles. What does your direct report want from you? Email, phone calls, facetime? How do you best communicate? Have the conversation so that there is a good understanding between you.
Talk about future needs. Once you hit your current goal, what happens beyond that? What do you need from your team once you hit that goal?

Ultimately, The First 90 Days has given us some great insight into how to better prepare our team members for success. Have you read this book? What were your takeaways? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

How to Spoil Your Law Firm’s Clients By Offering the Best Customer Service

September 23, 2020

Your law firm’s clients are your livelihood. They’re the reason your law firm exists, right? For that reason, you need to do everything in your power to offer the best customer service of any law firms around so that you can keep them!

Set The Bar For Higher Expectations

Once you get a taste of the good life, there’s no going back. Stay at the Ritz Carlton for a week and it’s going to be hard to swallow staying at a Motel 6 ever again. You’ve seen what you can have and now you don’t want anything less. This is true of your clients and their experience with your law firm. If you offer them the best of the best, why would they ever go back to the skeezy lawyer their cousin’s best friend’s sister knows?

Spoil your clients to set the expectation high and keep them coming back for more!

Ways to Spoil Your Clients

The word “spoil” shouldn’t scare you off; you don’t need to be spending thousands on every client. Instead, focus on giving your clients an experience that they can’t get at other law firms to show them that they are valued at your firm.

For those who have started seeing clients in the office again, spruce up your waiting area. Create a space that feels welcoming, calming, and genuinely nice to be in when your clients may be feeling anxious or upset. We all know that visiting with your lawyer isn’t necessarily a fun thing to do, so stand apart by making it a little more comfortable. You can start with comfy seating. Then add some extras like flowers, prepackaged snacks, water bottles, hand sanitizer, and nice music. These are just a few options, but do whatever feels right to your law firm and your client base.

Remember the little things. Is your client’s birthday coming up? The anniversary of winning their case? Send them a card or small gift to let them know you are thinking about them. Trust us, they won’t forget it! Small acts of kindness like this go a long way for referrals and repeat business because you show that you really care.

Keep them updated. Your clients are anxious. You’ve been through this a million times and know every step of your proceedings like the back of your hand. Your client is likely going through this for the first time and may be unsure what to expect. Help ease their nerves by keeping them up to date on what’s happening in their case and what they can expect in the future. Pro tip: You don’t have to personally call them to do this. Have your receptionist give them a quick ring to keep them in the loop. Psssttt… Back Office Betties can do this for you too.

Send a thoughtful gift at the close of their case. Did they get the settlement they hoped for? Were you able to finalize their estate plan? Did the custody battle come to a close? Whether you won or lost, send your client a gift and just change up your message to congratulate or console them. Gifting sets you apart from the rest and keeps you top of mind, as well as making you likable. We all know by now that people do business with those they know and like.

Have The Best Law Firm Customer Service Around

The first step to great customer service is hiring a face for your law firm that is friendly and helpful. That’s right, we are talking about your receptionist! Spoil your clients with great customer service, starting with their very first communication with your firm and every call thereafter. If you’re not ready to staff a full-time receptionist, Back Office Betties offers up relentlessly friendly service with teams of skilled legal virtual receptionists.

Many law firms are bad at communicating with their clients. In fact, the number one bar complaint is poor communication. Step up your law firm’s customer service by ensuring that your communication is top-notch. This is a big step to setting yourself apart and ensuring that your client feels so spoiled that they won’t want to do business with anyone else!

Now, a friendly receptionist and communication don’t mean much if your client meets with you and you’re distracted or less than friendly. Be sure that when you are meeting with your client they feel that they have your full attention and that you are on their side. Smile when you’re talking (when appropriate, of course), be knowledgeable about their case, acknowledge their concerns, and apologize if/when you make a mistake. All of these things lead to your client knowing/liking/trusting you which leads to repeat business and referrals.

Hiring Your Dream Law Firm Employees

September 16, 2020

Hiring your dream law firm employees doesn’t have to be as hard as you make it. At Betties, we are hiring experts to ensure that our receptionist team meets and exceeds the standards of legal receptionists and answering services. We take pride in finding highly-skilled legal virtual receptionists so that you can count on incredible service without the headache of hiring. Let us guide you through exactly how to find your dream team!

Determine the Role They Will Play

What do you need help with in your law firm? Do you already have a position created or do you need to come up with a title and responsibilities for this new team member?

If the position already exists, why are you having trouble filling it? You may need to reevaluate the responsibilities, prerequisites, and compensation. Take as much feedback as you can from past employees in that role and tweak the position to be more enticing to your dream employee.

When creating a position from scratch, it’s important to research what someone in their role actually does. You might have an idea of what you need, but that might require more than one person joining your team. You don’t want to push away potential dream candidates by overwhelming them with an insane responsibility list that should actually be split into two positions.

For example, Marketing and IT are two completely different roles with different skillsets. Both roles require extensive knowledge and years of skill to be done properly. Just because their skillsets might overlap a little bit does not mean you can use one person to fill both positions. At least, not without ample compensation, that is.

What Personality Type Is Your Dream Law Firm Employee?

Have you ever considered how your personality type affects how you do your job? Different personalities excel in different areas, so it makes sense that your personality type affects your job. For example, if you are an introvert, it could get exhausting to talk to people all day long for your job. If you’re someone who is a visionary with a passion for coming up with big ideas, you might hate to sit down and do simple, repetitive tasks all day.

After you know what duties and responsibilities you are looking for someone to cover, it’s time to think about what type of personality that job is good for. Here at Back Office Betties, we utilize Culture Index to help us determine this. This service analyzes data on work-related personality traits to help determine exactly what traits fit for your current positions within the company, as well as data taken from questionnaires given to applicants. When you compare the traits your applicant possesses to the traits you’re looking for for a specific position, you can better predict an applicant’s success in the role.

To utilize a service like this, you simply include a questionnaire in the application process. There are no right or wrong answers and there’s no way to fail – the data simply provides you with the ability to predict how this person would fit in the role.

Why Should They Work For You?

So you know who your dream employee is and what you want them to do for you, but why should they work for you? What makes you more appealing than the other guys who also want to hire this same person?

It starts with the ad you place for the position you’re looking to hire. Make sure that your listing is concise, friendly, and appealing to someone who may be casually looking for a job. Your dream employee is likely not desperate for a job – you might have to really woo them!

Is the listing well written? Do you give an accurate description of the responsibilities of the role you’re trying to fill? Is the list of responsibilities overwhelming or does it fall within the parameters of the same role in other companies? Does the compensation fall in line with competitive rates for similar roles?

Once they’ve applied, you want to ensure that your hiring process is streamlined and not all over the place. Your dream employee wants to know that you have your stuff together. Provide your applicants with a clear timeline of what to expect during the interview and hiring process. This shows them that you are just as serious about this job as they are (and your dream employee will be serious!). Pro tip: Don’t drag interviews out for 6 months unless that timeline was laid out in the first step of the hiring process.

After you’ve proven that your organization has itself together, your dream employee will need to be enticed by the position itself, the work environment, and the culture of your workplace. Are you positioning your law firm to best attract the quality of people you hope to hire?

What Benefits Do You Bring To The Table?

If your culture fits, the pay and position are right, and your hiring process is aligned, why are you still struggling to hire your dream law firm employees? Well, the answer might be that your benefits don’t compare to the competition.

Benefits packages are a great way to make happier employees and entice applicants to apply to work at your law firm. Do your benefits make life easier for your employees? Do they make your team happy? Are they useful?

When it comes to benefits and perks, get creative. Be sure to offer the standards, of course. Health insurance is usually expected, as well as paid time off. But benefits don’t have to all be pricey or over the top.

Think about fun things that others aren’t offering. If your team works in an office, add some free snacks and coffee to the mix. Create fun traditions that make the office environment enjoyable, such as special games you play during meetings or host monthly staff lunches. Maybe your team has a midday dance break where they can let loose, or perhaps your working hours are flexible and you don’t actually track anyone’s time in the office.

There’s no limit to the perks you can offer in your law firm. And the more perks you offer (that people actually care about), the more enticing it is for someone to work for you over the law firm without the fun perks.

Retaining Your Dream Law Firm Employees

Alright, you’ve found and hired your dream law firm employee – how do you make sure they stay? Just because they’ve accepted your offer doesn’t mean your new employee is going to work out. It’s important to continue to woo them even during training and employment. And above all else, deliver on everything you’ve promised them!

First, take a look at their initial impression after starting with you. Is your law firm’s onboarding and training process thorough? Is it fun and engaging? Does it flow easily, in a way that doesn’t overwhelm? Do you provide enough time to go through all of the material? Setting your new hire up for success right off the bat is one of the best ways to impress them.

Finally, your culture: Does yours match what you promised? A disappointed new hire isn’t going to stick around for long. Don’t overpromise what your company has to offer and how things operate if you can’t deliver. This is true for even the most minute things – if you mentioned it in the hiring process, make sure it’s true!

Hopefully this helps you to discover who your dream employee is, as well as hire and retain them. We’d love to hear if any of these tips have helped you!

If you’re in the market for a receptionist and the hiring process is overwhelming to you, request a call with our Growth Solutions Strategist. They can help you determine exactly what you’re looking for in a receptionist and the best solution for your law firm.

Incentives That Will Improve Law Firm Employee Happiness & Loyalty

September 9, 2020

Employee happiness is an often overlooked stat in business. I understand how it happens; you’ve got a lot going on and the last thing on your mind is worrying about the mental health of those working in your office. It can be easy to ignore… until your employees up and quit, that is.

Employee happiness is directly linked to productivity, creativity, and positive attitude. It is also linked to the longevity of employment and increases loyalty to your company.

So, how can you make your employees happier? Spoiler: You don’t need to give everyone a raise. Implementing creative and useful benefits and incentives is enough to help your staff feel valued. Keep in mind that the most beneficial incentives are going to be those that encourage work-life balance and negate burnout.

Elaborate Benefits Other Companies Are Offering

Vault curated a list of benefits other law firms offer to members of their law firms and I want to share a few of my favorites.

Daycare exclusively for children of firm employees that operates on the same schedule as the law firm
Quarterly massage budget
All expenses paid annual one-week trip to Hawaii
Global soccer tournament with paid travel to different fun locations to play
On-site gym with a personal trainer available for once-weekly sessions

Now, those benefits are all dreamy but most of us aren’t quite in a place in business to offer such elaborate perks just yet. What can we do on a tighter budget?

Benefits That Won’t Break The Bank

There are plenty of ways to show your appreciation for your employees without emptying your pockets. Here are a few that really stuck with me as impactful.

A cereal bar – this one is quirky, fun, and filling
Breast milk delivery program for traveling moms
Extended parental leave for all parents, including adoptive & surrogate
Flexible work hours – Netflix doesn’t track vacation time or working hours, they track the actual work completed
More vacation time

These are all pretty simple examples but they greatly improve the balance between work and family, which is shown to improve the quality of work produced. It’s important to note, too, that if you notice a benefit is not being utilized, you can switch it up! There’s no need to waste money if the benefit isn’t one that your team finds valuable. Survey your employees about what they would rather see and work to implement those instead.

How Back Office Betties Got Creative With Benefits

You don’t have to stick to the same benefits that everyone else is offering. In fact, I highly recommend that you don’t do that! Sure, there may be some things that would be viewed as standard. But offering additional unique ( & useful) benefits helps to make you stand out as an employer and further encourages employee happiness and loyalty in your team. At Back Office Betties, we have implemented some perks and incentives that our team loves and utilizes.

Dream Program – Every employee fills out a wishlist of their dreams and we grant wishes based on performance, thus connecting personal goals to their day-to-day work
Working From Home – Every Bettie works in the comfort of their home. We provide their equipment and encourage participation in our Betties community through chat and virtual events so that each employee gets the best of both (working) worlds!
Home Buyers Program – Two Betties per year qualify for assistance with a down payment on a new home
Wellness Days – Twice per year, Betties are offered paid time off to get pampered on Back Office Betties’ dime
Annual Growth Budget – Each Bettie is given a budget to spend on learning and growth, however they see fit
2 + 3 = 5 Year Anniversary Program – Upon their fifth Bettie-versary, employees get 2 weeks consecutive paid time off + $3000 to take a vacation and treat themselves for their loyalty and hard work

These are just a few examples of ways to boost your employees’ happiness, but don’t let these suggestions limit you! Benefits aren’t the only way to boost morale. I recommend asking your team what would make them happier, and follow up with action based on their suggestions. Utilize an employee happiness survey like OfficeVibe and also track productivity, then see how the two compare!