The number of virtual tools you can find online is nearly endless.

It’s hard to sift through everything and find the tools that are worth your time and will actually help run your law firm.

Luckily, we have a full toolbox and we’re going to share everything that helps us run Back Office Betties with you!

1. Officevibe

Officevibe is an online tool that enables you to keep track of employee morale through anonymous feedback.

You can create custom surveys with polls and text-based questions or use Officevibe’s pre-made templates. Surveys are sent to employees by email and are answered anonymously. For text-based questions, however, you can give your employees the option to answer anonymously or not.

This tool helps management stay aware of employee morale and the effects it has in the workplace. Allowing your team to speak candidly about problems and experiences makes for better employee retention and relations.

Track responses and engagement rates over time, broken down into 10 key metrics. Officevibe also allows you to schedule 1:1s and provides guidance for managers on responding to feedback and growing within their leadership roles.

Pricing: $4/user/month

2. Snagit

Snagit is a screen capture and recording software.

Snagit is a great tool to create video tutorials and how-tos. You can record your screen and audio or take and edit screenshots. Their editing features include drawing tools, text boxes, arrows, directions, etc. Use their templates to transform your screenshots into step-by-step instructions or manuals.

These features save you time and confusion explaining processes and training new employees. New employees, especially, take in so much information that it’s impossible to remember every detail. Video and image tutorials make it easy for them to go back and review. (And you won’t be interrupted with questions either!)

Pricing: One-time fee of $49.99/user with discounts for more users.

3. Screencastify

Similar to Snagit, Screencastify is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to record your screen and create instructional videos.

You can record your tab, whole screen, or webcam only. A great feature is the ability to embed your webcam anywhere in the recording. (Hello to your talking head in the corner.) Screencastify also has great annotation tools such as mouse spotlighting, a drawing tool, and click highlighting.

The videos are easy to share and save. Recordings auto-save to your Google Drive, and you can export them as MP4, MP3, or even animated GIF! If you want to upload directly to YouTube, that’s an option too.

Pricing: $0 with a 5-minute recording limit or $49/year for unlimited.

4. UberConference

UberConference is an online video conferencing software.

UberConference simplifies video conferencing – no pins, passwords, or downloads required! It’s easy to switch between camera and voice only during the call, and individual callers will be highlighted while speaking. You’ll never have to ask, “Who just said that?” again. Screensharing is quick and easy, and settings can be toggled to allow any caller to share.

After meetings end, UberConference provides you with a detailed summary of what happened and a link to the recorded meeting. The summary will include who was on the call, action items, and voice transcriptions of everything said. You can even search through the transcriptions for keywords.

Pricing: $15/month for up to 100 users.

5. Teramind

Teramind is a computer monitoring software with a multitude of features.

The main purpose of Teramind is to record and collect data from employees’ computers. Teramind also serves as a way to protect private information and put in place restrictions and permissions.

The following are only some of the features that Teramind offers:

• Monitor Recording – Watch employee’s screens live and access the recordings later.
• Administrative Access – Take full control of monitored computers at any time. This feature is fantastic for troubleshooting tech problems with your team.
• Audio Recording – Record audio picked up through the computers’ microphones and listen live or access recordings later.
• Keyboard Monitoring – All keystrokes and copy/paste operations are logged – including passwords. Use this feature to ensure strong passwords are being used and not repeated.
• Email Tracking – Save all email information and set up alerts to notify when mail is sent to non-corporate or suspicious hosts.
• File Transfer Tracking – Track files’ movement through systems and block access to certain folders or locations. This is a first-line defense against data leaks!
• Printed Document Data – Collect information on printed files and print requests. Set alerts for attempted printing of sensitive data.
• Productivity Evaluation – Monitor active vs. idle time and create custom productivity indicators. Analyze how your employees’ time is spent by minute-to-minute activity monitoring.
• Website Monitoring – Create notifications for when entertainment, off-limits, or suspicious websites are accessed.

All of the information tracked and monitored is easy to search through with a variety of metrics.

TLDR? Jump over to Teramind’s webpage detailing Teramind for Legal and Risk Management.

Pricing: $10 – $25/user/month

6. Coassemble

Coassemble is an online platform designed to create training courses for your employees.

Coassemble lets you easily create online courses for anything you need. Split your courses into sections and add quizzes or checkpoints throughout. Embed videos, images, and audio anywhere you want. And don’t stress too much, you can make updates and changes at any time.

There are 40+ templates to choose from when creating each question or presentation page. Coassemble lets you completely customize your courses to your brand with headers, logos, background colors, and more.

It’s easy for your employees to enroll themselves through a direct link, or you can assign them courses through Coassemble. You’ll have access to all the data you need, including reports showing completion rates as well as grades and checkpoint completion.

Pricing: $399/month for unlimited everything.

7. Gusto

Gusto is an all-in-one online HR software. Their platform has you covered with everything you need and more. Gusto makes HR easy!

Some of their primary features are:

• Onboard new employees – Send offer letters and store new hire paperwork. Utilize their e-sign tool and complete the whole process online.
• Employee Benefits – Employees can enroll in benefits themselves and are walked through the process by Gusto.
• Time Tracking – Employees can clock in and clock out right from their Gusto account.
• Run Payroll – Gusto does the math for you.
• Manage PTO – Enter your PTO policies, and employees can submit PTO requests and view their balances themselves.

Pricing: $39/month plus $12/user/month for the Complete Plan.

8. Paperform

Paperform is web platform that allows you to create any forms you need with no technical knowledge required.

Paperform has over 22 unique question types and counting. Your forms can be completely customized to your brand just how you want them. In addition to questions, signature boxes, dropdowns, and more, you can insert pictures, videos, and text anywhere on the page.

Don’t want to start from scratch?

Paperform has tons of form templates for everything you can think of. From Purchase Order Forms to Lead Generation Forms, and Referral Forms to Questionnaire Templates, if you need it, they have it.

Forms can be embedded in your website or shared directly with a unique URL. You can use your form to process payments through Stripe, PayPal Business, Braintree, and Square. Paperform even has its own scheduling software that integrates with their forms.

Pricing: $32.50/month when paid annually for their Pro plan.

9. Design Pickle

Design Pickle is a flat rate custom design and illustration service.

With Design Pickle’s flat-rate plans, you can request unlimited designs with unlimited revisions. All of your requests will land in a queue, and you can rearrange their order at any time. Design Pickle promises a 2-3 day turnaround on all requests. For their Graphic Design Pro plan, they promise same-day delivery.

Create unlimited brand profiles and work with one designated designer who will get to know you and your vision personally. Design Pickle’s clean and simple interface makes it easy to request designs and communicate with your designer.

Pricing: $400/month when paid annually for their basic plans

10. Acuity

Acuity is an online scheduling system that makes managing your calendar easy.

Acuity offers a highly customizable experience and a clean interface. On the back end, you can organize your appointment types by color and set custom automatic reminders by email and/or text for each appointment. On the front end, your scheduling page can be customized with background colors, and pictures and descriptions linked to your appointments.

Clients can schedule themselves through your customized scheduling link, or by a direct link to each appointment. Your calendar will auto-adjust for time zones, and clients can pay for appointments and add-on’s and fill out paperwork during the scheduling process.

Pricing: $23/month when paid annually

11. Trello

Trello is a free online collaborative productivity platform.

Trello lets you create boards with lists and cards. Work by yourself on a private board or invite team members to collaborate.

Create a board for your team and assign tasks to each member by creating their own list. You can set a list to ‘watch’ and get notified when changes occur. Each card is customizable with formatting, to-do lists, and pictures. You can also add deadlines and customized labels.

Simply drag and drop cards from one list to another. As a bonus – their mobile app is excellently adapted making it easy to stay on track on the go.

Pricing: Free!

12. Stripe

Stripe is an API software for customizable payment solutions.

With stripe, you can create easy to navigate payment pages for everything:

• One-time checkouts
• Recurring payments or subscriptions
• Usage-based billing
• & more

Their software is optimized for any device and carries from one to another seamlessly. Customize invoice templates to match your brand with color choices, and all the fields you need for one-time charges or recurring payments.

Pricing: 2.9% + $.30 per charge.

13. Clickfunnels

Clickfunnels is an online sales funnel builder.

Clickfunnels will help you build beautiful pages with an easy drag and drop builder that guide your visitors through your website and prevent them from getting lost or leaving. Clickfunnels helps you lead your customers through the sales process by:

• Introducing your business
• Demonstrating your services or products
• Bringing them to a landing page with the information they need to contact you.

Pricing: $99/month

14. OneDrive

OneDrive is a personal cloud storage system by Microsoft.

Access your files from any device. Your phone, laptop, desktop, tablet, etc. Create shared folders to collaborate with coworkers and avoid zipping and emailing large files. OneDrive will also keep everyone’s files safe in case of unfortunate events such as lost or broken devices.

Pricing: $1.99/month with OneDrive Standalone with 100GB or Included with Microsoft Office.

15. Sticky Notes App (Microsoft Windows)

The Sticky Notes app on Microsoft Windows is a virtual sticky pad.

It’s simple, and maybe doesn’t sound too exciting, but don’t overlook Sticky Notes! Perfect for taking quick (or long!) notes during a meeting, phone call, or while working on projects. Virtual sticky notes have some advantages over your tried-and-true paper notes.

• Make them any size you want – 1 or 2 inches to full screen.
• Tuck them away for later – Closing your note doesn’t delete it. The Sticky Notes app keeps a handy list of all your past notes that you can pull from at any time.
• Add pictures – Embed pictures right in your note.
• Easy formatting – Just click to switch to bold, italics, underlined text, strikethrough, or add bulleted lists.
• Change colors – A great way to keep notes organized is color-coding!

Pricing: Included with Microsoft Windows

16. DocuSign

DocuSign helps gather signatures in a seamless and secure way, then sends copies of the signed documents to both parties. Easily manage your contacts and client agreements without the hassle of printing, scanning, or faxing.

You can upload your own documents, or you can create new documents and agreements within DocuSign with their templates and brand personalization. With the Business Pro plan, you can also easily accept payments at the time of signing, cutting out yet another step for your clients!

Pricing: $10-40/month

17. Zoho

With 62 apps total, Zoho has everything you need to run your office.

Zoho organizes those 62 apps into 8 categories:

Sales & Marketing

• CRM – Everything you need to manage clients and customers.
• Campaigns – Send marketing emails to your leads and clients.
• Bookings – An online scheduler that allows clients (or coworkers!) to schedule meetings that integrate with Zoho Calendar.
• Meeting – Meeting is a video conferencing software that integrates with your Zoho Calendar appointments.

Email & Collaboration

• All of your office suite apps such as Mail, Writer, Sheet, Docs, and Calendar.
• Cliq – An online messaging platform that lets you stay in contact and collaborate with your coworkers easily. Create groups by department, project, or simply one on one to streamline communication and keep your team just one chat away.

Finance

• Books – Similar to Quickbooks, Books keeps your finances organized with a clean and easy-to-navigate interface.

Human Resources

• People – Organize your hiring and onboarding process, track attendance and PTO, and manage your company’s departments.

IT & Help Desk

Customer Service

• Desk – Organize customer or client conversations and tickets and assign tasks to your team members.

Custom Solutions

Business Intelligence

Zoho has multiple bundle plans, so you can choose the best fit for you.

Pricing: $30/user/month for the all apps included bundle: Zoho One.

18. Canva

Canva is an online design platform with endless possibilities.

No matter what you need to make, you can make it with Canva. There are over 420,000 templates to choose from, in a multitude of genres:

• Posters
• Logos
• Videos
• Flyers
• Resumes
• Business Cards
• Book Covers
• Letterhead
• Invoices
• Cards
• T-shirts
• And even Zoom Virtual Backgrounds!

…to name a few.

Additionally, there are 75+ million stock photos, videos, graphics, and audio to choose from.

Canva has multiple plans, including a free version, and they offer video tutorials to help you through designing for all your needs.

Pricing: $9.99/month for 1 person when billed annually on their Pro plan.

Our toolbox is always growing, and we’re always making renovations to keep Back Office Betties in tip-top shape.

Have a tool you can’t live without? Let us know about it!

Want to take it a step further and start automating your law firm? Download our Money-Making Automations guide here.

There’s a lot to love about Back Office Betties… unless you’re one of our competitors. We’ve been criticized for many of the unique things we do in our business, but those are the exact reasons that small law firms love us. Let’s take a look at a few of them!

Back Office Betties’ Receptionists Work From Home (Even Outside Of A Pandemic)

Working from home has been proven to increase employee morale, productivity, and performance. All of our receptionists have their own quiet, private office spaces eliminating distractions, background noises, and the infamous soul-crushing call center environment. This enables our receptionists to feel and work like receptionists, not phone operators.

Companies that support remote work have a 25% lower employee turnover rate than companies that don’t, and 45% of remote workers have been in the same position for five years or more. Low turnover and longevity in the workplace create a level of expertise that simply cannot be found elsewhere.

Some answering services will claim that it’s not possible to build camaraderie when teams are working remotely, but one of our most common anecdotes from new employees is how much they love the team environment and feel involved in the company.

Quality Assurance

Our receptionists have high standards to attain that many other services might not be able to live up to. We monitor every call taken and regularly meet with our receptionists to review their work and ensure that they meet their performance goals. Being a boutique service enables us to have interpersonal relationships with each receptionist and be invested in their performance.

Not only are our receptionists specialized in legal intake, but our receptionists are also specialized in your firm!

Each law firm that we work with has a small number of receptionists assigned to them, and all of our receptionists complete a training course about your firm’s operations before taking a single call for you. These factors allow our receptionists to become familiar and comfortable with your operations and feel like a part of your team.

Your clients will never be able to tell that they aren’t sitting at the front desk in your office!

Exceptional Employee Benefits

We offer excellent benefits as well as competitive pay and performance bonuses. Attracting and keeping the best talent is always a priority! We incorporate fun perks like wellness days, wish-granting, and team building events into our company culture. We provide ongoing training, professional development, and encourage our employees to be resourceful and have a say in the way we do things.

Many companies will do the minimum and provide the cheapest benefits they can get away with, but fostering relationships with our employees is a priority that helps us attract and maintain the best talent in the industry.

We Send Your Messages in Real-Time

Our receptionists send out each message in real-time immediately upon ending the call.

You won’t be left waiting for hours until 15 messages have stacked before they are sent out to you. This is a corner that other services cut to ensure their receptionists will never have a moment of downtime between calls.

Sending messages immediately takes a bit longer, but we know it’s important for you to get them in real-time and without mistakes or inaccuracies.

We Take One Call at a Time

We guarantee that your client will never be placed on hold in the middle of their call for our receptionist to take and place another call on hold.

Other services will place your call on hold multiple times because they take 3-5 calls at once. This may get each call answered within their advertised time, but is that what you envisioned when you were told how quickly your calls would be answered?

When receptionists are bouncing back and forth between calls, it’s easy to get information muddled and make mistakes. Unfortunately, other answering services are willing to take that hit to their quality of service to save a buck.

At Betties, each call gets answered within 4 rings and has our receptionists’ full and undivided attention from start to finish.

Customized Call Handling

When our receptionists answer your calls, they’ll use a script we’ve customized just for your firm.

Most answering services have limited customization (if any at all!). It takes time and staffing for us to set up customized call handling, but we are more than willing to use our resources for everything that will give your firm and your clients a better experience.

Customized scripts allow our receptionists to fully intake new clients and avoid the generic service that will leave your clients feeling like they’ve reached a call center and not your office.

To learn more about the difference between Back Office Betties and other answering services, schedule a call with us today.

We understand the attractiveness of the free version of Google Voice, but is it really benefitting your law firm? Let’s dive into the facts.

Who Is Using The Free Version Of Google Voice?

The free version of Google Voice has continued to increase in popularity among small businesses. It’s easy to understand why: Small business owners need to save money where they can and will always be on the lookout for ways to do so. In fact, the majority of the companies who use this version of Google Voice have less than fifty employees.

Google Voice Is Not Meant To Be Used For Business

Unfortunately, the free version of Google Voice simply isn’t intended for business use. In fact, Google actually changed the name of this version to include, “For personal use”.

When you consider all of the known issues and the frustration this service has caused business owners and administrative staff, it makes sense that they are dissuading businesses from utilizing the service. Though, perhaps the most concerning aspect of this for businesses is the fact that the quality cannot be guaranteed. When you’re running a small business like a law firm, you need reliability. Google Voice simply doesn’t provide that.

There Is No Customer Support

The only support offered to users of the free Google Voice is a list of commonly asked questions and community forums. Run into an issue and need tech support? You’ll be left hoping that someone else has publicly solved that same problem on a forum in a way you’re capable of accomplishing by yourself.

Do you really want the operations of your business reliant on a “fingers crossed” situation?

Call Forwarding Is Tricky And Known To Not Always Work Properly

The most common complaint with Google Voice is that call forwarding simply stops working out of nowhere, sending your calls straight to voicemail.

The initial call from a potential new client is crucial and can make or break their trust in your law firm.

If you were trying to find a lawyer and had a list of numbers to call in front of you, would you really waste your time waiting around to see if someone gets that voicemail and returns your call? Not if another firm answers and can get your process started right away.

This is where that lack of technical support can really cause some issues.

Here’s the scenario: It’s the middle of your workday. You’re busy and working on time-sensitive cases. After a while, you realize all your calls have been going straight to your voicemail.

What can you do? Spend the rest of your workday on Google’s community help forums? Lose all of your potential new clients for the rest of the day? Neither of those is ideal, so why chance putting yourself in that situation in the first place?

Your Receptionist Only Has So Much Control Over Your Calls

There are a couple of things to consider when using Google Voice with a virtual receptionist service such as Back Office Betties:

Google Voice is designed to quickly locate a human for a live answer. If the call is not answered within a few seconds, it then forwards to Google Voicemail. Unfortunately, this means that if a call comes into our system during a high-volume time and rings more than a couple of times, the call will route to Google Voicemail.

Not only does this take the call out of the hands of the professionals you’re paying to WOW your callers, but it’s also sending messages to yet another voicemail box that you’ll need to check.

Many of our clients do use the free version of Google Voice in conjunction with our services successfully, but the fact that some law firms have issues is enough for us to work out some alternative suggestions for your law firm.

Keep in mind, the Betties team will always do our best to troubleshoot anything within our power. We can track a call once it’s entered our system and your receptionist team has successfully answered. However, if the issue of Google Voice sending the call to Google Voicemail arises, we may not be able to offer a full resolution to the problem.

We Recommend Taking A Look At These Other Providers

You might be thinking that sure, there are some drawbacks, but doesn’t the fact that it’s free make up for that? Not really.

If you want to grow your law firm, client experience is everything. When it comes to phone services, saving money now might lose you business later.

There’s a saying that goes “If you buy quality, you’ll only cry once.” While we don’t expect your phone service provider to be a big enough ticket to have you crying, it will absolutely help you avoid crying every time you miss a potential client’s call due to Google Voice acting up!

Phone Service Providers That We Have Had Positive Experiences With:

RingCentral

With an annual contract, RingCentral’s Standard plan is $24.99/user/month. This includes 24/7 support, quality-of-service reports, integrations with popular applications, unlimited audio conferencing, and internet fax, among others. Take a look at their solutions for small businesses.

Dialpad

Dialpad boasts serving some of the most innovative companies like TED, Uber, and WeWork. Their Standard plan is $15.00/user/month with an annual contract. This includes unlimited calling, SMS and MMS, G Suite & Office integrations, among others. Take a look at their small business solutions.

8×8

8×8 has a special page on their site for legal solutions. They have mobile and desktop apps, enterprise-grade security, and 14 countries in their unlimited telephony calling zone under their Standard plan, which costs $24.00/user/month with an annual subscription.

Vonage

Now serving companies as large as Glassdoor and Allstate, their original business model catered to families and small businesses. Vonage uses a pay for what you use by the minute/message pricing system. Outbound calls start at $0.0139/minute. Some features include, 24/7 customer support, call analytics and reporting, integration with popular applications, among others.

Grasshopper

Made for small businesses, Grasshopper includes mobile and desktop apps, incoming call control, virtual fax, voicemail transcription, detailed call reports, and more with all of their plans. Their Solo plan with 1 phone number and 3 extensions is $26.00/month with an annual contract.

Nextiva

Rated the Best Business Phone Service in 2020 by U.S. News, Nextiva offers unlimited calling, texting, and faxing worldwide, 24/7 support, unlimited conference calls, and video conferencing, among others. Their Professional plan is priced at $31.95/user/month for 1-5 users with an annual agreement, and costs are lowered with longer agreements and a higher number of users.

All of the above were featured in either The Best Small Business VoIP Providers of 2020 from GetVoIP or Best Business Phone Systems of 2020 from U.S. News and many of our clients have success in using them.

We are here to ensure all your calls are answered – don’t let your phone provider sabotage you! If you have any questions about forwarding calls to Back Office Betties or ensuring that your current call process is suitable for your law firm, give our Growth Solutions Strategist a call at (844) 200-2401.

Are you still answering your law firm’s phone with, “Law Office”? If so, we are begging you to stop! Seriously, we’re on our hands and knees over here.

Aside from not answering at all, answering the phone with “Law Office” is one of the most common mistakes we see in the handling of law firm phones.

You’re giving yourself an opportunity to be forgotten. As potential clients move down their list of law firms that might be able to help them, at least 25% of those firms will answer the phone the same exact way. This can lead to confusion and your potential client forgetting who they just spoke with. You don’t want your firm to be forgotten in a sea of law firms, right?

Now that we’re clear about what not to do, let’s talk about why and how to answer the phone in a better way.

Establish A Relationship Right Away

An important part of the client/attorney relationship is a feeling of trust and mutual respect. Whether you realize it or not, that relationship starts as soon as someone picks up the phone for your law firm! We all know that first impressions matter, and that first phone call is your chance to give a killer first impression. Don’t blow it with poor customer service, answering with a generic greeting, or by missing the call altogether.

Start your client relationships off on the right foor by answering the phone with a greeting that is friendly and announces the name of your law firm. Immediately, your client knows they reached who they intended and the call starts off with some positivity. It also helps to mention your own name so that the potential client knows who they spoke with should they need to reference it later.

Small talk is okay, but try to get straight to the point of what the caller’s needs are. Be friendly and upbeat while keeping them focused on their needs so you can understand exactly what they need help with. This avoids wasting anyone’s time and gets the potential client the help they need sooner rather than later.

Collect Your Law Firm’s Callers’ Information

Nearly nine times out of ten, law firms fail to collect full contact information from their callers. This is alarming; those callers are your leads! Leads turn into clients – don’t let them walk away.

Every call that ends without collecting information from your caller is money out the window. You are now at their will and can’t follow up to sell your legal services to them.

Not to mention, if they call back, you have no record of what happened during that initial call. Did they explain their case? Ask a question about pricing? Neglecting to record that information can cause your firm to look unprofessional and disorganized, or can frustrate your caller because they are now repeating theirself. Making this mistake has great power to turn potential clients off of your firm.

Instead of leaving your business to chance, set up an intake process that you go through for every caller. The information collected can differ between types of calls, but it’s important to set up a process for every call you may get. Document this process so that anyone who may answer the phone understands their responsibility when taking a call.

Ensure The Phone Is Always Answered

74% of potential clients contact law firms by phone but more than one third of those calls go unanswered. Partner that with the statistic that 80% of callers whose call is unanswered will not leave a message, as well as the fact that potential clients wait 3 business days on average for a response, and you’ve got lost business adding up!

The best way to capture all the business that comes your way is to always answer the phone. We understand that this isn’t possible for a busy solo attorney managing their own phones because of things like court, client appointments, and consultations. However, those reasons exemplify the necessity of dedicating someone else to your phones. Interruptions and cost/benefit aside, outsourcing your phone management is pertinent to capturing every caller and converting more callers into clients when you’re too busy too answer.

Hiring an in-house receptionist is expensive and bouncing calls between attorneys eats up valuable time that could be spent on cases. Instead, consider hiring an answering service to provide your callers with a better experience and gather all of the information you need from each potential client.

BONUS: A Few Of Our Favorite Law Firm Phone Greetings

If you need some inspiration on ways to cheerfully introduce your law firm on the phone, we’ve got you covered! Check out some of the below examples of great greetings when answering the phone.

• “Good (Morning/Afternoon), thank you for calling (Law Firm Name). How may I direct your call?”
• “Hello, you’ve reached (Law Firm Name). How can we help you today?”
• “Thank you for calling (Law Firm Name). My name is _____, how may I help you?”
• “Happy (Day of the Week)! You’ve reached (Law Firm Name). Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”
• “Thank you for calling (Law Firm Name). Are you calling with a new legal matter we can help you with?”

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!