Unhappy Employees Are Costing Your Law Firm Money & Clients

Unhappy employees are costing you money and losing you sales. It’s true. (Even if you don’t have any in-house employees… but we’ll get to that later.)

First, let’s take a look at the undeniable ways employee happiness affects your bottom line.

 

The Dreaded “not my business, not my problem” Mentality

We’ve all worked a job we didn’t love. We’ve all had a manager we weren’t a fan of. At the end of the day, an employee’s performance does one thing: make their manager and company look good or make their manager and company look bad.

 

Employees who feel seen, heard, valued, and respected by the company they work for tend to care about the quality of their work a lot more than employees who feel like a cog in the machine working for someone else’s success.

For example, happy employees will go above and beyond to make sure that clients are helped to the fullest extent possible and go out of their way to solve complex problems and turn angry callers into rave reviewers.

Unhappy employees, however, see these same situations through a different lens: This job is not worth that extra stress. That right there is the “not my business, not my problem” mentality that needs to be avoided at all costs.

 

Now, many business owners don’t have a great deal of employee management or HR experience… which unfortunately leads to a common misconception that this mentality comes from a personal flaw in an employee’s work ethic. But this simply isn’t the case the vast majority of the time.

 

Expertise = Efficiency

You’re certainly well aware that one experienced paralegal, for example, who has been with your law firm for years and knows your operations inside and out is worth 2 or 3 newbie hires.

Unhappy employees lead to high turnover, which leads to less qualified staff as well as high recruiting and training costs.

The longer an employee is with your law firm:

• The better they will know your operations
• The more efficient their work will be
• The greater they will be able to serve your clients

So how do you keep employees at your law firm? Keep them happy.

 

How to Keep Employees at Your Law Firm Happy

Put simply:

• Create a work environment that supports and uplifts your employees.
• Allow voices to be heard and encourage independence and career growth.
• Trust your employees and give them the tools they need to succeed.

 

Here are some more specific ideas:

Schedule regular 1:1s.

Giving your staff the space to express their thoughts, concerns, and struggles without feeling like they are interrupting you is essential. Check in on their responsibilities: What are they struggling with? Where do they need support?

Acknowledge good ideas.

Give credit where credit is due. If one of your employees comes up with a great new automation idea, make sure everyone knows whose idea it was! This helps your employees to feel recognized and promotes problem-solving among your team.

Encourage career growth.

Provide access to ongoing training, mentorship, and classes. When you care about your employees’ success, they care about yours.

Listen to feedback.

It’s not all going to be positive. If your employees don’t feel comfortable sharing less-than-stellar feedback with you directly, use a tool like Officevibe to allow them to submit surveys and feedback anonymously.

Develop a strong company culture.

Great company culture is vital to your law firm’s success. It cultivates happiness, a sense of worth, purpose, and being an integral part of something bigger. Read more about company culture here.

 

Don’t Have Time for All That?

We hear you. Attorneys at small and solo firms are STRETCHED THIN.

That’s why outsourcing staffing to virtual receptionists and virtual assistants is one of the best financial decisions small and solo law firm owners can make.

Not only does outsourcing provide you with a team of specialized employees for a fraction of the cost of an in-house employee, but all of the time and stress of employee management is lifted off your shoulders.

 

Just don’t forget:

Employee happiness is a major deciding factor in employee performance. If your outsourced employees are the ones closing your sales or communicating with your clients… their performance directly impacts your bottom line! Make sure to ask the company you’re considering hiring the following questions:

• How do you keep your employees happy?
• What is the average length of time your employees stay with your company?
• How does your company culture align with the needs of your employees?
• How do you support career growth?

But don’t trust blindly! Take it upon yourself to read reviews from current and past employees.

 

Want to know how Back Office Betties can provide your law firm with a team of happy-to-be-here legal receptionists or assistants? Schedule a call with our Growth Solutions Strategist today!