To effectively develop internal assets, firms need to comprehensively understand the skillsets and experience they have at their disposal. For the remaining 75% of firms, therein lies an opportunity to differentiate yourselves as employers. By adopting workflow technology, firms can broaden the range of work accessible to support staff and spot opportunities to upskill their workforce. This helps firm leaders demonstrate to existing and prospective talent that they can provide avenues for professional development, which will prove invaluable in retention.
BRIDGING THE EDUCATION GAP
Just as there is value in upskilling support staff, firms must address the current gap in understanding between support staff and lawyers. We often see lawyers defaulting to the same support staff due to limited visibility of the available resources. On the other hand, that support staff member may struggle to push back against work coming their way that isn’t in their remit because they also don’t know the correct process. Often, this disconnect is because of the lack of defined workflows.
Just as there is value in upskilling support staff, firms must address the current gap in understanding between support staff and lawyers.
In fact, 33% of firms have only partial or no data about the type of work sent from lawyers to support staff. How can those firms be confident that their resources are being used to the best of their potential? Workflow technology uncovers support pathways that otherwise may have remained hidden. By opening these avenues, the education gap between support staff and lawyers narrows significantly.
OPTIMIZING CLIENT SERVICE DELIVERY
While the coalescence of lawyers and support staff is beneficial for internal efficiencies, it’s also increasingly important to client service delivery. A measurable result of the disconnect between lawyers and support is that 12% of lawyers spend over five hours a week on non-billable administrative tasks, which should be delegated to dedicated support staff. Clients, understandably, won’t pay expensive lawyers to do admin, and with 96% of firms losing clients over the past 12 months, it’s clear that firms are feeling the squeeze from an increasingly cost-conscious client base.
Additionally, 67% of firms are focusing more on delegating the right work to the right resource at the right cost. However, to ensure they are successful in their efforts, firms must recognize the crucial role that support staff play in client service delivery. Optimal resource utilization hinges on lawyers promptly leveraging the most appropriate support resource in a timely manner via clearly defined workflows.
The state of play is that 54% of firms have workflow technology in place, and 55% employ workflow managers to manage the allocation of work from lawyers to support staff. Encouragingly, these numbers are on the rise, but firms that fail to address high talent and client attrition rates risk falling behind.
