How To Change Workplace Culture For The Better
Believe it or not, workplace culture plays a pivotal role in the long-term success of your law firm.
After all, this can impact everything from employee turnover rates to morale and productivity. As such, without cultivating a positive working environment, your firm’s success is significantly limited.
Fortunately, there are many steps that you can take to change workplace culture for the better!
Challenge the perception that law firms are competitive above all else. The legal industry is notoriously competitive, whether you’re coming face to face with other lawyers in the courtroom or trying to win over high-value clients. However, it’s vital that this sense of competition does not translate into your company culture. That is, your team should be mindful of the fact that they are working together, not against each other, toward a larger goal.
While friendly competition can prove useful, an overly competitive working environment will only add strain to working relationships and encourage negative, burnout-inducing behaviors among your team. As such, this is something that you should work toward building on behalf of your employees.
Foster effective communication. Ineffective communication can build numerous barriers – all of which stand in the way of curating a positive workplace environment. For example, a lack of communication between colleagues creates a workspace where employees cannot rely on their team members or ask for help. This leads to poor working relationships, distrust, and dissatisfaction. In addition, ineffective communication often means that projects are not completed to the standards necessary or at a much slower rate.
Luckily, there are numerous ways in which you can set about improving workplace communication. However, this often begins by setting a great example as a leader. For example, how you speak to your colleagues often sets the tone for how they speak to each other. This means you must remain polite, courteous, and positive, even during times of high pressure.
You should also work to create a space where your team feels as though they can open up to ask for help (or voice concerns) without fear of repercussions. Otherwise, they may be afraid to speak up, meaning that the issues you are facing persist.
Support a healthy work-life balance. Another way in which you can turn negative workplace culture on its head is by encouraging your team to develop a healthy work-life balance. For example, you may want to put together a flexible working schedule so that your team can set their hours around other obligations they may have. While this could make it a little more difficult to set times for meetings, it is something that many employees appreciate.
You should also try to lead by example in this regard. If you are sitting behind your desk long after you’re supposed to clock out, your team may feel under a certain amount of pressure to do the same.
In addition to this, you can also help your team cultivate a better work/life balance by reducing their day-to-day workload. While this does not mean that you should turn down clients or cases, you should work to remove tasks from their to-do list that don’t align with their specific job description or skillset. For example, your paralegal should not also be in charge of your financial record keeping!
If you’re looking for skilled accounting staff to take on these duties, but don’t have the budget to hire a full-time team member, don’t worry – we’re here to help. In fact, we have years of experience in helping law firms manage their finances! Get in touch today to find out more.
