Hiring & Empowering Solutions

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Increased Productivity and an Improved Bottom Line are Just Secondary Benefits Next to the Cost Savings of Retaining Your Employees

cost savings employee retentionLosing an employee is expensive. The process of finding and training a replacement can cost twice as much as your former employee’s salary. Then, once your new hire is properly trained and onboarded, keeping them engaged and loyal is the next challenge. And it’s a big one…

Companies are usually shocked to learn that financial incentives are not the secret to employee retention. In fact, a 2018 LinkedIn survey reports that an incredible 94 percent of employees admitted they would stay in a position longer if their employer invested in their training and development. Ironically, these employees also claimed that they didn’t have time to continue their educations independently.

The solution? Make employee training and development part of their day-to-day jobs.

The same LinkedIn survey showed that both executives and employees agree that soft skills are highly important: leadership development, communication skills, and team collaboration were just a few of the skills that survey participants identified as instrumental to their careers. And wouldn’t you know, empowering your employees with these skills can—and will—make a magnificent difference in your company or firm’s performance. What a win-win.

Of course, implementing an out-of-the-box training program isn’t enough to yield results for your employees or for your firm. Here are a few tips to help align your training program with the wants of your employees and the needs of your business:

1. Set learning goals. Each member of your team will have his or her own educational objectives. Identify where their goals intersect with the goals of your firm—and voila! You’ve got a mutually beneficial goal that will keep your employee engaged while reaping rewards for your business.

2. Go with the workflow. It doesn’t matter how solid your training and development program is—if it’s not teaching skills that integrate seamlessly with your firm’s operational processes, employees won’t be able to leverage their new skills in a real-world environment. Try to align learning processes with the actual tasks your employees manage on a day-to-day basis. Your employees will be able to feel the improvement in their performance…and your bottom line will feel it, too.

3. Reward your employees for a job well done. It’s simple: employees who feel appreciated and valued are more motivated to perform at the top their ability. When your employees reach their learning goals or measurably improve their performance, reward them however you are able: give them extra flex time or a paid day off, take them out for a nice lunch, grant them the most coveted parking spot for a week. It doesn’t have to be a grand reward—just some way of showing them that their hard work has been noticed and is appreciated.

Increased productivity and an improved bottom line are just secondary benefits next to the cost savings of retaining your employees. Training and development programs are undoubtedly a win for your business and a win for your employees…as long as you find the right program.

Our Team Empowerment Academy is a virtual training program designed to equip leaders and employees with a wide range of hard and soft skills. With over 200 tools and techniques, plus weekly master classes focusing on a variety of subjects, members of our program typically generate measurable results after just eight modules. We help take the guesswork out of employee training and development.

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If you’re tired of a revolving door of employees wasting your firm’s time and money, we can help. Whether your challenge is finding and recruiting top talent, training and developing your team, or retaining employees for the long-term, Hiring & Empowering Solutions can help. Schedule your free 30-minute discovery session with Molly today.

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Why Employee Training & Development Programs Don’t Offer an Immediate Solution

employee training and development programSmall law firms are investing more than ever in employee training and development, seeking to better engage their employees and keep them invested in their jobs for the long-term. Don’t get us wrong, employee training and development is hugely important to any small or solo law practice. But we see it time and time again: law firm leadership identifies a learning opportunity or behavioral problem and thinks that investing in an employee training and development program will offer an immediate solution.

But an employee training and development program is only as effective as a law firm’s leadership. If your firm’s leadership has not clarified which groups and individuals are responsible for making certain decisions, they are negating your training efforts. If authority has been delegated in a silo—and only at the very tippity-top of that silo—you are impeding your own team training efforts. If you have not outlined a measurable way to hold your employees accountable for decision-making, then you are standing in your own way. And you need to step aside.

Employee training and development is a highly-effective solution for a lot of traditional business problems: it helps keep balls in the air rather than constantly dropping; it snuffs out office drama; it streamlines operations and keeps your firm running like a well-oiled machine; it draws out each employee’s superpowers; and it empowers your employees to step up and lead rather than await orders and execute as dictated.

But if, at the core of your firm, you’re not meeting these three requirements, there isn’t a training and development program in the world that could help you:

1. An internal system that is aligned with your training & development goals. So, you want your team to feel more ownership of the firm and its performance—you want them to make confident decisions and run with their intrepreneurial ideas. But is your firm structured in a way that enables this level of employee empowerment? Or do you have a managerially “tall” organization, where each layer of leadership is required to approve decisions? Is access to important information limited to certain members of your leadership team? If employees keep running into red tape and feel that they need to ask permission to make even the tiniest decision, how can they be empowered to become leaders?

2. Leaders who are 100% committed to making positive changes at your firm. You’ve taken the first step and figured out the root cause of dysfunction at your firm. Now, are your leaders willing to make changes that solve internal problems and open the doors to an effective employee training and development program? If leaders aren’t ready to relinquish control of your firm’s decision-making processes and trust that their newly-empowered team would be capable of calling the shots, then training and development efforts will be moot.

3. Find solutions, not bandaids. There is the case of one particular firm leader whose team kept reporting back to her that they were stressed out and overworked. With the best of intentions, she rolled out a mindfulness workshop at her firm. This would reduce stress, right? But even though her team reported back that the mindfulness workshop was “interesting”…it still didn’t reduce their stress. The problem is that, to reduce stress, the root cause of that stress needs to be addressed. The mindfulness workshop was just a bandaid—not a long-term solution.

Implementing an employee training and development program under the wrong conditions is a waste of time and money. If you’re unsure about the conditions at your law firm, we’d love the opportunity to connect and assess your situation. Depending on where you are, our Team Empowerment Solution might be the perfect fit for your firm’s leadership and employees alike. Schedule a free discovery session with Molly and find out if your firm is ready to empower its employees and equip them with the tools they need to grow your business.

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4 Employee Training and Development Secrets to Ensure Long-Term Success

employee training and development secretsIn small law, oftentimes the biggest differentiator between firms that “make it” and firms that don’t is one simple thing: employee training and development. The value a firm places on finding, recruiting and hiring the best-of-the-best lawyers, paralegals, and legal support staff is directly proportionate to its future success. In addition, firms that offer regular training, and that provide employees with the tools they need to truly make a positive impact on the firm’s performance, find their employees to be more loyal, happy and hardworking.

Human resources are hands-down the most expensive asset a firm has. That’s why it’s so, so important for this investment to generate a positive return. But building a team of rock star staff members, and empowering them to step up and lead your firm straight to its business or revenue goals, isn’t as easy as it sounds. Trust us, we’ve spent our careers working with firms on staffing, team training and development, and employee empowerment. There’s an entitlement mentality that needs to be eliminated, office drama, balls dropping left and right, generational gaps, a shortage of great (not just good) people…and the people who are in the market for a job seem to have such narrow skill sets!

We can’t snap our fingers and make these inevitable legal staffing obstacles disappear, but we can share some of the employee training and development secrets that we’ve learned over the years. Here are four tips for effective employee training and development:

1. Take generational gaps into consideration…but don’t make assumptions! A 2016 Activia Training study found a surprising disparity in the way different generations of workers prefer to learn: the younger generation actually prefers an onsite learning environment, while more mature workers—those who are more likely to be balancing their professional life with a family and kids—enjoyed virtual training and development experiences. Of course, every individual prefers to absorb information in their own way—ask your people how they prefer to learn, and be willing to offer training options that meet a variety of lifestyle demands.

2. Keep employees engaged. A great training and development program will keep employees engaged with the material—they’ll feel connected to it, and have an easier time recalling what they’ve learned later on. It goes beyond engagement with the material, though. Finding an engaging way for employees to practice what they’ve learned is equally important. Some employees will prefer hands-on practice, while others will appreciate time to think about and absorb what they’ve learned before implementing the skills at work.

3. Be flexible; address the needs of both teams and individuals. When you enroll your team in a training and development program, it’s safe to say that not every individual will be starting off at the same level. Watch the performance of individuals as they undergo training. Recognize when certain people need extra help in certain areas. Tailor the training each employee receives to make them more well-rounded team members.

4. Ask for feedback. The best way to show an employee that you care whether or not their training and development program is valuable…is simply to ask! What was confusing? What resonated? Where are there holes in the material? Asking for feedback ensures that your employees receive effective training that actually fosters their growth as professionals, and your firm’s growth overall.

We can’t emphasize the importance of employee training and development enough. In fact, we’ve developed a virtual program—the Team Empowerment Academy—designed to equip employees and executives with over 200 tools and techniques to make them more empowered, effective leaders. The flexibility of this program is that employees can access workshops on an as-needed basis, based on what they want to learn, or on what they, as individuals, need to learn. There are also weekly masterclasses, led by our team of expert staffing consultants, that offer more personal, face-to-face learning experiences.

Hiring and Empowering Solutions also offers onsite training and development programs for those firms who prefer a more hands-on learning experience.

Schedule a Call and Get Started on Success!

Wherever your firm is—just getting started, thinking about hiring your first (or tenth) employee, how to get your existing team to step up and take ownership (care) in their role, how to create consistent monthly cash flow, or how to support that struggling employee—we can help. For 20 years we have taken over the staffing, training, development and empowerment for 500+ small law firms across the country. Schedule a call today and let’s talk about your firm’s goals…and how we can help you get there!

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