Retaining top talent is just as important as hiring the right people, and it requires ongoing attention and effort. Once you’ve invested in recruiting and training a team member, your focus must shift to keeping them engaged and committed to your firm. The costs of turnover, though often hidden, can significantly impact the bottom line, especially for small law firms.
When an employee leaves, they take with them valuable skills, institutional knowledge, and the time and money invested in their development. Additionally, their departure can affect client relationships, particularly if the departing employee was a trusted point of contact. To avoid these costly disruptions, it’s essential to keep the employees you value.
Fortunately, you don’t have to sit back and watch your top talent slip away. There are actionable steps you can take to minimize or even eliminate employee turnover. The following list of 13 preventative measures is based on our extensive experience working closely with candidates every day—whether they’re reaching out to explore new opportunities or we’re contacting them with an offer.
Treat staff as valuable and respected members of your team
While staff members may not have the same education and training as you, they deserve as much respect and consideration as you expect reciprocated. The quickest way to lose good people is to fail to let them know, through your actions, attitude, and words, that they are a valuable member of your team. This goes beyond merely offering gracious words and financial incentives. Consider managers, who are the authority figures with whom rank-and-file employees most commonly interact. Letting them know that they carry the culture for the entire organization and enabling them with the skills to do so both lets them know that they’re valued and carries that sense of respect to all of their subordinates.
Do what you say and say what you do
Nothing makes employees lose confidence in their employer quicker than being promised something that is not delivered. Lead by example. Be clear in your communications, especially about expected timing and amount of raises, bonuses, etc. so that there is no misunderstanding.
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Make sure employees know what you expect of them
It may seem basic, but often in small firms, employees have a wide breadth of responsibilities. If they don’t know the scope of their job responsibilities and what you need from them, misunderstandings and recriminations start to occur as they fail to perform as expected.
Recognize Achievements and Progress
Recognizing the hard work and achievements of your team is more than just a morale booster—it’s a crucial part of retaining top talent. Employees who feel their efforts are acknowledged and appreciated are significantly more likely to remain engaged and committed to your firm. This recognition doesn’t always have to come in the form of large gestures or financial rewards. Oftentimes, a thank you or similar public acknowledgment during a team meeting can go a long way. Make it a point to celebrate both the big wins and the small milestones. By consistently recognizing progress, you’re not only showing that you value your employees, but you’re also fostering a culture of excellence and motivation.
Provide flexibility
Staff members are often juggling the responsibilities that come with families as well as their careers. Flexibility in work schedules may be difficult in a law-firm environment, but allowing for some flexibility goes a long way. Similarly, rewarding your most loyal contributors with sabbaticals may prove challenging from a scheduling standpoint, but it provides your most loyal contributors with a sense of personal value and flexibility.
Review Workloads
One of the quickest paths to burnout is an unmanageable workload. Regularly reviewing and adjusting workloads is essential in preventing employee stress and dissatisfaction. Overburdened employees are not only less productive, but they’re also more likely to seek employment elsewhere. It’s important to ensure that tasks are distributed fairly and that no one is consistently carrying more than their share. Open communication is key—encourage your team members to speak up if they’re feeling overwhelmed. By taking a proactive approach to workload management, you’ll create a more balanced work environment that helps your employees thrive.
Foster employee development
This could be training to learn a new job skill, paying for them to join a local professional organization, and encouraging/allowing their participation in the organization, even if occasionally during the workday. Their participation in professional organizations will likely benefit your firm as well. As employees learn, they’ll bring best practices and ideas from colleagues in similar environments back to your firm.
Additionally, employee development should start as soon as you’ve made a new hire, and one of the best ways to implement it is through a mentoring program. Employee engagement platform Vantage Circle has noted that employers can increase retention by 82 percent with an effective onboarding process, and 70 percent of current employees say that they would consider leaving if another company offered better development and learning opportunities.
Keep employees fit, mentally and physically
Related to employee development is the idea that your staff needs to remain physically and mentally fit if they’re to remain with your firm. Commenting on HR insights over recent years, Vantage Circle states that half of turnover owes simply to employee burnout. Additionally, “companies that provide the option for remote work have 25 percent lower employee turnover.” Ensuring that your policies and facilities promote employees’ physical and psychological wellbeing helps to ensure that they’ll stay.
Learn to Spot and Address Burnout
Burnout is a serious issue in the legal profession, where long hours and high stakes are often the norm. Learning to spot the early signs of burnout—such as decreased productivity, disengagement, or an increase in errors—can make a significant difference in retention. Addressing burnout requires more than just giving someone a day off. It’s about creating a supportive environment where employees feel they can ask for help without judgment. This might involve offering flexible work arrangements, providing mental health resources, or simply fostering a culture that prioritizes work-life balance. By being vigilant and responsive, you can help your team maintain their passion for their work and their loyalty to your firm.
Build team morale
Consider a quarterly event outside of the office, such as a Fun Run, Softball Team, Book Club or a way to give back to the community as a team. Morale-building exercises can also have more direct integration with job tasks. Collaborative team-based problem-solving exercises such as hackathons can provide inspiration and cohesion while reaching company goals. By implementing such morale-improving measures, you will also be creating long-lasting relationships between employees, which will ultimately improve performance and retention.
Provide some sort of feedback system
Staff members often feel that their feedback or input is not welcomed or valued. Consider a system where proactive feedback is welcomed and addressed. Feedback should be a two-way street. Many managers naturally congratulate staff when they accomplish a task successfully, and providing such recognition is an effective retention policy. But no one can guarantee success, and your team should also understand that employees equally appreciate having their hard work praised, no matter its ultimate outcome. Vantage Circle reports that “employees whose managers consistently acknowledge them for good work can reduce turnover up to 31 percent.”
Empower employees to grow and make decisions
Employees also feel good about themselves when they have the latitude and autonomy to make truly significant decisions. If you’ve continued to invest in their personal development during their tenure, they should have all of the tools they need to perform well and wisely.
Conduct “stay” interviews
In addition to performing exit interviews to determine why your employees are leaving, consider asking long-term employees why they choose to stay. Ask questions like, “Why did you initially come to work here?” “Why have you stayed?” “What would make you leave?” and, “What are your nonnegotiable issues?” “What would you change or improve?” Managers and employers should also ask employees for feedback on what steps they could take to better improve the company culture.
Promote from within whenever possible
Always give employees a clear path for advancement, even if it just means added responsibilities. Some employees may become frustrated if they do not have goals to attain or if they do not see a clear future for themselves with the firm. Promotions aren’t your only option here either. Job rotations and lateral opportunities help keep employees engaged even when promotions simply aren’t feasible.
Know that it’s a learning opportunity when your employees leave
Sometimes employees simply won’t stay, and there isn’t much you can do about it. However, turnover can teach you important things when your creative ways to retain employees fail. If possible, speak with employees before they’ve left your firm about the reasons for their exit. They can provide valuable insights about your company’s culture if you’re willing to listen.
Compensation
You’re probably surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet. But YES, it is important.
Offer competitive compensation. Make sure your staff members are well-compensated. Any employee who is underpaid is ripe to be recruited away by another law firm. Talk to your colleagues at other law firms and legal recruiters who focus on your market to obtain data on what other law firms are paying their staff.
Offer a benefits package that will suit your employees’ needs. Providing health insurance, life insurance as well as a retirement-savings plan is essential in retaining your star employees. If group plans are not possible due to your small size, help them find individual plans and offer to pay a portion of each.
Provide less-traditional benefits. Sometimes the smallest things, like “Free Bagel Fridays” may seem insignificant to you, but can make a staff member feel more at home and more loyal to the firm. Allowing them to take off a couple of hours early on days like Halloween are other small perks which are not expected but go a long way towards keeping morale high.
Conduct Exit Interviews when Employees Leave
When an employee decides to leave your firm, it’s essential to conduct an exit interview to understand the reasons behind their departure. These conversations offer invaluable insights into your firm’s culture, management practices, and areas for improvement. Even if you’re offering top compensation, money alone might not be enough to retain all employees. For some, the intangibles—like work-life balance, career development opportunities, or feeling valued—can outweigh even the most competitive salary.
During an exit interview, ask questions that dig into these areas. Why did the employee decide to leave? Was there something lacking in their experience at the firm? What aspects of their job did they value the most, and what could have been improved? Understanding these factors can help you make the necessary adjustments to better meet the needs of your remaining team members.
Remember, the goal is not just to gather information but to take action based on what you learn. By addressing the concerns raised in exit interviews, you can reduce the chances of losing more employees in the future. The time, cost, and risk involved in hiring and training new talent are significant, so it’s crucial to focus on keeping the proven talent already among your ranks. Prioritizing the aspects that matter most to your employees will help you build a more resilient and committed team.
Retaining top legal talent requires a thoughtful approach that prioritizes both tangible rewards and the intangible aspects of job satisfaction. If you’re looking for expert guidance on how to keep your best employees engaged and committed, contact Momentum Search Partners to help you build a thriving legal team.