If you have not been paying attention, you may believe that the desires of employees have changed because of the pandemic. Workers have always preferred to work from home, emphasizing work schedule flexibility and tools to balance work with their personal lives. MIT's study of the gender wage gap suggested that the highest paying positions often carry the least job flexibility and the requirement to spend the most hours in the office. Put another way, employees demand salaries 30% to 50% higher to submit to inflexible schedules and in-office work.
The pandemic has brought greater competition for top talent and forced employers to provide work-from-home arrangements during lockdowns. They learned that workers prefer these work arrangements and are more productive. For some companies, the results of this change have been a pleasant surprise that they are trying to embrace. Those who are resisting it have experienced an unprecedented wave of resignations.
Many are missing the truth that the preference for work from home is about agency, not location. Companies that have instituted restrictive policies for work from home employees that aim to confine their flexibility, micromanage their time, and recreate the management experience of office work have created unhappy employees. Those embracing change by focusing on results instead of micromanaging their team have seen marked productivity increases.
Understandably, many are making this mistake. It is much easier to manage a team that is right there with you in the office. You can see what they are doing, address issues in real-time, and continuously measure the team's morale. You feel in control, and your managerial contributions feel more impactful. But trying to preserve that control in work from home arrangement is fraught, and forcing workers to come back to the office so you can revert to this outdated management style will only result in more departures.
The increased demand for work arrangement changes poses a more significant challenge for Law firms than many other industries. Their workers have abundant career options if they do not wish to go back to the old five days a week in office arrangement. Still, law firm management has a business model built around the prestige and logistics of in-office work, and none for this new paradigm. The billable hour presents the most significant hurdle; how can law firms provide a flexible work arrangement when the volume of work their employees perform is the most determinant of their financial performance?
It will be interesting to see which of the many strategies will work and which will not and how it changes the power structure for BigLaw firms. What is clear is that this trend presents an excellent opportunity for small law firms. NexFirm's clients have already gone through this reckoning and have work arrangements and an ethos of fairness and agency that have allowed them to attract top talent and hold on to them. In 2021 we saw our client's headcount numbers grow at the fastest pace ever, as the pedigree and quality of their legal staff continue to strengthen. Our advice to our clients has been to continue to focus on creating the best place for your team to be successful and keep enjoying the benefits.
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David DePietto is the founder and CEO of NexFirm. He can be reached at ddepietto@nexfirm.com.
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