Your employees are the heart and soul of your law firm. Without them, you would likely cease to exist. So it’s important you treat them right and ensure they are with you for the long run. Cue the introduction to company culture.
What is company culture?
Your law firm’s company culture is essentially the attitudes and values that influence the way people interact and behave within your organisation. Think of it as your company’s ethos. It will develop and change over time, and if not suitably managed, can quickly become toxic.
Whilst every organisational culture is varied, each will typically fall into one of the following four categories:
- Clan culture
- Hierarchy culture
- Market culture
- Adhocracy culture
But with a meagre 12% of executives agreeing that their organisation drives the right culture, it’s clear that there is still a lot of work to be done. But like most things in life, it won’t come easily. It will take time, resources and the involvement of employees across your law firm to work, so naturally, it’s only right to want to justify this investment. So, here are 5 reasons why your law firm needs to invest in its culture.
5 Reasons your law firm needs to improve its culture
#1 Attract and retain top talent
Finding your perfect match can be difficult. And that goes for both employers and employees. Having a well-defined organisational culture and selecting candidates using a team-first approach (focusing on how well they fit your culture as opposed to just looking at experience) will help to ensure you recruit the right people for your law firm and help to ensure they remain loyal and stick around.
Whilst recruiting people who are the right fit for your company culture is the best way to ensure you retain staff, if you haven’t always had a clearly defined culture, you may have some catching up to do. Speak to your employees and get their feedback and then work with them to develop a culture that aligns with your values and their beliefs. If someone feels undervalued, unengaged and doesn’t like the way things are being done, they will leave. This is especially true for those within higher positions who have a lot of experience under their belt. Think: the more valuable they are to your law firm, the higher their employability is likely to be elsewhere – so work hard to keep hold of your best assets.
#2 Improve the quality of work
Having a strong company culture can help to promote collaboration, increase motivation, drive engagement and increase satisfaction. All of this will lead to a higher quality of work and help to ensure your staff are committed to going the extra mile for clients and consistently delivering a top-class service. And with 85% of managers agreeing employees who are a good cultural fit will perform better, it’s clear this is no coincidence.
#3 Improve decision-making
Building upon the above, if employees have a clear understanding of your law firm’s mission, vision and values – and they are aligned with their own beliefs – this will act as a guiding force for their decision-making and ensure they are providing a strong representation of your brand no matter when or who they are interacting with.
#4 Increase profitability
Did you know that employees who feel happy within their work take up to ten times fewer sick days? Or that an employee who feels engaged and inspired is up to 125% more productive than their satisfied counterparts? And of course, there are the other recruitment and work benefits we’ve already mentioned. All of these benefits go hand-in-hand to make for a stronger, more productive workforce who are onside to drive profits and help your law firm to grow.
#5 Connect with your audience & enhance your brand
If you have a strong company culture, don’t hide it. These days, many people care more about who they are doing business with than the services they provide. After all, there are thousands of law firms offering the same services for similar prices. How many are backed by a team of dedicated, hardworking professionals who truly care about their work?
You need to show your audience the people behind your organisation and humanise your law firm. This will help to improve awareness, generate leads and drive profits. It’s the type of content people want to see and are keen to engage with. Don’t believe us? Take a look at the difference in engagement between culture-focused and other posts – this applies to law firms both big and small!
Keen to give your culture a well-deserved makeover? Come back next week to discover our top tips to improve your law firm’s company culture. In the meantime, be sure to check out our other legal blog posts here or take a look at our digital marketing page to discover how we can help your firm reach the next level.
