Avoiding the trap of ‘best practice’ – design a people solution that suits you.

No two legal practices are the same. The unique histories, circumstances, specialisms and personalities of each practice all conspire to ensure that particular strategies are required if a practice is to survive and prosper. What all practices do have in common, however, is that in a consideration of their ‘hierarchy of assets’, people (or human capital) is king. The brand matters, technology makes life easier and financial muscle may support rapid expansion, but nothing is possible without people.

So, how do you manage this asset so that it offers success? How do you give it the time and attention that manufacturing gives to ‘plant’, that marketers give to brands and that distribution businesses give to their IT?

Take a look at the following.

WPC is a mid-sized solicitors practice. It has doubled its size in the last three years and is poised for further growth at an expected similar pace. It has a stable and skilled workforce, an excellent reputation for inducting new professionals and a simple but clear set of people policies and practices that the Partners believe, and employees report, enables their performance by engaging them in the practice. An analysis of the future business demands on the workforce says that they are well placed to exploit future opportunities but will need to concentrate on further professional development and be sensitive to the poaching of their ‘top talent’.

What might the priorities be for this business in protecting and leveraging its key asset?

By contrast, CPW (another midsized practice) has reported flat revenue for the past three years with declining Practice profitability. The ambition has changed and a significant revenue and profitability target has been established. The last few years have seen many new faces – and in one case, the same face re-appearing! This has been a drain on energy and client focus. There is a performance management system in the business but no one really uses it and no one really knows if it adds value. There is also talk of ‘cafeteria benefits’ and it is true that someone needs ‘to wake up and smell the coffee’! The future will demand much more of people than the past and the current foundation might be described as ‘a bit shaky’.

What might the priorities be for this practice in protecting and leveraging its key asset?

We think that there are three key sets of questions that need answering in forming and implementing effective people strategies for businesses.

1. What is your practice trying to achieve and how much more demanding are its future plans than its past?

2. What workforce characteristics have delivered yesterday’s performance and what workforce characteristics will deliver tomorrow’s performance?

3. What people policies and practices have enabled yesterday’s workforce and which will enable the workforce of tomorrow?

The sets of questions need answering in the sequence in which they are posed and it is a cardinal sin to jump to the solution space of people policies and practices by simply planning to implement ‘what other businesses do’.

Once an approach has been designed for your business, be clear about the outcomes and benefits that you want to achieve and track and monitor these. Implement at pace on a small scale, learning as you go. Avoid the tendency to build ‘monuments’ to HR best practice!

WPC saw retention of personnel as its key issue. In this sense it was business as usual but holding people for longer was always going to be more difficult. So the business calculated the impact of losing key personnel and having to replace them and used this sum of cash to re-enforce current retention programmes after clarifying with employees what it was that they valued in the workplace. No clamour for ‘cafeteria benefits’ here but a strong demand for a share of the prize!

CPW saw everything as an issue and realised that the current skills and commitment of its workforce would not be enough to realise the new ambitions of the business. So, it moderated its short term growth targets downwards and began to understand what employees valued by asking them – a few people were surprised by the answers; a few people were surprised that the answers required little by way of ‘cash injection’. Offering more accountability and more skills development became the short term priority and the latter the basic people metric for the business.

What people strategy do you need to design for your practice?

K C Eyre