As children return to school in the fall, parents adjust to new routines and a different work-life balance. Once the school year continues, many employees have demands on their time outside of work. Companies must anticipate these staffing challenges and prepare to remain efficient for scheduled and unexpected absences.
Ensuring your organization is prepared for employee absences is crucial. You can protect your company from staff shortages by attracting and retaining top talent and building relationships with a firm like Collier Legal Search.
Retention of Top Talent
2022 has seen an overall shortage of workers in several fields, but the need for qualified workers is essential in the legal profession. Hiring and maintaining top talent is crucial to your organization’s success.
Beyond finding and hiring these top achievers, you need to understand what will help them stay at your organization long-term and what factors might make them leave your organization.
Top Concerns for Employers
Studies have shown that an employee’s relationship with their bosses or supervisors is key to employee retention. Employees who feel respected and valued tend to stay in their positions longer. Treating your employees respectfully and having staff coverage for necessary family-related absences should be a priority.
Flexibility For Family Needs
A study by McKinsey found that a shared sense of community and empathetic feelings of togetherness were common at workplaces with high retention rates. Part of this feeling of community is an intuitive understanding of family needs. Companies that are flexible and accommodating of employees with families are more likely to keep them.
Flexible Schedules
The post-Covid work-from-home era has prompted a rise in flexible schedules. Many parents need flexibility regarding working hours to keep up with short-notice school closings or daycare staffing issues. Remain approachable for your employees to communicate personal scheduling demands. If temporary labor is an option to maintain production, consider calling a company like Collier Legal Search.
Creating a Positive Culture
Workplace culture has an enormous impact on your organization. According to a 2017 Gallup report, only 33% of American workers feel engaged at work. This low engagement results from poor workplace cultures where employees don’t feel valued or recognized. To combat these issues and retain talent, you must build a positive company culture by understanding your employees and implementing practices that meet their needs and combat this staffing challenge.
Having a Supportive Culture Leads To Retention
A supportive culture makes employees feel comfortable and at home in your organization. This culture includes:
● Treating employees as friends
● Offering kindness and understanding when someone is struggling
● Focusing on the meaning of the work
● Forgiving mistakes
● Sharing constructive criticism
● Embracing values like integrity, trust, gratitude, and respect
Properly Recognize Employee Performance
Beyond ensuring employees are supported and understood when they fail, companies must adequately recognize success. Proper recognition must be meaningful and tailored to the employee.
Some employees like a quiet chat full of praise; others prefer public recognition. Offering distinction tailored to your employee’s preferences reinforces your company’s understanding and supportive nature.
Know Employees Needs
Anticipating the needs of your employees is a necessary part of fostering a community and a positive culture. Needs like respect, recognition, and understanding are universal, but a truly collaborative company will also cater to the individual needs of employees. Knowing all the people in your organization will help you know what they need as individuals and help you understand how to meet their needs.
Accommodate for Employee Needs
Employees want to be understood and appreciated. Each individual will have their own needs, and how willing an employer will go to accommodate that will affect employee retention. If an employee has children, this will be particularly true.
Your organization should take steps to accommodate the specific needs of employees and their families, such as offering time off for family sick leave or flexible schedules.
How Collier Legal Search Can Help
Collier Legal Search, LLC is a legal recruiting firm with nearly 20 years of consistent, top service. For law firm clients, our veteran lawyer placement team specializes in recruitment and placement of all levels of attorneys, from equity partners to associates. Our legal staffing team works on hiring needs for paralegals, legal administrators, legal accounting professionals and more. For company clients, we work on all legal departmental hires. Should you need temporary coverage, our pool of qualified legal professionals can offer uninterrupted work production.
Contact Collier Legal Search today to find qualified professionals to build your team and improve efficiency at your law firm.