By David Comins.
It would be fair to say that, traditionally, the legal profession has relied on attracting people by the generous salaries that lawyers can earn – from newly qualified solicitors all the way up to partnership level.
Recently however, things seem to be changing. Here at Wadkins Associates we have seen a significant shift in what motivates people; why they have decided to move on, and what they are looking for in their next job.
Broadly, this can be broken down into the following:
Financial Reward
While salary is not the overriding motivation it might previously have been, people certainly still want to be paid well and fairly because they see this as the main indication of how much employers value them.
Quality of Work
It is important to ensure employees are being challenged in the work they do, and that there is sufficient variety to keep each day interesting. This shouldn’t just be restricted to the technical side of legal work but also to giving employees genuine access to clients and business development opportunities.
Support & Development
Generally speaking, we all want to improve our knowledge and skills, and value being given the latitude to be stretched and taken out of our comfort zone. In providing these opportunities to develop, it is important to put in place a supportive structure and culture to help your people succeed and steadily grow in confidence.
Work Life Balance
Employees value a balanced ‘give and take’ relationship with their employers. The two most common themes we see around this are workload and flexible working. Employees want to be challenged and highly productive. But overworking can stretch people too far, with extreme stress and unhappiness resulting in lower productivity and potentially losing excellent employees.
Flexible working is a good way to help employees balance their work and personal commitments and a good starting point to achieving a positive and productive work life balance that works best for employers and employees alike.
At Wadkins Associates we advise our clients on how to attract and retain the very best legal talent within this ever-changing market.
If you would like to further discuss this, whether you are a client or candidate, we would love to hear from you.
