Episode 273 What to Do When Multiple Employees Leave at Once
Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers? Ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more. Then take an insight or 2 to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love.
Intro:Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue. So you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams. Now, here's Devina.
Davina:Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the wealthy woman lawyer podcast. I'm your host, Devina Frederick. Today's topic was inspired by recent conversations with at least 3 different women law firm owners who recently lost several employees at once. It can feel very upsetting when this happens to you, when you have multiple employees leave in short order or all walk out the door at the same time.
Davina:And you may even take it personally. In some cases, maybe it really feels that way. Like it's very personal. Because after all you own a law firm business and several people leave at once and you're the only, or almost the only one left standing. So it must be you.
Davina:Right? Well, not so fast. If you've ever experienced this first, I want you to know that it is not your fault. It happens to even the best of bosses. Staff turnover is a very common occurrence, especially in long standing businesses of any kind.
Davina:And sometimes one person's unhappiness can influence others on your team, leading to a chain reaction of departures. It's important to remember that sometimes people see 1 or 2 people leaving, and then they take that as a sign that the whole ship is sinking when it's not. It's just a natural part of the ebb and flow of business sometimes. And occasionally, outside sir circumstances result in people leaving. For example, one person decides not to return from maternity leave just as another is recruited for a job they can't refuse, maybe as an in house lawyer.
Davina:And a third decides to live in a van, write a travel blog, and follow their bliss. They just get out of law altogether. I mean, these kinds of things happen. There are all sorts of reasons that people move around from one job to another. And unfortunately, your law firm is not immune from employee turnover, no matter how great of a boss you are.
Davina:Consider this, if you own a business for 10, 20, or even 30 years or more, is it is it even reasonable to expect all of your employees to stay forever? So think about that. If you own a business for years, decades, is it likely that all of your employees are gonna stay during that entire time? And the answer is probably no. After all, we're no longer living in the work someplace for 30 years, then retire and receive a gold watch era.
Davina:Like, nobody does that anymore. Pin there are no pension plans like there used to be, and it's just not the way it works. Company loyalty is no longer what it used to be, whether that company is a small business like yours or a large corporation. So here are some of the factors that may be driving this that I've observed. 1 is that messages on social media tell employees they need to change jobs at least every 3 years if they wanna advance quickly in their careers.
Davina:So it's not uncommon for people to just automatically start looking around after 2 or 3 years and see if they could get a better offer someplace else. Also, number 2, low, unemployment, especially in the legal field. The employer rate in the legal field right now, as I'm writing this, is about 0.93%. That's less than 1%. That leaves small firms especially vulnerable to poaching from larger firms and employees being in the driver's seat with more freedom to ask and expect to receive the salaries and benefits that they most desire, even if they don't have the skill level that we're looking for.
Davina:In other words, they have, a perception that they are worth a lot more than they may actually be, as an employee to you. But unfortunately, that's kind of what we're in right now in our economy. Number 3 is burnout in legal field with attorneys and staff seeking new career options. I know I talk with a lot of people who are burned out with, being lawyers, are working for high paced in demand law firms, and they just wanna leave altogether. Number 4 is the desire of many employees to work from home or quote unquote quiet vacation, and in general value time over money.
Davina:The COVID 19 pandemic dramatically transformed all of our beliefs around work and money and time freedom. And so culturally, we just don't have the same beliefs that we used to That, work is life. Right now, we were looking for, ways to support the life that we want as opposed to our work being our life, which has traditionally been the case, especially if you're a lawyer. Number 5, the desire of many people to own their own law firm businesses as or work as contract attorneys so that they can maintain control over their schedules and their time. And the ease of which one can start a law firm these days.
Davina:It used to be that you couldn't, easily start a solo firm and grow it into accessible a successful business because we didn't have the Internet. We didn't have social media. We didn't have things that could help us level the playing field with larger law firms. And now it is super easy to start and operate on a shoestring budget, a virtual business of any kind, certainly a virtual law firm, and really reducing the time that we need to be in court or in the office. And a lot of people are choosing that route instead of working for other law firms.
Davina:And number 6, generational differences. Older generations were expected to pay their dues and climb the corporate ladder. And we were willing, I'm a Gen Xer, so I know this, we were willing, we were actually we felt like we were required to work long hours. Actually felt like we were required to work long hours for low pay with the promise of greater rewards down the line. So if you really put in the work, paid your dues, eventually that would pay off for you.
Davina:And that was the way older generations have sort of come up through business. Younger generations now have more opportunities to support themselves through online businesses or gig work. So they no longer feel the need, desire, or obligation to do the same kinds of things that we used to have to do. And quite understandably. Right?
Davina:And a lot of other other generations, older generations, older people like me and like some of you actually are now taking a page out of some of these younger generations, thoughts and ideas and saying, well, gee, why am I putting in all this work? Right? So you may be able to identify, other factors as well, but these are just a few that I see that could be affecting, what's going on with the employees moving around a lot of high turnover in law firm businesses. Regardless of the reasons, if we wanna build profitable, sustainable, wealth generating businesses, we likely will need a solid team to support us in that endeavor. K?
Davina:Working alone, we're really limited to our own individual capacity. 247, 365. We only have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And quite frankly, we're spending half of that sleeping if we're lucky. And we all have lives and other things going on, families that need us.
Davina:So really, when we're looking at our own individual capacity, how much time do we really have to get work done? You're gonna be capped out. If you're working yourself to the ground, you're going to be capped out at 500,000, 700,000 in revenue. I mean, I've seen somebody who made it to 8 where she was working as a true solo, but she that's all she does is work, work, work, and then drink, drink, drink when she's off because she's so stressed out from work, work, work. Right?
Davina:With a good team and systems, our capacity to serve more clients and better clients is exponentially greater than working alone to achieve our financial and other goals. So we're kind of in this dilemma. We know we need capacity, but we're dealing with this, turnover issue with employees. So where does that leave us as a small as small firm owners with big dreams? Well, you'll likely need to dig a little bit deeper and get more creative when you think about hiring and recruiting the right fit team for your law firm.
Davina:And here are some steps that I recommend you take if you're faced with the challenges of multiple employees, whether you're associates or staff leaving at once. So number 1, step number 1 is do not panic. It may be hard. I know, but a panicked mind cannot make good decisions. You just can't.
Davina:Your amygdala is going crazy. And that's just not the place that you're gonna be making those good decisions. Right? Panic mind is in a reactionary mode and likely will only make bad decisions. So remember that it is super important for you to stay calm and focus on working the problem.
Davina:So if you need to go vent to a girlfriend or a mentor, whatever, go do that, work through it, and get yourself in a state where you can calm down and focus on working the problem. So hopefully, you have surrounded yourself with coaches, mentors, and advisors. You can call during a time like this to talk you off the ledge, so to speak. I know my job as a coach of women law firm owners is to often be the the sounding board and the person who helps them verbally process what they're going through so that they can get in the right frame of mind to take action and move forward. I advise you to do the same.
Davina:Step number 2 is think like a business person and an attorney, not like a girlfriend who's been rejected by the cool kids. I know when you're in a small firm environment, you can get attached to your employees because they've helped you build the firm or maybe it's the 2 or 3 of you against the world when you first start out. But this is not your they're not your family. And, you are the cool kid. Right?
Davina:So call your employment attorney colleague and make sure you are handling each resignation or termination in a legally and morally correct way. When I say morally correct way, I mean, a way that aligns with your core values and, treating people how you would like to be treated. Remember that other people's behavior is about them. Your response to that is about you, and you wanna remember to be the person that you want to be. Right?
Davina:And not, be not allow somebody to trigger you. Don't allow yourself to get sucked into personal drama or be hurt by things that, employees may have to say when they are upset and walking out the door, storming out the door. Remember that they may not have the full big picture of the firm that you do. And some of the things that they're upset about, may not be real. It just may be their perception of a thing.
Davina:And I'll give you an example. I was hearing from a woman law firm recently where, someone on her team was, complaining that she was gone all the time. And she's gone because she's in court and she hired these people to hold down the fort while she was gone. So is that really a reasonable thing for an employee? No, it's not.
Davina:So there are other many other situations like that. And just don't let yourself get hurt by those kinds of things and consider the source. Right? Maybe they're accurate on some things and maybe there are some things that you should reflect on. But, I'll turn to your mentors, advisors, your employment attorney, and people to help you keep a cool head.
Davina:Alright. Step number 3 is put together a stop gap plan that you can implement immediately to assure nothing falls through the cracks and clients are not affected by this transition. This may mean you need to hire contract paralegals or attorneys. Yes. Even if they are a little more expensive than what you are used to, you need to make sure that you have support.
Davina:You can hire temporary admin staff to help you get through. For example, you can ask for extensions where you can. You wanna review each case and see what it is needed and think about who besides you can help. So you're not staying up all night every night, and putting yourself in a bad mental and physical state. You want to hire a reception service to handle calls or get your client care specialist to set new client consults further out to allow yourself some breathing room or maybe even hold off on taking on any new cases until you replace 1 or 2 of your key team members, from the exiting team members.
Davina:There are numerous ways you can restructure to get you through a difficult transition like this. Whatever you do, do not allow it to paralyze you. Do not try to do everything yourself because you you're just asking for a bar grievance and maybe even malpractice. So ask people around you higher. Don't hesitate to hire contract people just to come in and help you as a stop gap measure.
Davina:Step number 4 is consider feedback from any departing employees and whether there is any validity. I don't want you to get caught up in this and get in your head about it, but here's an example. If you keep hearing the same complaints when employee leaves, you might wanna consider if there is a pattern that needs to be addressed. So either a pattern in your behavior as a leader, or in your processes, or with the type of people that you're hiring. Maybe you were keep hiring people that are high drama people, or or maybe they're not critical thinkers that you need.
Davina:And so you're you you're hiring the wrong people to begin with. Or maybe you as a leader have some sort of pattern or behavior that you need to address, maybe by studying EQ and improving your EQ. Also speak with your employees who are still with you to learn what they love about working with you and what you could do to make your firm be place that people wanna work. Believe it or not, while money is a factor, today's employees are also driven by work life balance and other perks. Right?
Davina:So find out what motivates each of your employees and ask them what else would excite them. What is it that they love about working with your firm? And what is it that they wish, were a little bit different. Right? And you don't have to make all these changes, but that feedback is important if you want to build a culture that is a culture that people want to be a part of.
Davina:Step number 5 is get your ads back out immediately. Do not stay in your feelings. The longer you stay in your feelings and delay hiring more people because, oh, that was just terrible and I hate employees and I never wanna hire again. The more you do that, the longer the only person you're hurting is you. They've all moved on to new jobs and their lives.
Davina:And it's like, you're just, you're just, hurting yourself. You're drinking the poison. Right? Instead of letting it roll through you. And I'll give you an example of a woman law firm owner who, every time someone leaves, it takes 6 months for her to sort of get past that and move on to hiring somebody else.
Davina:I've seen that multiple times. Right? Because they take it personally. They say, I'm not a great boss. This is too much of a hassle.
Davina:I don't want this. All of that is going to hold you back from growing your business. So focus on next. There are people out there who would love to work for an organization like yours. Think of all the reasons you love to work for your company and all the reasons other employees love to work for your company.
Davina:And then write down the most compelling ad that you can talking about how great of a place it is to work and why they wanna work there. This job is right for you if you are X. Right? Post that on the careers page on your website, share it on your socials, share it in groups, put it on the recruiting sites like Indeed, Wise Hire, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn. In our program, we do teach people how to write compelling ads so that people will want to work for them, that they'll stand out from all the other ads on there.
Davina:Step number 6, evangelize. Just like you promote your firm to obtain new referral contacts and new clients, promote your firm as an awesome place to work every time you are out and about networking. Okay? Be your own best recruiter. Be an evangelist for your law firm.
Davina:Talk about all the reasons why people love working for your firm. Talk about the kind of people who are the best fit to work for your firm because not everybody is, right? Talk about why your clients love working with your team and why your, why your team loves working with you. Call people in your network and ask them who they know who might be working someplace else at the moment, but might be open to new opportunities. If you, if some of your friends know, Hey, there's a great litigator in my practice area.
Davina:I see her all the time. You ought to call her and talk to her. Maybe it doesn't result in anything right then, but maybe it results in, a new relationship for the future. Right? Think of who you would like on your team, call them up and offer to take them out to lunch and get to know associate attorneys, get to know potential staff people, get to know potential paralegals in your field, in your geographic area.
Davina:So that when an opportunity comes up to work for you, they are like, oh, I have to I have to apply. Right? Create as many opportunities for yourself and your law firm as you can and never stop recruiting. Just like you never stop networking, never stop recruiting. Right?
Davina:Because you never know when you might need a new employee or you wanna continue to grow and add to your employees. Step number 7. If you do not have a good hiring system, take the opportunity now to create 1. Write down all the steps in your hiring system and your new employee onboarding process. Think of who besides you that you could turn to to help you update your policy manual to avoid some of the problems that arise that are when employees leave.
Davina:Right? Help, think of people who could help you review resumes. Maybe it's, you have some colleagues or friends or family members who are really good at reviewing resumes. It doesn't have to be you. Develop a system for reviewing resumes quickly and sorting through and really narrowing them down quickly.
Davina:Also, think of people who could help you with job interviews and offers. I'll give you an example. I just hired a company to help me hire a new assistant, and they are doing the heavy lifting to help me find and hire hire this assistant. I'm not writing the ad. I'm not doing the preliminary interviews.
Davina:They are doing all of that, and then they give me options to pick from. So the those are outsourced services that you can find. Create an offer template, so you have it ready to go when your new employee comes along. Plan out your onboarding and training process so you ensure you adequately prepare new employees for the job because maybe that was an issue with employees who that left. You didn't spend enough time training improperly.
Davina:Think through your compensation benefits package and put together enticing officer offers for right fit candidates. So really compare go go and look at some other ads and look at some other people's, law firm's compensation and benefits package and make sure that you are putting together competitive offers. Go do some research on, appropriate salaries for different types of jobs. Whatever you do, do not give up hope. K?
Davina:And do not drag your feet. If your law firm's capacity to take on more and better clients is your number one problem, then commit to solving that before you do anything else. I hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. If you are a woman law firm owner who is beyond ready to scale your solo or small practice and create a profitable, sustainable, wealth generating law firm business, then I invite you to check out my new training. It's called how to build a wealth generating law firm, 3 strategies for women law firm owners that double your revenue without doubling your workload.
Davina:In this training, I share with you 3 uncommon ideas, 3 strategies you can deploy now to help you scale your firm to achieve high five, and 6 figure months within the next 6 months. So you can finally have not only the financial security that you desire, but the time to enjoy your newfound wealth. So go to the show notes now, click on the link, watch the training. If you enjoy this podcast, I promise that you will love this training. So I really encourage you to go watch it.
Davina:I'll be back next week with more content created specifically for women law firm owners on a mission to grow their law firm businesses and achieve their wildest dreams. I'll see you then.
Intro:If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us at wealthy woman lawyer.com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.
