Valuing Your Team

La version française de ce billet est disponible ici.

Study after study has shown that traditional employers, including law firms, are having more and more difficulty recruiting and retaining employees. In spite of salary increases, recent graduates are increasingly less likely to participate in law firm recruitment, continuing a trend of their peers a few years their senior who increasingly seek out non-traditional employers.

One key motivating factor is that traditional employers are having trouble adapting to the wants and needs of the youngest people on the employment market. For example, a recent McKinsey study found that the extent to which an employer values its employees is the most important factor in determining whether members of Gen Z will accept a given job offer (or remain in their current post). Crucially, this criterion is distinct from remuneration (in other words: for Gen Z, a high salary is an insufficient indicator that an employer values its workers).  

So, given the stiff competition for top talent in the current job market, how does one attract and retain the best of the best?

Showing your team that you value them means demonstrating that you are willing to invest in their professional development because you plan on working with them for the long term. It means giving them every possible opportunity to stay with you as long as possible, while continuing to advance in seniority as much as possible. By investing in their professional development (instead of adopting a “sink or swim” attitude and leaving them to fend for themselves), you demonstrate that you have faith in their ability to succeed — and that you hope that they will stick around.

Unfortunately — especially in high-pressure environments where high workloads are the norm — it can feel difficult or even impossible for managers to find the time to adequately tend to the development of each member of their team. For that reason, engaging an external coach is one means of showing a younger member of your team that you value them, and to closely follow their development, even if you personally lack the time for individual one-on-one meetings on a regular basis.

An employer-sponsored coaching programme typically starts with a meeting attended by the coach, the coachee and their manager to set goals and expectations; another similar meeting mid-way through the engagement ensures that everything is progressing as planned. In this way, you, as the manager, demonstrate your commitment to developing the coachee while at the same time leaving them the freedom to pursue their work with the coach in the way they deem most beneficial. A final tripartite coach-coachee-manager meeting following the final coaching session gives the parties the opportunity to take stock of progress and ensure that the positive momentum continues long into the future.

Are you in search of additional ways to ensure your top talent stays with you over the long term? Contact Jon here to talk about the many ways he can accompany your team, both individually and collectively. If you would first like to know more about his credentials, you will find the relevant information here.