Benchmarking Data to Support Your Firm’s Flexibility Efforts

Did you miss seeing our 2015 Flexibility Benchmarking Survey Report released two weeks ago?

If so, you may not know that a majority of U.S. law firms in our survey reported having more than one type of flexible work as part of their formal policy. That is, their policies include at least two of the following types of holistic flexibility: reduced hour schedules, telecommuting, flexible start/end times, annualized hours and/or job sharing.

Yet, full-time flexibility usage, which includes telecommuting and flexible start/end times, has fallen relative to the 2014 survey results. All participant firms, however, reported that they have lawyers who telecommute informally.

You also may not know that reduced hour schedules are the most commonly offered and used type of flexibility in law firms. In addition, reduced hours schedules were represented among firm leadership in 10 firms participating in the survey, including firm chairs, practice group leaders, and office heads.

Flexible work schedules are still not equally used by both sexes. In fact, women constitute the largest share of reduced hours lawyers (68%) yet continue to be underrepresented among participant law firm attorneys overall, relative to their share of law school graduates. Lawyers of color and LGBT lawyers are generally underrepresented among flex lawyers relative to their share of lawyers overall at participant firms.

It’s not too late to learn how to move your company forward and to learn from this data on flexibility and its usage by gender, race, and sexual orientation. If you’re a member of the Alliance, you can access the full report in the Member Resource Center. Or better yet, register for our upcoming conference, Diversity + Flexibility = Talent Success, where you’ll hear more analysis from the report’s authors and you’ll learn from firms who are leaders in the diversity and flexibility arena.