Action Steps

 

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Action Step – Building Your Training Program to Support Your Post-Pandemic Hybrid Workplace

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

 

Many organizations are rethinking their work environment post-pandemic. We learned a great deal during the pandemic regarding workplace flexibility and business continuity, leading many firms and companies to consider hybrid workplaces after the pandemic. While organizations will structure these hybrid work environments differently based upon their unique needs, all organizations will need to carefully think through different support structures and systems that will be needed for the new way of working. The Recommit stage of our Flex Recalibrated Framework discusses these additional support structures that will be needed to make your hybrid work environment succeed, including training. Organizations will need to train employees in order to arm them with new skills to make sure they can succeed in a hybrid world:

 

  1. Individual Strategies for Remote Work Success. Employees who will be working remotely, even part of the time, will need to learn best practices and strategies for being successful in a hybrid/remote work environment. These trainings should include real life examples to make the training more impactful. Teach employees effective ways to maintain connection and receive training in this new environment (i.e. intentionally reaching our/scheduling time with supervisors/colleagues; coming into the office when supervisors/clients come in; proactively asking to debrief after client meetings; maintaining visibility when coming into the office). Trainings should also discuss effective ways to handle challenges, such as communication/responsiveness difficulties, workload allocation challenges, maintaining and building connections, and creating effective boundaries.

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

 

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To learn more contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – Strategically Overcoming Flex Stigma

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

The pandemic has changed how we can work – individuals are rethinking how and where they want to work and organizations are looking at ways to change their flexibility policies and practices to attract, retain and engage top talent. However, in order to reap the many benefits of a more flexible work environment, including improved productivity, satisfaction, work-life control, business continuity and recruiting/retention, organizations need to ensure that controls are in place to identify and overcome stigma associated with flex. These biases, both conscious and unconscious, can derail an organization’s flexible work policies and practices if measures are not instituted to recognize and address them. As organizations revamp their flexible work policies using our Flex Recalibrated Framework, it is important to implement systems and processes to combat stigma (see the Reinforce stage of the framework.) Some measures that we recommend incorporating include:

 

  1. Training. When rolling out a flexible work policy, every organization should incorporate an ongoing training component to its implementation, consisting of best practices for flexible work success, effectively managing flexible teams, and addressing unconscious bias. This unconscious bias training should address the common stigma associated with flexible work, how to make your workforce aware of these biases, as well as effective ways to interrupt biases on your own behalf or on behalf of others.

 

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

 

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To learn more contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – Maintaining Mentoring & Connection in a Hybrid Environment

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

Many organizations are reimagining their work environment after the pandemic, with flexible work at the heart of the discussion. A number of organizations are planning on instituting a hybrid work environment post-pandemic, based on positive productivity during the pandemic, employee feedback and desire to scale back real estate. A hybrid work environment involves employees working some of the time in the office and some of the time remotely. Organizations considering hybrid work models reap many benefits, but must make sure mentoring and connectivity are embedded in their culture and continuously fostered in order to thrive. To ensure that mentoring and connectivity are preserved within a hybrid workforce, organization should focus on these eight strategies:

 

  1. Training. Organizations should offer trainings on ways to develop mentoring relationships and maintain connections in a hybrid work environment. These skills are not always innate and organizations that provide such trainings will help foster these necessary relationships. Employee trainings should focus on effective ways to proactively build relationships, the need to be prepared and share specific goals, the importance of showing appreciation, and the benefits of developing relationships with many senior professionals. Supervisor trainings should cover the need to be receptive, ways to guide meetings/relationships with junior professionals, guidance on effectively helping with career development, and ways to be creative with mentoring in a hybrid environment.

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

 

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To learn more contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – OVERCOME THE MYTH OF THE LOSS OF 5 Cs BY BUILDING THE RIGHT FLEX INFRASTRUCTURE

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

 

There is little doubt that flex is here to stay post-pandemic, given employees’ strong desire for it to continue, along with the business benefits of flex, including employee productivity/engagement, business continuity and retention/recruiting which became even more apparent during COVID-19. Our Pulse Poll: Future of Work shows that more than two-thirds of respondents plan on creating/updating their remote work policies post-pandemic.

Despite the fact that more organizations will be expanding flexible work, we have heard resistance to flex from a number of leaders through our conversations, insight interviews and focus groups with many organizations. Interestingly, the opposition to flex can be summed up as the fear of the loss of 5 Cs – loss of control, culture, collaboration, contribution and connection. While the loss of the 5 Cs can most certainly occur without proper flex infrastructure and support, organizations can prevent the loss of the 5Cs and also counter arguments against flex by building proper structures and processes. For flex to be successful, we need to gain leadership support, and we can win leaders over by pointing to infrastructure that prevents the loss of the 5 Cs.

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

 

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To learn more contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – LEVERAGE ALLIANCE FLEX RECALIBRATED FRAMEWORK TO REVAMP POST-PANDEMIC FLEX POLICY

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

 

The pandemic has forever changed how we can work, want to work, and will work. At the forefront of this is workplace flexibility. The pandemic inadvertently highlighted many benefits of flex, including productivity boosts, improved satisfaction, and business continuity gains. Now is the time for each organization to think through what type of flex is needed and can successfully be implemented. Use the Alliance’s Flex Recalibrated Framework to revamp your flex policy and lean on us each step of the way:

  1. Reflect. The first step is to Reflect on what worked, what were the challenges and how to structure flex to most effectively drive advancement, retention, diversity, recruitment, profitability, productivity, engagement and innovation. Organizations need to do this to establish a compelling purpose for flex that is unique to your organization. What were some of your successes with flex during the pandemic? What were some of your challenges? What are some ways to mitigate these challenges going forward? How has flex helped talent development, profitability and productivity? Now is the time to collect data to see what worked, what didn’t and why. Conduct employee surveys, check-in interviews and focus groups to gather data in order to build your unique flex business case and establish/communicate a clear purpose for flex….

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To learn more contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – Recommendations for Revising Your Flexible Working Initiative Post-Pandemic

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

 

The pandemic has changed the perception of flexibility from “a nice to have” to a business imperative. Prior to March 2020, some organizational leaders did not buy into workplace flexibility. Fast forward to 2021 and the conversations around flex are very different. Rather than asking why we need flex, more leaders are now focusing on how we can make flex as effective as possible. Organizations across all industries must think strategically about workplace flexibility in order to reap recruiting, retention, and business productivity benefits. To help you reboot your workplace flexibility policy, the Alliance has the following recommendations:

  1. Reflect, Reassess & Reimagine. We urge all organizations to look back and carefully reflect on the past year. How has your mission, values, products/services and/or business operations changed? In what ways can flexibility help with these changes? What were the positive impacts of flexibility in terms of productivity, satisfaction/engagement and recruiting/retention? We recommend that organizations create a task force of diverse leaders on the future of work, and collect data on employee productivity/satisfaction now to understand what worked and what didn’t. This will help revamp your flex policy post-pandemic, implement it effectively and create necessary infrastructure support. See our action step, Paving the Way for Flexible Work After the Pandemic Now, for ideas on how to monitor/measure employee experiences.

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To learn more contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – Future of Work: Post-Pandemic Flexible Work Policies

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

The pandemic has forever broadened the scope of flexible work. Many employees have learned to effectively work flexibly and/or remotely during the COVID-19 crisis and have experienced the benefits of flexible work. Organizational leaders are now considering how/what types of flexible work to offer after the pandemic. The Alliance has a number of recommendations for flexible work policies post-pandemic, so these initiatives can reap the greatest benefits in terms of work productivity, and recruitment/retention of top talent:

  1. Holistic Flexible Work – We strongly recommend implementing holistic flexible work policies, including reduced hours, telecommuting, flextime, compressed work week, asynchronous hours and job sharing options, as employees have individual flex needs. Additionally, by providing holistic flexible work options, employees who may not be able to utilize certain forms of flex due to their job function can still use other types of flex (i.e. a receptionist may not be able to telecommute due to his/her function but may be able to work reduced hours, flextime or compressed work week).

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To learn more contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – Gaining Gender and Racial Parity at the Top

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

The concerning results of our recently released 2020 New Partner Report, combined with the recent studies showing that women will be forced to leave the workforce due to the pandemic, could signal a step backwards for gender parity at top leadership levels. Our report shows that the share of women among new partners dropped slightly this year (40.9% in 2020 vs. 41.3% in 2019) and is only the second time over the last nine years when there was a year over year drop. Furthermore, according to NALP, the share of women minority partners at 3.45% is significantly lower than the share of total women partners (24.17%), indicating that cautionary trends uncovered from our 2020 New Partner Report would impact this group even more drastically. Organizations need to double down efforts now to increase the gender and ethnic parity at the top.

  1. Hiring with Intentionality. In our 2020 New Partner Report, we discussed the need to focus on strategically recruiting mid-level and senior level women attorneys through lateral hiring efforts, and we recommend organizations do the same for women of color. The representation of these groups at the associate level (46.77% women and 14.48% women of color)[1] is similar to the shares of these groups in terms of law school enrollment (54% women and 18.6% minority women),[2] but the representation of these groups greatly decrease at the partnership level (24.17% women and 3.45% women of color).[3] Organizations need to intentionally focus on increasing their women of color lateral recruiting pool by tapping into internal networks (i.e. women/diversity affinity group contacts; community contacts; client contacts), utilizing recruiters focused on diversity hiring, and setting diversity/gender goals regarding lateral recruiting based upon pipeline. Simultaneously, organizations need to make sure to attract top women of color through these hiring efforts. Conduct focus groups, check-in meetings and surveys to understand why women of color at the mid-level/senior level ranks chose your organization so you can publicize these policies/practices during interviews. Educate interviewers on diversity programs so they can raise them during interviews. Include a diverse interview panel, tapping into your women’s affinity group and diversity affinity group to secure interviewers.

[1] See “2019 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms” NALP, December 2019. https://www.nalp.org/uploads/2019_DiversityReport.pdf

[2] See “Enrollment Data 2017-2019,” American Bar Association, 2019. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/statistics/

[3] See “2019 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms” NALP, December 2019. https://www.nalp.org/uploads/2019_DiversityReport.pdf

Members: continue reading this Action Step in the Member Resource Center

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To further discuss your flexible working initiative during and after the pandemic, contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – Incorporating the 4 Es As Part of the Future of Work

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

One long-lasting effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the future of work will be different. Organizations needed to adjust overnight and offer flexible work to all employees, and many saw employee productivity and satisfaction go up during this time. Organizational leaders are now thinking through how to continue offering flexible work post pandemic and create a successful flexible work environment. What additional skills, experiences, and resources do employees need? What types of flexible work should we consider?

Flexible work is clearly now a business need to retain and acquire top talent, as well as an important way to foster employee productivity and satisfaction. However, organizations need to be intentional in how they lay the groundwork for flexibility in order to reap the full benefits. We recommend your organization’s pandemic task force use our 4Es Discussion Framework to discuss building or revamping your flexible work initiatives post-pandemic.

Continue Reading in the Member Resource Center

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To further discuss your flexible working initiative during and after the pandemic, contact Manar Morales.

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Action Step – Training & Flex Support During the Pandemic

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center. 

The Alliance has always recommended having robust training, education, and support structures around flexible work in place in order to have a truly inclusive flex culture in your organization. However, our 2019 Law Firm Flexibility Benchmarking Study found pre-pandemic flex support to be too weak – only 6.1% of respondents had a flex affinity group, and two-thirds did not offer flex education. We recommend that organizations invest more resources to ensure flex programs are properly utilized and valued. During the pandemic, our Pulse Poll: COVID-19 & Reentry Study found that significantly less than a majority planned/launched trainings focused on remote work best practices.

While training and flex support is always necessary to make flex successful for both workers and their managers, it’s even more crucial during the pandemic as many employees are first time teleworkers, and many managers are leading remote teams for the first time too. Organizations must allocate resources to this area in order for their workforce to succeed in this new environment.

Continue Reading in the Member Resource Center

To read this entire Action Step become a member of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance. To further discuss training during and after the pandemic, contact Manar Morales.