Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many law firms are now operating remotely and having their staff work from home. Law firms are traditionally not a remote-friendly industry and this sudden change has likely come as quite a bit of a shock to most firms.
Even though this is a big change, productivity does not have to suffer due to your firm operating remotely. Below are three things you can do to help your firm communicate effectively and stay on track during these unprecedented times.
1. Use Video Conferencing Software: Just because you can’t meet face to face doesn’t mean you can’t see each other. Video conferencing is great for communicating and boosting morale while everyone is working from home. Video calls are interactive and ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to deadlines or important projects. Video conferencing also brings in some much-needed human interaction in a time where you don’t get to socialize in person with coworkers.
2. Use a collaborative chat program: Email is great but programs like Microsoft Teams or Slack are better when working remotely. Unified communication and collaboration programs are great for instant communication, screensharing, audio calling, video chatting and staying organized. Collaborative chat programs make sharing files and documents easy, they even allow more than one person to work on a document at the same time, enabling truly collaborative work in real time. The ability to create different teams or channels within these programs enables teams to segment work based on a project or department and makes it easy to ensure that everyone is on track and keeping up with the things they are working on. Channel features also keep everything organized, they allow everything done on a particular project to be stored in one place and make it easier to find things.
3. Daily check-ins: Now that you have video conferencing and collaborative chat programs, it’s time to use them! A 30-60-minute meeting once a day is a great way to make sure everyone is on track and to identify issues that need to be resolved. Meetings can begin with a broad conversation discussing your firm’s current cases and can segment into more specific matters. Connecting once a day ensures that everyone is on the same page and that all tasks are assigned and being completed. A daily check-in is also great for catching up with your team and making sure that everyone is doing okay during this stressful time.
While working remotely is likely a big culture shift for most law firms, many might find that working from home is a lot more possible in the industry than previously believed. Studies have found that when employees are given the ability to work from home, productivity rises. When the stay at home orders lift, many firms, like a COVID-19 Litigation firm in Las Vegas, NV, may find that they would like to adopt a more flexible work from home policy due to the ease of communication and collaboration that has been made possible through technology.
Thanks to The Law Firm of Eglet Adams for their tips on being efficient while working remotely.