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What are the two most dreaded words in law firms? Performance evaluation. They elicit collective groans from support staff and attorneys alike.
A performance evaluation is simply a report card measuring an employee’s achievement during the year in the context of what is expected of them. Support staff view it as a waste of time, stating that evaluations don’t make any difference in their bonuses or raises. Attorneys don’t want to take the time to do an evaluation, let alone do it correctly. Many loathe upsetting a working relationship with a secretary, regardless of how dysfunctional it is, by expressing dissatisfaction with her performance.
Why Is Performance Evaluation Important?
“Imagine being pulled over for speeding when there is no posted limit,” says Ken Katzeff, HR consultant. “You ask the cop why he is giving you a ticket if there are no posted signs. This same analogy can be applied to performance evaluation. If management establishes expected levels of performance, these levels then form the basis for defining what an employee needs to do in order to improve—the speed limit.”
If there were no performance evaluations, management would have a hard time knowing which employees are working hard, hardly working, or doing nothing much at all. They also would not know how the working relationship between staff and attorney is being managed.
Why Do Staff Think Performance Evaluations Don’t Work?
One secretary frustrated with the system says, “In our firm, any category on the form other than ‘meets expectations’ requires a written explanation. My attorney just checked ‘meets expectations’ on the entire evaluation so he wouldn’t have to take the time to write anything. Is that fair?”
“Very often management has not set standards at the beginning of the performance cycle,” says Katzeff. “By the time the end of the year comes, it’s too late to tell staff what those standards are. The evaluation form is just a vehicle for performance management, which often doesn’t exist.”
How Can We Fix The System?
In order for a performance evaluation to be an effective tool, it must be part of the larger performance management process. Goals and objectives have to be set at the beginning of the year. The expectations for meeting those goals have to be specific and clear to both attorneys and support staff. The setting of goals and objectives, outlining specific steps for meeting them, and stating what the reward (or lack of) will be, is a simplified definition of performance management.
For example, management may say to a secretary, “In order to achieve an outstanding rating on a performance evaluation in the category of technical skills, you must know the advanced functions of Word, such as generating a table of authorities or executing a complicated mail merge.”
The attorneys must understand that part of their job is managing staff and not just making money for the firm. They must be able to provide direction to their staff, evaluate performance and offer feedback.
How do you convince attorneys that managing staff is just as important as managing their clients? “The attorneys have to believe that they have an obligation to support the support staff,” says Katzeff. “They have to be asked the question, ‘Can you do your job effectively without any support?’”
A few attorneys will probably insist that they can do it alone. But those who can’t have to understand the ramifications of a poor performance management system.
If employees aren’t properly supervised, what happens? Their performance will suffer and eventually they will quit. Constant turnover puts a strain on the cost of running the firm as well as how efficiently the attorneys are able to run their practices.
How Can We Set Goals For High Performers?
This is a nagging question, always asked by the most experienced legal secretaries. They know they are high performers and consistently score “exceeds expectations” on their evaluations.
Let’s step back to see how they progressed through the performance evaluation system. In their early jobs perhaps they typed 60 words a minute—now they type 90. They had rudimentary knowledge of Word—now they are skilled in all the advanced functions. They worked for young associates and had little responsibility—today, they work for senior partners and assume a great deal of responsibility. Their goal now is to maintain that higher level of performance. But that level must be recognized and rewarded.
The expectations of maintaining a high level of performance must be outlined, just as they are for lower level employees. For example, if a firm acquires new software, these high performers may be called upon to learn it first and teach it to others. They may be given four attorneys to work for instead of three because management is confident of their ability to handle the extra responsibility.
The best reward is, of course, money—a higher salary or a bigger bonus. In reality, however, most firms cap bonuses and salaries for support staff. To reward employees in this case, remember that money isn’t the only motivator. Remind them how important they are to the firm. “Research shows that performance slips if employees don’t feel appreciated,” says Katzeff.
A simple “thank you” goes a long way to making a secretary feel appreciated, especially coming from an attorney who never expresses gratitude.
The organization as a whole benefits from a good performance management system. Administrators learn from evaluations about gaps in training, if there is tension in an attorney-secretary assignment, and where communication is breaking down between attorneys and the support staff.
“The most important thing to keep in mind,” concludes Katzeff, “is that if there is no performance measurement, the quality of effort goes down, costing the firm time and money.”
