Secondments are valuable for law firms and corporations alike. (For more about this see my first blog on secondment, here). That said, like everything else, the more you put into a secondment, the more you will get out of it. Welcome to my second blog on how to maximize the value of secondments.
Secondments can be expensive propositions for all parties. They can be expensive in money terms for firms – most secondments result in lost revenue at least in the short term. This happens in a number of different ways. Typically, the law firm subsidizes the secondment lawyer’s salary in part (and sometimes entirely) or charges a discounted or flat rate for the seconded lawyer’s time. Often of greater concern, for firms that run lean and mean, secondments place stress on already stretched resources.
Secondments can create challenges for the seconded lawyer as well; often they will not have access to the same level of support or resources (eg administrative or IT) on secondment. More importantly, while away, the seconded lawyer often feels disconnected from the firm. They can be concerned, legitimately, about falling behind in the race to partnership and can have difficulty successfully re-integrating into the firm on their return.
Secondments can be taxing for clients too. They have the challenge of on-boarding, training and integrating secondees and finding them the right opportunities.
Because secondments are a significant investment of time, money and effort, at a time when all three are in short supply, it is important to make secondments as successful as possible for firms, clients and the individual seconded lawyer. Here are some tips for success.
Second Best – How to Do It
As with all projects, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Successful secondments require thoughtful up-front planning and execution of the plan. There are a number of elements to a successful secondment plan.
- Choosing the Right Candidate – Key to success is finding the right lawyer for the secondment opportunity. The best secondments are those where the lawyer skillset and personality meet the client’s needs and the lawyer is interested in developing a stronger relationship with the client. Also, to be successful, the secondee has to have the right mindset (flexible, enthusiastic, proactive, desirous of learning, taking on new challenges and maximizing the experience, while there and on return).
- Firm Investment – The firm has to take an active role in ensuring that the secondment and the return is a success. Prior to a secondment, the firm should have a clear understanding (and better still set out in writing) the reasons for/benefits of the secondment and what is expected from on all parties (firm members, the seconded lawyer and the client) to make it a success.
- Support for Secondee – To ensure success, it is important to provide the seconded lawyer with the right support before, during and after the secondment. Internal or external mentoring or coaching is invaluable. The support should ensure that there are clear goals for the secondment (eg. to build client loyalty, promote cross-selling of services, gain useful intel about client and business, successful reintegration on return), a plan to achieve those goals and ongoing support through the secondment, and afterwards to ensure that the goals are achieved (or to modify the plan, if they are not).
If you would like to learn more about how to make secondments successful, please contact us at hilary.clarke@potentiacoaching.ca.