The pandemic has disrupted the traditional ways of staffing and running a law office, and experts say there’ll be no going back.
Remote job flexibility is the biggest change brought by COVID, according to this Future of Work 2021 Global Outlook report from jobs site Monster.
“The pandemic essentially forced many companies to do the unthinkable: manage a remote workforce,” according to a Monster roundup of 2021 hiring predictions. “To a large extent, it was successful, proving that the work can still get done even without a physical office presence. In other words, even when things return to normal, there’s a good chance that many employees will prefer to remain off-site, at least some of the time.”
Following are three other law office hiring trends that will survive the pandemic.
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Diversity and Inclusion Become Priorities
“Another significant focus for companies in 2021 will be to diversify hiring,” writes US Chamber of Commerce business writer Sean Ludwig. “The Modern Hire 2021 Hiring Trends Report suggests businesses feel an ‘urgency for meaningful improvement in organizational diversity and inclusion.’”
“Research has shown that at the human level, diverse and inclusive teams are more creative, innovative, and engaged at work,” according to the Modern Hire report. “For all these reasons, organizations are engaging more fully in understanding diversity and barriers to diversity within their workforce. They view hiring both as the primary driver reinforcing bias and also as a primary driver for improving it.”
Trending: law firms are investing in new software and tools to help them predict, measure and control for bias in recruiting, hiring and evaluating workers.
Safe, Redesigned Workspaces
“While many new employees will continue to work remotely, some new workers will return to office spaces in 2021,” writes Ludwig. “These new hires will expect transformed work areas that ensure their safety and follow newly established norms like social distancing and improved sanitation as they come back.”
Trending: law firms are developing back-to-work safety protocols that include social distancing, creative floor plans, and hygiene stations.
Screening and Onboarding Go Virtual
“It’s likely that early screening interviews and the post-hiring onboarding will now all take place via video chat applications,” writes Ludwig. “One example of where the public sector shifted well into virtual onboarding is the General Services Administration (GSA), as the organization has been able to increase hiring because of its digital transformation.”
Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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