24 Oct Developing your resource strategy
2022 is coming… forget the great resignation, you need resource allocation…
Every talent-based article I have been reading lately talks about the looming ‘great resignation of 2022’. Some researchers have suggested that up to 60% of people will be searching for jobs by March 2022! Personally, I am not entirely sure about the ‘great resignation’ given the amount of recruitment activity we have experienced over the last 18 months; however, either way, internal legal teams need to start future proofing their team.
General counsels, executives and hiring managers are constantly concerned about their legal support function, their teams are stretched, and resources are scarce. New regulatory changes are forever being implemented; and governance obligations, new legal, risk and compliance management issues are being thrown at them (including local, national and global impacts); and, now businesses are also facing workplace health and safety responses as they navigate a post COVID environment.
Rather than worrying about the ‘great resignation’, start getting proactive on your resourcing strategy.
Start a conversation with your team
Take a moment to sit down with your team individually, take stock of how things have been for them over the past two years, including how working remotely has impacted their performance, their highlights, challenges they have faced, and their relationships with the business, with their clients and stakeholders. Ask them how COVID has impacted them personally, how have they found working from home, and how they are feeling mentally? Open ended questions can really help give you a great insight into your team, how they perceive the role/team, and what potential challenges you may face if they left the business.
Reconnect with your stakeholders
Whilst in-house teams are increasingly valued in some parts of an organisation, they can still be seen as a cost centre. Now is a great time to reconnect with your main stakeholders, obtain some feedback on service delivery, but more importantly, start conversations about operational and strategic projects. You want to be involved at the forefront of your business operations – you can be proactive in managing risk, as well as identifying better opportunities for the business. You want to be viewed as a commercial partner to the business.
Aim to demonstrate the value your legal team brings to the business and highlight this to the business; don’t assume they know. Aim to be part of the transaction, so you are not be perceived as the reactive, frustrating road blocker to the business operation. By constantly adding value to your stakeholders, you will always have the support of the business when it comes time to resourcing your team.
Educating your stakeholders
Get your business educated on understanding the impact of legal risk of their decisions on the business – whether it be on legal spend for external lawyers, penalties including fines, brand or reputational damage – training your stakeholders and educating them on the legal implications and risks of their decisions is another great way of providing your value. You can only hope an educated stakeholder will dial into the legal team before making a big decision. If this is not happening, then you have work to do to educate the business.
COVID may have slightly silenced the market in early 2020, but one thing is for sure, legal talent has never been in higher demand. Moving jobs has never been easier. Think about it, you can essentially now get a new job on your mobile device or tablet. Thanks to Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Bluejeans etc, you can enquire, interview, and accept a new job offer without having to set foot in your next employer’s office. How crazy is that?!
People movement is inevitable in the current market. Forget the ‘great resignation’ and start future proofing your business through planning your resource allocation for the next 12 months. This will undoubtably involve some temp or contract needs and what better way to start this conversation than reaching out to Monty Edge!
Oh, and I should mention, that the world is opening up again – so the UK, US, UAE and Asia Pacific regions have their sights set on our local talent. Just sayin’.
