A New Jersey office has increased staff morale as well as performance with an online self evaluation survey. And along with that, it’s working to ensure all the staff know all the rules by setting up an online handbook quiz.
First, the self-evaluation survey
Michele Adams, office manager for Powers Kirn in Moorestown, NJ, began the self evaluation surveying a few months after she came to the firm.
During her first weeks there, she spent a lot of time talking casually with staff about what they liked and didn’t like about their jobs, and what she found was they had a lot of useful things to say but weren’t being asked to say them.
One of their main comments was they wanted to participate in making improvements in the firm “but their voices weren’t being heard by the partners.”
They also wanted a bit of credit for the above-and-beyond things they did. They were getting only standard annual reviews, “and they didn’t have a chance to tell what contributions they made.”
And beyond that, many staffers mentioned practical ideas for making improvements in the office. So Adams set up the self evaluations.
From bragging to admissions
At the first of each month, Adams e-mails the evaluation form to everybody whose yearly anniversary is coming up that month.
Staff send their completed surveys back to Adams who then forwards them to the managing partner, and the two of them go over the comments during their staff review discussions.
The evaluation was easy to introduce, she says. Even the long-term staffers like filling it out, because it provides an opportunity for staff to highlight the positive things they do and tell about the compliments they receive from clients.
“Staff can be as wordy as they want.” And many times they are.
One of the most important items the survey asks for is accomplishments during the past year.
Adams keeps notes in the personnel files about the accomplishments she sees and about the positive remarks from clients or attorneys, and she discusses them during reviews. But a manager can’t be everywhere, she says, “and there are things I’m not aware of.” It’s fair to give staff an opportunity to tell how they have benefited the firm.
Another question similar to that is what new jobs the staffer has taken on. Changes take place in all positions, she says, and many times the manager doesn’t hear about them.
This question allows her to track what each person is doing and what job responsibility changes have occurred. It also gives staff credit for the job expansions they have accepted. Many times, she says, a staffer mentions a new facet of the job “that the managing partner and I didn’t see or know about.”
Following that are improvement questions.
One asks where the staffer needs to improve professionally – and how those improvements are going to be made.
Most people have inaccurate perceptions about their weaknesses and their strengths, she says. This identifies the misconceptions and helps her put each staffer on a right footing.
Along with that, staff have to write out their goals for the year and explain how they are going to reach them.
Teamwork, training and thoughts
There are questions too on office-wide issues. One asks how the staffer has promoted teamwork – a necessary element in a law practice, Adams says, and one that needs continued attention.
Another asks what factors have helped the staffer professionally. Here Adams lists things the office provides such as seminars, in-house programs, and peer training. The answers show which training elements most help the staffer individually, which ones help staff in general, and which ones need to be continued or discontinued.
At the end is a large area for comments, and there staff are asked to describe what they believe the firm needs to change or improve. They are free to discuss any area from management to the facility itself. A frequent recommendation in the beginning was that the firm improve staff communication.
The office has teams that cover individual segments of work, she explains. One enters data into the case management system and gathers the documents for the file, another prepares the pleadings for attorney review, and so on. Previously, each team acted individually, but now they have joint meetings to discuss whatever issues they encounter getting the work done.
Second, the handbook quiz
Adams’s second approach is a work in progress. She is developing an online quiz for new employees that will cover all the information in the handbook. As a manager, what she finds often is that even though everybody signs off on a handbook, people don’t fully understand what’s expected of them until somebody breaks a policy. And every time, the violation was covered right there in the handbook. It’s easy to identify training problems after the fact when somebody makes a mistake, she says, but she wants to provide training enough that problems don’t occur in the first place, particularly in the areas of confidentiality and data security. She is therefore setting up a web portal that will let staff search the handbook by terms. At the end will be a test on all the items. Staff will be required to take the test after they have been with the firm for 30 days. And expanding that further, Adams has already developed client-specific tests. The firm’s business is in the area of mortgage banking, and the tests cover the different administrative and security requirements for each client. Staff take tests that apply to the clients they serve.
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