The law industry has been fairly resistant to offering a remote or hybrid workplace recently. The pandemic seems less of a threat and why NOT come back to the office? It's completely understandable - in this industry, there are caseloads and matter with complex and confidential material that present significant challenges when it comes to working digitally. 

With our world constantly changing, from the COVID-19 global pandemic to the current energy crisis - remote work has become more and more of a necessity, and research shows that employees prefer the flexibility (and even find it better) for their mental health. 

What should law firms do under these circumstances? Is there a way to give employees what they want while effectively mitigating risks and maintaining efficiency?

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of allowing your employees a more flexible workplace. 

Why Remote Work?

We’ve already discussed that remote work is popular and beneficial to the mental health of employees, but what are the specific ways it makes people’s lives better and therefore more efficient in their careers? And how can it help you as an employer?

• Saves Time and Money: Working from home means less time and money spent on commuting and overhead. With rising gas prices, this is a substantial benefit to employees. Anyone who’s been stuck in traffic knows how frustrating and draining that can be. Reducing that daily frustration is massively beneficial for people’s mental health. 
  
  
• Better Work-Life Balance: Working flexible hours allows parents to work around their children's schedules and more time together as a family. Maintaining a good work-life balance is always tricky, and the law industry is notorious for that being a challenge. Allowing people more flexibility in their schedule helps to reduce this problem and creates healthier relationships.
  
  
• Reduces Stress: A survey by FlexJobs shows that 87% of professionals feel that a flexible workplace setting reduces their overall stress levels and improves their mental health. People have so many things to juggle these days and giving them a little bit more control over their lives goes a long way.
  
  
• Improved Work Performance: Some employers may worry that without close supervision, performance and productivity of employees might decline. This IWG Global Workplace Survey actually shows the opposite. Not only are workers still productive under more flexible circumstances, but their productivity actually increases. If your employees are feeling less stressed and have overall better mental health, they will be able to accomplish more and have more energy to put into their work. This means lower in-house expenses and greater profits for your firm. 

Concerns and Solutions

With the great benefits to offering a flexible workplace, there will always be that list of worry and risk.  Law firms handle huge quantities of confidential data. How can all of this data along with complex time-tracking and matter management all be safely and effectively maintained when employees are working from various locations?

This is where cloud-based Business Intelligence comes in. Regardless of whether your workplace is hybrid or not, you should be using a good Business Intelligence solution to streamline your business. Switching to a cloud-based system, such as SaaS, means you can have all the benefits of BI and give your employees the flexibility they want.

With cloud-computing, your data is highly secure and continuously backed up by multiple servers. It is also accessible to all of your employees at once from any location 24/7. This means that everyone is kept on the same page no matter where they are working from, whether it be travel, sickness or vacation. It also means that the program can seamlessly track how much time is spent on specific tasks and projects, instead of tedious and often inaccurate manual reporting. 

BigSquare Has Everything You Need

Are you looking for the perfect cloud-based BI platform to take your business to the next level? BigSquare is currently the ONLY company that offers this. If you are interested in giving your employees more flexibility and supporting their mental health while maintaining maximum efficiency and security, contact us today to find out how we can make that a reality for your firm.

Call us today at 724-416-5705 or set up your free demo by clicking the button below.