Obelisk report: Rethinking the in-house model
General counsel will need to rethink the way they organise their teams after the coronavirus crisis subsides to ensure they have a flexible and sustainable working culture, a report by Obelisk Support has warned. It says the days of focusing on in-house lawyers delivering ‘more for less’ will eventually lead only to ‘less’ as staff become burnt out and productivity reduces. Though researched before the pandemic took hold, the report – Built to last? A blueprint for developing future-proof in-house legal teams – finds that its impact is likely only to accelerate the need to rethink the operating model of in-house teams.
“This will require consistent effort, on top of what is already a crowded agenda,” the report acknowledges. “However, a failure to take action will lead to in-house teams losing the very people who are best-placed to answer the challenges their businesses face.” The report also identifies five ‘pillars’ that will be crucial as in-house leaders recover and find new opportunities in the post-pandemic world: (i) Creating truly flexible work environments that enable people to thrive across their different life stages; (ii) Developing varied and challenging career paths that ensure in-house lawyers build business and legal skills; (iii) Paying attention to employees’ health and wellbeing, through actions as well as policies; (iv) Driving diversity across all dimensions and at all levels, building inclusive cultures that prompt superior performance; and (v) Being role models for the change they want to see, both for their teams and companies and also for the wider legal industry.
The report says that, even before the current crisis erupted, in-house legal teams have been facing an ever-increasing number of challenges, from cost pressures and “evolving expectations” from their commercial colleagues, to an increasing variety of business risks, extra regulatory burdens, managing a multi-generational workforce and staying ahead of changes in the way legal work can be carried out.
Flexible and remote working is one area that has obviously been highlighted by the pandemic. The report shows how far there is to go with this, finding that just 17 of the FTSE 100 companies advertising roles during their research made it clear in job advertisements that specific flexible working practices were available, while only four referenced the availability of onsite childcare. The report emphasises the importance of general counsel taking the lead on culture change across the profession. Writing the report foreword, Crispin Passmore, a former director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Legal Services Board and Legal Services Commission, said, “General Counsel will have a key role to play at the end of the current crisis by offering the emerging workforce a compelling vision of the future that encompasses not only the exciting role the business will play, but also where they as individuals fit now and throughout their career. That requires openness, diversity, inclusion, flexibility and plurality.”
