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HR urged to engage lawyers strategically, ‘without buzzwords’
Instead of creating roles such as chief cultural officer, human resources departments in law firms need to upend traditional, existing structures if meaningful workplace change is to manifest, according to an HR consultant.
Jerome Doraisamy
In an ever-evolving legal marketplace, one that increasingly prioritises workplace wellbeing, law firms have to ensure substantive strategic focus with any in-house hires and activities, said PsychSafe founder and principal consultant Rebecca Michalak, rather than putting labels on for aesthetic purposes.
“But if that’s not backed up with systems and practices that actually foster that new approach, you can call it whatever you like… you can call it the Hip New Career Lotto-Winning Whatever department, and it’s not going to make any difference.”
And while she ceded that, at times, big institutions would need to segment organisational roles among various staff members, by and large “all of those things are around how you manage your people, [which is] traditionally a HR role”, she said.
“If HR isn’t already heavily involved in assuring [workplace culture], then what is HR actually doing?”
Substantive engagement in this realm requires a strategic investment in not only the staff within law firms, she said, but also the broader issues of health, safety, productivity and collegiality.
“Offering yoga classes [as standalone activities] may not suitably engage at a strategic level. Instead, engagement should see a business respecting and valuing its people, showing how critical they are to the business, and treating them accordingly,” she said.
“Engagement is about fostering a sort of emotional bond and connection and sense of belonging within an organisation.”
“What is tricky here is to ensure initiatives go beyond engaging a person in their job… if they are engaged in their job but not the wider organisation, and they can do that job somewhere else, they won’t be staying in that organistion,” she mused.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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