Coaching and Mentoring for Law Firm Employee Retention

Guest writer is Dr Benita Maynard, Chartered FCIPD and Director at North-52

My colleague, Tessa Dodwell, is thrilled to have been asked by the Institute of Legal Finance & Management (ILFM) to speak at their Spring Conference this year, being held at the Law Society in London. There is a distinct theme threading through all the guest speakers’ topics, which is wellness strategies within law firms and accounts departments to support, motivate and care, which in turn manages risk and aids cashflow.

Tessa and I work together, along with our partner Caroline Duncan, to coach, mentor and direct practices with the way they lead teams with the goal for reaching their full potential (in leadership and business growth).

Coaching and Mentoring for Professional Development

Coaching and mentoring are both recognised as methods which can help and support individuals in their professional growth and development.

In recent years, a change has occurred with organisations being challenged to adopt more socially embedded responsibilities and to respond to the well-being needs of their employees. Stress is overwhelmingly present in people’s lives with the most common type of stress being work related. This type of stress can contribute to a loss of engagement, cognitive functioning and to people leaving their roles.

Research shows that episodes of renewal such as caring for others and feeling cared for are associated with overall improved health and well-being, and the reduction of stress (Boyatsis, Goleman, Dhar and Osiri, 2021).

People feel better with the more episodes of renewal they have, with renewal taking different forms such as mindfulness, or spending time with loved ones or pets, helping others through volunteering, or simply being outside in nature. There are many ways people can experience renewal and being in fast paced working environments can make this harder to achieve.

One key way that organisations are helping is through providing coaching or mentoring.

Being in a coaching session or having a conversation with one’s mentor are episodes of renewal. Furthermore, data shows that providing coaching to younger generations in the workplace doubles the likelihood of them staying with their employer for more than five years, compared to those who do not have coaching (Deloitte, 2016). 

To Summarise

The International Coach Federation, the largest of the coaching bodies, reported in 2020 how 86% of organisations who used coaching gained a return on investment from the coaching engagements. They reported factors of improvement in employee performance, higher levels of engagement, increase in revenue and sales, and importantly, employee retention. So not only can coaching and mentoring help with performance, but it can help with talent retention.

Ultimately, investing in your staff (and yourself if you are an owner of a small law firm) is a worthwhile investment.