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News & Views

RISKY BUSINESS: EMPLOYEES’ ONLINE BEHAVIORS MAY POSE THREATS

Most workers who perform their jobs remotely say they are aware of security issues, yet, according to a recent study commissioned by Cisco Systems, their behaviors suggest otherwise.

Whether they work at home, at a café, or in a hotel, 1,000 “teleworkers” polled worldwide indicate that they may aggravate network security concerns because of a false sense of awareness. In fact, 66 percent of teleworkers surveyed said they are cognizant of security concerns when working remotely, yet many admitted behaviors that undermine and contradict their awareness. Their reasons offer valuable insight for IT and security managers, fueling a need for tighter, proactive relationships with end users. Below are four of several examples revealed in the study:

• 21 percent allow friends, family members or other non-employees to use his or her work computer to access the Internet. In China, 42 percent admitted to sharing their work computers. And in Japan, more end users share their work computers with others (13 percent) than those who have them for only personal use (12 percent).

• In China, Italy and Brazil, almost one of every five teleworkers admitted to accessing a neighbor’s wireless network when working from home. Although the global average was 11 percent, Germany (15 percent) and the United States (12 percent) joined China, Italy and Brazil in eclipsing the worldwide mark.

• 25 percent of respondents said they have opened e-mails from unknown sources when using work devices. In China, 57 percent admitted they have opened such e-mails.

• One of the most glaring contradictions in the study’s results involved non-business activity: Only 29 percent of remote workers surveyed in the 10 countries admitted that they use their work computers for personal activities. However, 40 percent – 11 percent more – admitted that they use their work computers for online shopping. This discrepancy occurred in eight of the 10 countries (excluding China and India). For example, in the United Kingdom, only 27 percent admitted using their work computers for personal reasons, but 53 percent said they shop online when working remotely.

“Hijacking wireless networks or sharing corporate devices with non-employees is a significant risk for the global IT community,” said Jeff Platon, Cisco’s vice president of Security Solutions Marketing. “To highlight the U.S. example, the unsafe behavior of 11 remote workers in a company of 100 can bring down a network or compromise corporate information and personal identities. It takes only one security breach. For large enterprises with tens of thousands of workers, especially those with global workforces and differing business cultures, the potential risk is even more challenging.”

According to Platon, this is where the roles of IT organizations and chief security officers come into play. The challenges posed by remote workers present opportunities for IT and security teams to become more proactive in protecting their businesses and reshape their roles in the eyes of end users – a role that has historically been tactical and reactive.

“IT must play a more strategic role, and to do that they need to develop stronger relationships with users to prevent threats from sabotaging efficiency and personal identities,” Platon said. “This study illustrates a golden opportunity for IT to elevate its role from a reactive, back-office function. IT has the opportunity to be progressive – to maintain a steady dialogue with users, to implement educational programs tailored to different business cultures and user groups, and to weave security best practices into corporate cultures. Driving this cultural change can help maximize the value –and safety – of teleworking, especially at a time when businesses are becoming extremely mobile.”

IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE, WHAT WOULD CHANGE?

In a survey conducted by Robert Half Management Solutions, 26 percent of senior managers said they would create an employee-friendly work environment if they were named presidents of their companies, and 17 percent said they would improve communication. Is your company already a great place to work? More than a quarter of respondents thought so and wouldn’t change a thing if they were in charge.

The survey included responses from 150 executives, including those from human resources, finance and marketing departments from the United States’ 1,000 largest companies.

Several executives said they would provide greater flexibility, including taking the following steps:

• “Focus on programs to help achieve work/life balance.”
• “Support more flexible programs, such as offering telecommuting options.”
• “Allow staff to wear business casual attire all the time.”
• “Increase the number of vacation days and tuition and mileage reimbursement.”
• “Make things more exciting and promote entrepreneurship.”
• “Celebrate more often and offer individual ‘thank-yous’ for accomplishments.”

Many respondents noted the value of communication. Their responses:

• “Improve internal communication so everyone is on the same page.”
• “Have senior management do more ‘walk-arounds’ so that people feel a natural connection with those leading the company. It puts a face to a title.”
• “Improve the company vision so everyone is aligned with where the company is going.”
• “Be more frank with employees about what is going on with the company.”
• “Listen to employees more.”

“Employees are a business’ more vital resource,” said Paul McDonald, Executive Director of Robert Half Management Resources. “One of the most effective ways companies can gain a competitive advantage is to create an appealing work environment, and reward innovation and productivity. Employees value managers who encourage their ideas, support smart risk-taking and promote work/life balance.”

For more information, visit www.roberthalfmr.com.

Trends

This article was developed especially for this issue of ALA Currents and copyrighted by Altman Weil Inc. For more information, visit www.altmanweil.com.

FINDING THE MARKETING TALENT IN LAWYERS

By Charles F. Huxsaw
huxsaw@verizon.net

Most lawyers I know went to law school to become lawyers and to practice law. They didn’t pursue a legal education in order to become marketers or salespeople. Nevertheless, how many times have we all read that law firm leaders must “mobilize its sales force of partners and associates,” and that it should “establish peer pressure to encourage sales and marketing activities,” and that “sales and marketing training programs are fundamental to a firm’s success?”

There is an inherent conflict here. Given the competitive environment in which law firms and their lawyers operate, and given the business necessity that lawyers bill increasingly higher numbers of hours, where will law firms find the time to train and mobilize lawyers as marketers? That is not to say that law firms are wrong to seek the benefits that organized marketing initiatives can achieve. Putting that monkey on the back of the firm’s lawyers, however, is in many cases unrealistic.

Law firms have addressed this reality by hiring skilled marketing staff members. As a result, law firm marketing has come a long way. As firm owners have come to understand the need to use commercial marketing techniques to remain competitive and beat back challenges from Johnny-come -lately firms invading their turf, law firm leaders have hired marketers with skills often learned in the business setting. Skilled marketers yes; miracle workers, no. Professional marketing generals still need their foot soldiers to implement marketing plans. And the foot soldiers are the firm’s lawyers. Catch-22? Not necessarily.

Capitalizing on What Lawyers Do
The answer to this apparent conundrum lies in part in a return to “old dog” marketing techniques that law firms and rainmaker lawyers used long before the advent of law firm marketing departments – with a new technology twist. Lawyers have been marketing to prospective clients for years by doing the things that lawyers are adept at doing – giving talks, making presentations, writing articles and explaining the law and its application to clients and courts.

These are the things that lawyers do, things that are fundamental to the job of lawyering. Regardless of legal specialty, lawyers are teachers who talk, write and explain the law. This fundamental lawyering skill requires no new training for development of a marketing skill set. Put these inherent lawyer talents on display and what the modern-day law firm marketer has achieved is education-based marketing without putting new burdens on an already over-burdened group of lawyers.

Fundamentals of Education-Based Marketing
David Frey, author of several marketing books and Senior Editor of the Small Business Marketing Best Practices Newsletter (see www.MarketingBestPractices.com) touts education-based marketing as “a powerful marketing strategy that establishes trust and credibility using educational messages … the direct opposite of traditional marketing, which uses selling-based messages.”

Smart lawyers have been educating prospective clients with free advice for so long that it has become a practice routine for many. What’s so different about the education-based marketing that Frey recommends?

Consider a hypothetical situation. A life sciences industry entrepreneur has an idea for a new business. She knows cardiovascular transplant medical devices, but she doesn’t know much about running a start-up company or the attendant law. She looks for help.

What are the odds that she will find your firm? That depends on how well you have prepared your education-based marketing efforts to answer the questions that are in the prospect’s mind at the moment she decides to seek legal help. Does your firm’s marketing establish the firm’s credibility and its trustworthiness as a potential ally for the entrepreneurial prospective client?

It will if you prepare and then give away the basic knowledge that addresses the prospect’s questions when she begins to look for legal advice. Give away some education and attract a client that needs your help to implement what they have just learned. For this example, has your firm presented basic choice-of-entity options, HR basics, non-compete agreement strategies, access to informed capital sources, registration of patents and protection of intellectual property requirements, a summary of the regulatory environment, and an introduction to the initial public offering process?

In sum, as the prospective client begins to contemplate a new business entity, has your firm demonstrated its substantive competence and its trustworthy reliability to serve this client throughout its business lifecycle?

Positioning Your Education-Based Marketing to be Found
Your firm’s education-based marketing will illustrate that it has the expertise demanded by the prospect. Your lawyers are writing about it, speaking about it and offering their analytical insights. But will our hypothetical prospective client find your firm at the time her interest peaks? Here is where your firm’s marketing professional will earn his or her pay – and here is also where that new technology twist comes into play.

Law firms have been issuing press releases, writing white papers, offering seminars and employing other types of education-based marketing (although few actually called it that) for many years. But the impact of these activities – especially in terms of new business generation – has always been difficult to measure. The audience is too often undefined, the timing of your message and their need too uncertain, and the marketing channels too numerous to permit any sort of tracking of what brought in a new client.

Technology, specifically webcasting, allows a seller of services to overcome much of the hit-or-miss characteristic of old school education-based marketing. Take that live seminar the firm offers on non-compete agreements and present it as you always have. But this time also broadcast it to a distant audience. What audience? The audience you define in advance and invite to “attend” via the Internet. An e-mail offer promising solid educational information will attract an audience – an audience of prospective clients. E-mail list sources allow you to identify small medical technology companies. E-mail campaigns are inexpensive and can be targeted to a specific prospect list.

Webcasting allows simultaneous attendance and interaction by your lawyers and prospects regardless of their physical locations, but always from the convenience of their own desktop computers. And the technical quality of webcasting has improved so much that it now represents your firm’s commitment to quality as well or better than any other media. With webcasting, a formal stand-up presentation can become an educational conversation of superior technical and substantive quality.

Found Again and Again
The reach of education-based marketing webcasts isn’t limited to your invited audience or to a specific moment in time. Videotape your presentations and archive them on your firm’s Web site or with a hosting company, and they can be called up at any time by visitors to your Web site for individual viewing. If you permit it, your recorded webcast can be made available though Internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Our entrepreneur, poking around on the Web for preliminary information, can easily find a link to your Web site and to your education-based programming aimed to attract prospective clients just like her.

Finally, a webcast doesn’t have to be a one-time event, with late comers like our entrepreneur getting just leftovers. So long as the content remains viable, a savvy marketer will make a new event out of a rebroadcast of a previous webcast. New “live” commentary by one of the firm’s telegenic partners can also be employed to augment the previously recorded presentation.

Address the Potential Objections
Put your marketers at ease. Coming as they most often did from a product sales environment, it is not unreasonable that law firm marketers would think in terms of what law firms do and what services they offer in the marketplace when focusing their marketing and sales messages. Law firms, they probably reason, have products to sell just like any other commercial enterprise.

What those well-meaning marketers often miss, however, is that, for a law firm, the most important thing to market is not product deliverables. Rather, the most important marketing message for prospective clients is that the firm would be a knowledgeable, capable and trustworthy ally. Education-based marketing delivers that message.

Put your tech people at ease. Education-based marketing as described here does require a familiarity with webcasting technology. But the learning curve is very short. Many vendors offer webcasting services, achieved program hosting and visitor access monitoring and reporting for law firms that want to use education-based marketing. One that has established a solid reputation for high-quality work with bar associations and law firms is Impact Media Solutions of Atlanta, Georgia (www.ImpactMediaSolutions.net). Johnson Cook, President and CEO of Impact, will answer your questions (and demonstrate his enthusiasm for education-based marketing) without obligation.

The bottom-line rule is that people don’t do business with people they don’t trust. Especially when looking for services, prospective clients are, in fact, buying the talents, skills and personal qualities of your firm’s lawyers and staff. How can a marketer persuade prospects to trust you and your colleagues and thus differentiate your firm and its services from the rest?

They can and should capitalize on your lawyers’ natural teaching skills by building a great seminar or series of seminars and putting your lawyers’ expertise and client service qualities on display. That’s the first step. Then, and just as important, they should use technology to broadcast it, and broadcast it, and broadcast it again. That’s the essence of education-based marketing.

To borrow a line from Terence Mann, the James Earl Jones character in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come. They will most definitely come.”

Management Innovations

NIMBLE COMPANIES REQUIRE NIMBLE MINDS

Employers today are willing to pay well for IT workers who can help their companies adapt quickly to fast-changing needs, according to a study by Foote Partners. But one result of this dynamic environment is that many in-demand skills – which combine technical expertise, business knowledge and industry experience – are broader than any typical job description. “Job titles don’t always match up with what people do on the job,” said David Foote, president of Foote Partners. So, what’s hot?

Applications developers with customer-facing skills are in high demand, but even more so are applications developers and extreme programmers who can deliver turn-on-a-dime agility in record time. “You won’t lose your job because you’re over budget, but you will if you go over time,” said Foote. Another desirable trait is “hybrid talent,” such as people who have operations experience and technology skills. Rounding out employers’ wish lists are people with skills in wireless technologies, storage area network, SAP application development and RFID.

Meanwhile, Foote’s survey indicates that companies are spending about 8.2 percent more this year on training and leadership development of their IT staff than last, in recognition of the reality that it’s much more cost-effective to develop in-house talent than it is to hire outside help.

(Information Week 21 Sep 2006)
www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=1930045

R.I.P.: YESTERDAY’S BRIGHT IDEAS

Management ideas wax and wane like the moon’s phases. Remember Knowledge Management? It was everywhere in the late 1990s. Today, it’s just another initiative that failed to deliver on its promises. Yet the corporate hunger for buzzwords and quick fixes continues. Witness culture change, TQM, Quality Circles, Reengineering, Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma and Core Competencies.

Today, an entire industry dedicates itself to producing what is often euphemistically called “Thought Leadership.” It’s awash with consulting firms, academics, gurus and others eager to make a buck by coming up with the “Next Big Idea.” Some even argue that there are only two management ideas in the world, identified by 1960s MIT professor Douglas McGregor. Theory Y says workers are self-motivating. Theory X views them as fundamentally lazy and requiring constant policing. Some believe the pendulum simply swings between these two basic theories, and everything else is just window dressing. Yet there is more to this parade of management ideas than just their individual impacts. There is a cumulative effect.

The biggest legacy of 1980s thinking was not the tools and techniques that emerged. The ideas subtly altered how managers think about the world – about human potential, about a global language of business, and about constantly seeking a better way to work. These are the lessons that endure.

(Across the Board May-June 2006)
www.conferenceboard.org/articles/atb_article.cfm?id=346

Caucus Insights

This section features condensed versions of recent discussions in ALA’s Large Firm Administrators Caucus ListServe, which is exclusively for people who work in firms with 100 attorneys or more.

THE TOPIC: Dating Relationships Within the Firm

Our current policy does not absolutely prohibit dating relationships, although it does point out the risks and problems. If you could share your policy in this area, I would be grateful.

Selected Responses:

1. Our multi-page policy for a workplace free of sexual harassment includes the following paragraph on the subject of dating:
   • The firm expects all employees, partners and contractors of the firm to use good judgment at all times in their interpersonal relationships. Dating between personnel of different levels of authority, whether or not they are in direct reporting relationships, does not necessarily violate this policy. However, such relationships are risky since they may expose personnel to allegations of sexual harassment, cause professional problems and foster the perception of favoritism.

2. Here’s that section of our policy:
   • Dating and Consenting Romantic Relationships
     The Firm believes that a relationship between consenting adults (such as consensual dating or romantic or sexual relationships that are welcomed by the parties) is ordinarily a matter between the individuals involved and should neither be encouraged nor prohibited, provided the relationships are neither disruptive to the operations or work environment of the Firm nor damaging to the goodwill of the Firm. The Firm, therefore, reserves the right to inquire about such relationships to determine compliance with this policy or to take appropriate action in the event of non-compliance. In addition, if the relationship involves a supervisor/subordinate relationship (including any relationship where one person is in a position to direct work assignments or make evaluations or personnel decisions concerning the other person), the parties shall report the matter to the Management Committee, Executive Director, Director of Human Resources or Firm Employment Counsel, so that the Firm can determine compliance with this policy and take any action that may be appropriate concerning the reporting or working relationship between the parties. Of course, any relationship that ceases to be welcome and consensual will be subject to the other applicable provisions of this policy.

3. Our policies don’t prohibit such, but where it involves people at two different “levels,” it requires the more senior person to report it to management, so reassignments can be made if it involves a supervisory situation. It also points out the potential problems of such relationships.

4. This is our policy:
   • Workplace Relationship Policy
     The Firm recognizes that partners, associates, managers and staff may enter into consensual, voluntary dating relationships while working for the Firm. It is not the intent of the Firm to control the private lives of its legal and non-legal personnel. While the Firm neither condones nor encourages such relationships, it does require that individuals handle such relationships in a mature and professional manner. Dating relationships in the workplace in some instances may interfere with the professional atmosphere of the Firm, affect job performance and morale and/or lead to situations in which violations of the Firm's harassment-free workplace policy will be alleged. It is primarily to avoid these potential problems that this policy applies. In the event a partner, associate, or manager becomes involved in a relationship with a subordinate, the individuals involved should communicate this fact to any member of the Compliance Review Committee. A subordinate is defined as a Firm employee over whom a partner, associate, manager, or supervisor has immediate or successively higher authority. The Committee, in consultation with members of Firm management, will assess the implications of the relationship in the work environment and on other employees and determine whether any action should be taken. Although dating between individuals outside the supervisor/ subordinate context need not be reported to the Compliance Review Committee, if such a relationship develops or is ended, the individuals involved should feel free to communicate these facts to the Committee, in order to avoid the potential problems set forth above. If any employee of the Firm experiences any work-related problem in connection with a dating relationship in the Firm, he or she should immediately contact a member of the Committee.

5. It's part of our Sexual Harassment Policy. The pertinent section follows:
   • Consensual Romantic Relationships
     Romantic or intimate relationships between people who work together are often the source of problems at work. This is particularly true when the relationship is between a manager and an employee the manager supervises (for example, a lawyer and his secretary or a member and an associate in his or her practice group). While the manager may think the relationship is consensual, the employee may feel coerced into entering the relationship. If the employee complains to the firm, a manager’s statement that he or she thought it was a consensual relationship will not be viewed very sympathetically by the firm, and the situation may result in discipline for the manager, including possible discharge. Even if the relationship is truly consensual, other employees may view the manager as giving preferential treatment to the employee with whom he or she has a relationship. And, if the relationship ends, the employee may become concerned that any negative job actions taken by the manager are caused by the fact that the relationship ended. Because of all of these potential problems, the firm strongly discourages romantic or intimate relationships between managers and the employees they supervise. If such a relationship develops, the firm reserves the right to require that the manager and employee stop working together, by having one person either leave the firm or transfer to another job. If the manager and employee cannot agree on who will leave, the manager will be transferred or fired. Even if the intimate relationship is between co-workers, the firm may take action (including transferring, disciplining, or even firing employees) if the relationship creates problems at work or interferes in any way with the operations of the firm.

ALA Currents is copyrighted, 2006, by the Association of Legal Administrators. All rights reserved. ALA Currents is a subscription-only electronic newsletter. Reproduction in whole is strictly prohibited. Individual news items may be reproduced solely for internal distribution within the subscriber's organization.

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CREDITS

The content of this issue of ALA Currents is drawn from many sources, including Innovation Weekly, an online management subscription newsletter copyrighted by NewsScan Inc. Materials excerpted from Innovation Weekly are reprinted under the authority of a site license granted to ALA for the benefit of its members.

Caucus Insights is a feature based on current discussion of significant law firm issues among large-firm administrators in ALA’s LFA Caucus ListServe. Caucus Insights presents narrative summaries (without source attribution) of selected discussions in the Caucus ListServe that may be of interest and use to ALA members regardless of their firms’ sizes.

ALA Currents is compiled and edited by Amy Dvorak, who can be reached at ALA Headquarters via e-mail to advorak@alanet.org. Send technical questions (subscription problems, delivery options) to webmaster@alanet.org.

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The opinions expressed in articles and releases included in ALA Currents are solely those of the contributors, and are not necessarily those of the Association of Legal Administrators or its members.