Thursday, February 19, 2004

New Employee Retention Programs

Rhonda Foltz
Dickstein Shapiro

Lisa Ebron
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn
1050 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC
202-857-6033

Camille Brooks from the law firm of McKee Nelson was the scheduled speaker for the above topic.  Unfortunately, Camille took ill and was not available to give this topic.  However, Rhonda Foltz from Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP attended this meeting and started discussing their firm’s Retention Program. 

HR Department

Þ          Hosts various luncheon and after-hour programs to get staff involved – Wine tasting classes; Nutrition; Stress for Holidays, Loss of a Loved One, etc.

Þ          “Managing Up” Program:  Program where you learn how to anticipate your Boss’s needs as well as make it your responsibility to get pertinent information from your boss to put yourself in a position to be of assistance to them.

Þ          Classes offered such as Yoga, Spanish, and Karate.

Þ          One the latest initiatives is diversity focus groups.  Everyone in the firm will eventually have an opportunity to participate.

User’s Group Meetings

Þ          IT Support provides user group meetings for Attorneys, Secretaries, and Legal Assistants as well as an open session to all users to find out how they can better assist them and what the department has planned. 

Þ          In addition to the regular User Group meeting.  IT Director with several IT staff members met with select representatives from the attorneys, legal assistants, and secretarial groups to discuss their perception of how the IT Department was doing.  Items discussed included recent software rollouts, remote connectivity, printers, equipment, etc. 

                                                1.  This group was asked to come up with a listing of the pros/cons.  They were then asked to identify areas for improvement or new technology needed.  They were given a few stickers to mark needs, wants, and nice to have items.  This list was then used to assist with the forming of departmental goals for the upcoming year.

New Employee Training

Þ          This orientation is a big deal at our firm.  We revised our training so that it is set up in stages so that we won’t overwhelm the new employee. 

Þ          Interview/Hire Process:  The applicant is pre-tested to show proficiency in skills necessary to their position.  Computer skills are taken into consideration as part of the hiring process. 

Þ          First Week:  New employees take a one-day training class that covers an Introduction to Styles, firm templates, PC DOCS, a brief overview of Outlook, and the firm intranet and database.

Þ          Second Week:  On Monday of the second week, new employees receive Ceridian timesheet, Elite time and billing, iScrub metadata removal and FedEx PassKey training.

Þ          After 30 Days – New employee takes a one-day training class on advanced Word features such as Tips and Tricks, more Styles, Headers/Footers, Footnotes and Track Changes as well as DeltaView and .pdf generation.  See attached.

Þ          After 30-Day Follow-Up Class:  the new employee will take seminars based on their position including our 4-part Outlook series where we discuss email management, calendar, tasks, categories and contacts as well as classes on how to put together a brief and Excel charting and formatting, etc.

Þ          New employee will complete their full orientation and training within the 90-day probation period. 

Þ          Post-Test:  After completing all requirements, the new employee will be tested again to measure improvement.

Þ          Certification Program:  Secretaries, Legal Assistants and possibly Associates down the road, will go through a skills assessment to certify proficiency in certain position-required features every 6 months.  This testing will be offered in TutorPro as well as ILT classes.

IT Department Initiatives

Þ          Proactive Meeting:  weekly to discuss assignment status and delegate new assignments, this time also used to identify problem performance issues

New Employee Training Program