5 ways the legal sector can innovate and empower employees in the future of work
Digital innovation can be a challenge for most industries, especially now that the rate of change is happening quicker than ever before. Digital innovation is a vital component for organisations to succeed in the future of work, from identifying new ways to reach customers, to accessing valuable insights to inform decision making and improve the employee experience.
The legal sector has a proud, traditional history. Digital innovation presents an opportunity for organisations to take this proud history and leverage technology into the future of work. It can be difficult, however, to know where to get started. To help, we’re sharing five tips to help create successful, long-lasting positive change in your organisation.
1. Lay out clear priorities for the future of work
The first part of creating long-lasting digital innovation is to lay out clear priorities with the whole organisation. By tying these priorities together with measurable business insights, you will ensure any digital innovation has a clear outcome. While you’re laying out these priorities, listen to feedback and adjust as needed. Use workplace analytics to gain insight, track progress and identify new ways of working. A McKinsey survey found that respondents whose organisations defined their digital innovation in this way were 1.7 times more likely to report that the results surpassed expectations.
2. Embrace agility
External factors can often be the catalyst of changing priorities and ways of working. However, this doesn’t mean it’s a ‘one and done’ process. Technology is evolving quicker than ever before. For the future of work, it’s important you ensure you revisit your priorities regularly to check they match both external and internal changes, customer satisfaction, and employee feedback.
3. Empower people
When you lay out your business priorities, set a shared sense of accountability in your organisation. This will create a sense of ‘togetherness’ and foster a positive culture. In fact, McKinsey survey respondents were more likely to report successful outcomes if there was a shared accountability.
So, how do you empower people? It’s not only about being clear about your expectations and listening to feedback. You also need to think about the tools that your employees need to have open communication. Tools like Microsoft Teams enable you to have accessible meetings and chats, host live events, and share files easily for real-time collaboration.
Most importantly, to succeed in the future of work, your organisation needs to ensure employees have the skills to drive this innovation. As you drive for more digital ways of working, you need to ensure your employees have the confidence and skills to reach your business’s goals.
4. Optimise business procedures for the future of work
To help your teams adapt to a rapidly changing environment, take advantage of technology to optimise business procedures. Historically, the legal industry is very paper heavy. This can be at odds with customer’s increasing expectations of digital connection, and new, more flexible ways of working. Moving to a secure and intelligent digital platform such as Dynamics 365 and Power Platform helps connect your data and files to create a single view over workloads.
This means you can move from a reactive, siloed view to a connected, proactive solution. You also gain deep insights and analytics to power decision making and business outcomes. It also helps you offer more personalised customer experiences to build stronger relationships. Using cloud-based technology means you can take advantage of solutions such as AI and machine learning, as well as the benefits of remote working, freeing up your employees’ time to focus on your key priorities.
5. Stay secure and compliant
For legal industries, it’s important to ensure any technology used is secure and regulated – especially when handling sensitive personal or business information. When you look for solutions to help your digital innovation, look for ones that are built with security in mind and are compliant with regulations such as GDPR. Microsoft solutions use multi-layered, intelligent security, with tools to help you manage user access, identify and protect against security threats, and secure data over multiple devices which is even more critical whilst the large majority of workers are remote.
The future of work
Being successful in the new normal isn’t just about implementing the latest tech. It’s about focussing on ways to enable and empower everyone in your organisation to reach those shared goals. The biggest contributing factor to success isn’t always a shiny new device, or an office remodel. It’s outlining your key priorities and how you can reach them, enabling business agility with the help of data and analytics, and putting employee satisfaction and customer experiences at the centre of your business.
Find out more
Download the report: Employee Skilling and the Potential of AI
Read more: Why the customer experience needs to be digital first
Read more: Empower employees for secure remote working
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About the author
Chester has been working in regulated industries within Microsoft, managing key strategic accounts for five years. He has a strong focus specifically on the legal industry, enabling global companies to grow, evolve and become agile through cloud adoption, technology and a challenger mentality. He is passionate about helping organisations to digitally transform whilst navigating a rapidly changing environment.
