Virtual employment and working from home is becoming much more common across a wide range of fields. Even the legal market is beginning to embrace remote working. However, remote working situations have their own set of challenges and requirements. Are you thinking of establishing a virtual work policy for your legal office? Here are four things to consider when taking this step.
- No brick and mortar. Not having a physical office will reduce your expenses. Rent is not the only thing you need to worry about paying but also the other costs of keeping your lights on. However, not having a physical office will present some challenges as well. You may find that team collaboration is lacking. The best way to solve this is by establishing virtual meetings or, if many of your staff members are in the same area, renting a shared workspace once a month for meetings.
- Limited contact with clients. One undesired side effect of virtual work spaces is the limited contact you will have with your clients. You will no longer have an office where your they simply stop by and discuss their case or any other questions they might have. Of course, being available by phone or email is always imperative but you may also want to establish a protocol for meeting with clients face to face. Provide an easy way to set up an appointment and select one or two local spots to use for meetings.
- Online tools. Among the tools you can use to connect with your team and your clients are collaborative services like social enterprise software or social media interfaces such as Google+ Hangouts or Skype. You may want to set up an instant messaging system so individuals are always in reach. Today’s technology makes it much easier to take the steps toward creating a virtual workspace.
- Secure client portals. Besides face to face meetings, the best way to connect with your clients about their sensitive information is to create secure and password protected client portals. With security measures in place they can be assured that their information is only accessible to them and to their legal team.
Do you want to transition to a remote work model? If you are looking for legal staffing agencies in DC, contact the experts at NRI today.
