Air Mason looks like a wonderful and cost effective tool!

How did you find updating policies worked while using it?
How do useful do you find the tracking data on employee usage?
How do employees access the handbook is it through a link?

I have booked a demo with them as this is something we have wanted to implement for a while!…Read more

We introduced a handbook last year and we took the same approach that Melissa noted above. We introduced it at a meeting and sent out certain policies (anti-bullying) online with a request to review and sign off, which we now will do annually. The software we use tracks reads, how long someone spends on it and when they signed…Read more

With the caveat that I am not a lawyer so it might be a good idea to get some legal advice… In general, as long as your Handbook doesn’t contradict what is in the employee’s contract/appointment/offer letter, you are entitled to unilaterally introduce rules. If you are drastically changing working conditions, you could be…Read more

Our firm has never had a proper employee handbook. I am in the process of building one, launching it, and have everyone sign an acknowledgement for it.

Questions are:

Do we need to provide consideration for this??

What happens if someone refuses to sign??

We try to do a mix that is made up based on tangible targets (like billable, receipts, etc…) and non-tangible targets (how the firm did overall, amount of BD, if they were involved in internal initiatives, etc…) as long as they are weighted…Read more

We are using the performance reviews as an input into salary increases through a merit matrix. We take each staff member’s current pay in relation to the benchmark for the position, and their performance rating and then, using the salary increase budgeted %age, we assign an increase amount to each criteria. For example, a Top Performer…Read more

I’m interested in hearing from firms that conduct pre-employment background checks through a third-party provider. For those of you who screen new hires, what are your typical turnaround times for the various components of the background check process (e.g. ID/address verification, education/employment verification, criminal…Read more

We were wondering how other firms are dealing with the issue of having pay data reported that comes from various positions in firms (i.e. pay scales ranging from junior admin staff to senior counsel being lumped all into one category and being compared). Additionally, the issue of employees predominantly being composed of one gender in…Read more

I can’t seem to find anything on this. What is the trend of billable target hours for lawyers in litigation? I have a feeling the trend is going down for boutique / midsize firms but i would love to get some insight on how targets are determined vis a vie bonus calculation. ‘

Thank you!

Kirsten

We haven’t completed the reports quite yet. We are still allowing employees to update their gender (should they choose) but we don’t anticipate that we will have any trouble meeting the November 1 deadline.

If you have a publicly accessible website, you do have to publish it there. If you don’t have a publicly accessible website,…Read more

Alison

We talked about doing monthly cake days but maybe next year.

We are re-looking at our staff birthday recognition and are interested in what other firms do, if anything, in this regard. Currently we provide a gift card of staff’s choice on their birthday. In the past we have had a monthly birthday cake however moved away from that around Covid time. I’m also noticing people don’t necessarily…Read more

For the main gift from the firm, we do visa gift cards each year. If we decide to do additional prizes which are more personal, we have a wheel they spin with the prizes listed on it and then host a game and the 1st place spins first, 2nd place spins second etc. The staff seem to enjoy it and get excited now when they see the wheel…Read more

We are currently with BMC too and feel things have not been the same since they were bought out from Telus Fully Managed.

Our firm IT is outsourced with BMC Networks for our MSP and Azure management. We have not enjoyed their services as much as we used to ever since they were bought over by Telus Fully Managed. We are also looking at alternatives currently so thank you for raising this post!

If your firm outsources IT, which Managed Services Provider do you use? And would you recommend them?