Who Has Time for Performance Reviews? [Especially When They Take 49 Clicks to Complete]
In the legal industry, where billable hours are measured in 6-minute increments, efficiency is king. So when a performance review takes 49 clicks and more than 8 months to complete, it becomes apparent something needed to change. Enter Louise Ferris, Director of HR. Under her leadership, McCullough Robertson has overhauled their HR systems and processes. She shared her insights on their HR transformation journey at HR Innovation & Tech Fest 2017 – the challenges, successes and three key strategies of leading change in a traditional business. A Conservative Legal Landscape McCullough Robertson is a leading independent Australian law firm with offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Newcastle. Like many in the legal industry, they are operating within a conservative environment, with a 50-strong partner leadership. With close to 400 staff, the firm is big enough to have a level of technological sophistication, but small enough that everyone has an opinion. “We have 50 partners, which essentially means I have 50 bosses”, said Louise. An Onerous Performance Review System One of the biggest pain points was their performance review process. The system, which had been in place for 6 years, was based on a competency framework with a traditional reviewee/reviewer model. It was a cumbersome 8 month process from self review to REM sign off. For McCullough Robertson’s lawyers who record every 6 minutes of their time, the time spent doing a performance review was not considered well spent. On top of the time consideration, they were working with 5 different … Continue reading →