Employee wellness and managing hybrid work for effective collaboration and engagement is a priority
Leaders have begun to consider a return to the office, but the office managing partner of Miller Thomson’s Toronto, Vaughan and Markham offices does not anticipate returning to the pre-pandemic days of five days a week in brick-and-mortar spaces. In an interview about legal trends in the profession, business lawyer Nora Osbaldeston says managing the firm’s hybrid work environment and finding the right balance of how associates work for effective team building, collaboration, and engagement is a focus in 2022.
“Sometimes the most important thing you can do is to show up, but after having sat at home for a couple of years and working from home, it’s not so easy for many people, and so 2022 is going to be a year of transition and moving us into the new normal, whatever that new normal may be.”
Osbaldeston says navigating how to use office spaces in a hybrid environment to encourage teamwork and learning and engage with clients is a priority. “We’re still working remotely, but we’re about to move into our encouraged phase, where we’re encouraging people to come back two to three days a week.”
2021 was the firm’s busiest year, particularly in the business law group, as M&A capital markets and financial services saw the most significant uptick in activity, Osbaldeston says. “Being on Zoom eight hours a day and sitting at dining room tables and dealing with your home life, it was obvious people were tired and tired at a time when the firm and our offices in the GTA were very busy.”
Staying connected and focusing on wellness was a real focus in 2021, and Osbaldeston says the firm provided enhanced mental health programs, fireside discussions, community communication, and town halls. “We created mental health seminars and series. We started online yoga and weekly meditation. We initiated wellness days off.”
The pandemic emphasized the need for employers to ensure they took people’s whole lives and entire well-being into account. Providing enhanced mental health programs for employees will continue in 2022, Osbaldeston says.
“The pandemic humanized all of us. When you’re in Zoom meetings and hearing dogs bark and kids asking for things in the background, it’s hard not to fully appreciate your people in their entirety.”
In 2022, the firm will continue to focus on equity, diversity and inclusion in recruitment and retention and career development.
With intense competition for lawyers between law firms and the American firms recruiting more Canadian talent, Osbaldeston says flexibility is crucial in its hiring and retention practices.
For example, during the pandemic, some associates in the firm’s Toronto office moved to the London location and were recruited by seven sister firms. Osbaldeston says the associates stayed because they were flexible.
“We did not require our people to come to the office necessarily. We appreciated that as long as you make a real effort to stay connected and on collaboration and keeping connected, we don’t need you to be in the office five days a week.”
Osbaldeston says US law firms did not require Canadian recruits to leave the country so staying solution-oriented in retention and recruitment was vital. “We continue to recruit to counter that intense competition coming up from the US heavily, so we’re increasing compensation and bonuses and matching each other and our competition.”
The strategy was to think about recruiting every day, and Osbaldeston says the firm never slowed down, recognizing that there was intense competition for talent. However, maintaining connection, mentoring and providing clear career paths was crucial because associates wanted to be understood and part of something bigger.
The firm will not be limited to a physical office space in recruiting talent and can hire from anywhere. Osbaldeston says the management will focus on implementing technologies to drive clients’ internal operational efficiencies and solutions.
“Continuing to focus on knowledge management, client relationship management, contribution, and analytics will help us make data-driven decisions where appropriate.”
Staying connected with clients and asking how to provide support was a priority in 2021, and Osbaldeston says there will be more in-person interaction in 2022 as the firm will engage with clients to operate between in-person and virtual communication.
2021 was the firm’s busiest year in its 65-year history, and Osbaldeston says she does not see the pace slowing in the business law, litigation and the employment and labour group.
She anticipates more restructuring and insolvency matters in 2022. “One area we thought would be busy at the beginning of the pandemic was restructuring and insolvency, but that has lagged a bit. It will probably pick up more than what we experienced in 2021 based on what we’re seeing so far.”
