Jones: People skills need recognition and reward
Developing a “proactive policy” to prevent wellbeing issues from arising appears to be a “significant challenge” for most law firms, a report by the International Bar Association (IBA) has found.
For many organisations, there was a “mismatch” between the intention to support or promote workplace mental health and wellbeing, and taking “practical, concrete” steps.
Researchers said that while more than six out of 10 lawyers said supporting and promoting employees’ mental health and wellbeing was an integral part of their firm’s overall strategy, fewer than 40% said firms measured the effectiveness of the steps they had taken.
Two-thirds of lawyers considered that their firm had a workplace culture which supported wellbeing, such as family-friendly working hours, but less than a quarter had a workplace code of conduct to promote wellbeing.
A narrow majority of firms with a code of conduct actively enforced it, while fewer than four out of 10 engaged with clients to do so.
Researchers from the IBA’s professional wellbeing commission based the report Workplace Wellbeing Survey 2024, Analysis and Discussion on responses from 236 lawyers around the world, including the UK.
Four out of 10 lawyers said they believed that attitudes to mental health and wellbeing had changed since the pandemic, with most acknowledging greater awareness.
One lawyer commented: “Yes, I believe Covid put mental health issues on display and currently the awareness is much higher. Still room for improvement of course.”
However, another said: “No, because profitability has become even more important, and everyone is required to work more in order to increase profitability.”
Fewer than a fifth of lawyers agreed that law firms in their jurisdiction were “generally effective” at supporting members of staff experiencing poor mental health or wellbeing, or preventing those issues from arising.
However, almost half said law firms recognised that “actively promoting positive workplace mental health and wellbeing can lead to greater productivity and higher performance”.
More said their firms did not provide line managers with enough resources to enable them to support mental health and wellbeing, than said they did.
Opinions were split on whether line managers were encouraged to support mental health and wellbeing, but a majority said their firms did not provide the right training for line managers to build an “effective and supportive” team.
Dr Emma Jones, a member of the IBA’s wellbeing commission and a senior law lecturer at Sheffield University, commented: “The report’s findings emphasise the important role of individuals who have managerial responsibilities in law firms. Such individuals can have a significant positive impact upon the wellbeing of their colleagues.
“However, they are also vulnerable to wellbeing challenges themselves if they are not provided with the necessary training, support and resources to enable them to do this.
“There is an old saying that individuals are often promoted because they are good lawyers, rather than good managers. To tackle the current wellbeing crisis in law, we need to ensure that management skills, particularly people skills, are fully recognised, valued and rewarded.”
