Remuneration Systems

Does your remuneration system reward Staff and Partners for exactly the behaviours you want from them?

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If it does, congratulations, you're in a tiny minority.

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What seems to typically happen is that firms talk about the desired behaviours and outcomes they expect from Partners, and then reward them based on something entirely different.

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If you take the higher order definition of what a Partner is there to achieve, it looks something like the following (in order):

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• Be available as a trusted advisor to valuable clients via a close relationship

• Attract, retain and develop a team of skilled professionals who learn from the partner and espouse the partners ethical and technical values

• Direct, qualify and manage a pipeline of fee paying services to their team, ensuring all team members are engaged, challenged and occupied, and clients are professionally and expertly serviced for their legal needs

• Contribute to and develop the firms standing in the legal, business and general communities, enhancing its reputation and position of prominence

• Mentor and develop new Partner quality professionals, leveraging their skills and ensuring firm expansion and appropriate succession planning

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Now this all sounds pretty sensible, smart and noble. The problem is what happens next.

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Most remuneration models are heavily weighted towards personal billable hours of the partners individual exertion, even when this almost guarantees none of the above lofty goals can be met. We’ve never understood how that makes sense.

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Report Factory can provide guidance and examples of how to restructure remuneration plans and thinking to encourage and deliver the outcomes and behaviours which make a difference to the firm, linking remuneration of individuals directly to these behaviours.