Orientation Revisited and Reinvented

Many firms have instituted elaborate machinery for their recruiting (entry-level and lateral) and orientation, but there is a long way to go toward stellar results regarding orienting, integrating, and retaining those hard-won recruits. Some of the difficulties are generational; others can be traced to the traditions of partnership culture, which often lacks openness about management and how the firm handles the business of law.

Firms and companies are still trying to figure out the newest generation in the workplace. As more of the Millennial/Y generation continue to enter firms for what they expect will be very short-term stays, partners and managers agonize. They attend conference sessions and Webcasts, and they bring in generational experts for seminars. They are looking for the secret sauce that will turn the young recruits into the more traditional, driven professionals they knew and could count on to work hard, aspire to partnership, and stick around for three to five years, at which point they will have made money for the firm.

Resolving this dilemma will require, whether they like it or not, more attitude- and behavior-changing on the part of partners and senior associates or managers than they are likely to get from Generation Y. It will require creative thinking, new offerings, and more savvy and generation-sensitive management to engage and have the desired effect on the younger generation. I see this as a three-prong approach:

• New management thinking translated into action;
• Greatly enhanced orientation programs; and
• Facilitated dialogues among work teams.

This article focuses on pumping up orientation programs. Not incidentally, these changes in orientation will benefit Generation X and many partners as well, as they open their minds and participate in orientation programs.

Recommended New Topics

Here are the topics I recommend to add to firm orientation programs ASAP. I would go so far as to say that they are appropriate for summer interns (students), as well as first-year associates and professional staff, and young contract attorneys or other freelance professionals working in a firm's offices.

• Understanding the economics of a law firm. (This is crucial, but few firms do it.);
• How the perceptions of others (partners, supervisors, colleagues, clients) affect career progress. This would cover behavior, attire, perceptions of work ethic, etc.;
• How to initiate conversations with partners and supervisors, and how to ask for feedback. (If partners don't initiate, and they frequently don't, young lawyers need to know how to ask questions and get to know partners in an appropriate fashion at suitable times.);
• Expectations ' the firm's and the individual's; and
• How to channel creativity appropriately (and why certain behaviors and self-expression may hurt others or the firm).

Be creative with the format. To get attention, some of this might be designed into a game show ' 'Challenge a Boomer.' Let Generation Y ('Why') get a lot of their questions out and answered. They are less shy than previous generations.

In addition, from my observations and reports from professional development, marketing, and human resource directors as well as partners, there is a clear need for better orientation for the people brought in laterally. Particularly relevant are:

• Briefings on the economics of the firm and how laterals, personally, affect revenues and costs. (Different firms may operate differently, and it's amazing what partners in many firms don't know or understand.);
• Firm culture and values; and
• How to manage junior associates and staff. This is an urgent need and a subject for more extensive training for all mid-level and senior associates.
• For maximum attention, perhaps, (I suggest not facetiously) orientation information should be posted on a firm MySpace page or YouTube as well as delivered in person at the firm.

Professionalism Training

A few law schools are finally delivering orientation-type programs to foster professionalism, having seen the gaps in knowledge and understanding when their alumni go out into the real world of work. Some of it is defensive, knowing that increasingly employers research job candidates online. More importantly, it appears that part of the younger generations' education must include aspects of behavior that were assumed to be known and understood by previous generations. This is at least partly because there are so many more tools for screwing up now; the damage can be spread great distances, and it is difficult to erase.

Two law schools that have started professionalism orientations are the Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC, and Drake University Law School in Des Moines, IA.

The sooner professionalism messages start, the better. Schools should partner with firms and other employers to get the messages out ' consistent messages. If they start getting guidance in school, the firm a young lawyer joins won't be thought of as singularly straight-laced or prudish. The new recruits may still think their self-expression is being curtailed by dinosaur cultures, but at least the messages will be widespread and sustaining.

New employees should be aware that a survey of professional service firms (including law) by private research organization Ponemon Institute (Traverse City, MI) found that 61% conduct Google searches on candidates and more than half search social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Firms are divided on their opinions as to whether this is appropriate or not, but the practice exists formally or informally.

For their part, Generation Y has a different take on privacy than older generations. (If Baby Boomers 'let it all hang out' sexually and politically, they generally did not feel the need to broadcast their private thoughts on everything and everybody.) Many members of Generation Y believe they should be free to express themselves on their own time, and it should not be taken into account by employers. These divergent attitudes on privacy issues can be a particular problem for employers.

Large firms with sophisticated formal recruiting programs also have long-standing orientation programs. Smaller firms may be among the one-third of organizations across many industries that reported in a 2007 Robert Half International survey that they had no orientation program in place.

Firms cannot expect new employees (or new partners) to adhere to the firm's expectations and values if they are not clearly articulated and reinforced in orientation and subsequent communications. New recruits are coming from a different world and they need guidance to channel their talents and creativity (and perhaps temper their impatience). Orientation must go beyond the usual basics, include an appearance by senior management, and be consistent with how the firm operates and presents itself to the outside world. It is too important to the firm's success and talent retention to be an oversight, an afterthought, or to be missing ingredients that help young professionals navigate the practical and behavioral aspects of firm real life.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot is the president of Practice Development Counsel, a business development and organizational effectiveness consulting and coaching firm working with law firms for more than 20 years. She is the author of The Rainmaking Machine, and may be contacted at [email protected]. For more information, visit http://www.pdcounsel.com/. ' Phyllis Weiss Haserot, 2007

Many firms have instituted elaborate machinery for their recruiting (entry-level and lateral) and orientation, but there is a long way to go toward stellar results regarding orienting, integrating, and retaining those hard-won recruits. Some of the difficulties are generational; others can be traced to the traditions of partnership culture, which often lacks openness about management and how the firm handles the business of law.

Firms and companies are still trying to figure out the newest generation in the workplace. As more of the Millennial/Y generation continue to enter firms for what they expect will be very short-term stays, partners and managers agonize. They attend conference sessions and Webcasts, and they bring in generational experts for seminars. They are looking for the secret sauce that will turn the young recruits into the more traditional, driven professionals they knew and could count on to work hard, aspire to partnership, and stick around for three to five years, at which point they will have made money for the firm.

Resolving this dilemma will require, whether they like it or not, more attitude- and behavior-changing on the part of partners and senior associates or managers than they are likely to get from Generation Y. It will require creative thinking, new offerings, and more savvy and generation-sensitive management to engage and have the desired effect on the younger generation. I see this as a three-prong approach:

• New management thinking translated into action;
• Greatly enhanced orientation programs; and
• Facilitated dialogues among work teams.

This article focuses on pumping up orientation programs. Not incidentally, these changes in orientation will benefit Generation X and many partners as well, as they open their minds and participate in orientation programs.

Recommended New Topics

Here are the topics I recommend to add to firm orientation programs ASAP. I would go so far as to say that they are appropriate for summer interns (students), as well as first-year associates and professional staff, and young contract attorneys or other freelance professionals working in a firm's offices.

• Understanding the economics of a law firm. (This is crucial, but few firms do it.);
• How the perceptions of others (partners, supervisors, colleagues, clients) affect career progress. This would cover behavior, attire, perceptions of work ethic, etc.;
• How to initiate conversations with partners and supervisors, and how to ask for feedback. (If partners don't initiate, and they frequently don't, young lawyers need to know how to ask questions and get to know partners in an appropriate fashion at suitable times.);
• Expectations ' the firm's and the individual's; and
• How to channel creativity appropriately (and why certain behaviors and self-expression may hurt others or the firm).

Be creative with the format. To get attention, some of this might be designed into a game show ' 'Challenge a Boomer.' Let Generation Y ('Why') get a lot of their questions out and answered. They are less shy than previous generations.

In addition, from my observations and reports from professional development, marketing, and human resource directors as well as partners, there is a clear need for better orientation for the people brought in laterally. Particularly relevant are:

• Briefings on the economics of the firm and how laterals, personally, affect revenues and costs. (Different firms may operate differently, and it's amazing what partners in many firms don't know or understand.);
• Firm culture and values; and
• How to manage junior associates and staff. This is an urgent need and a subject for more extensive training for all mid-level and senior associates.
• For maximum attention, perhaps, (I suggest not facetiously) orientation information should be posted on a firm MySpace page or YouTube as well as delivered in person at the firm.

Professionalism Training

A few law schools are finally delivering orientation-type programs to foster professionalism, having seen the gaps in knowledge and understanding when their alumni go out into the real world of work. Some of it is defensive, knowing that increasingly employers research job candidates online. More importantly, it appears that part of the younger generations' education must include aspects of behavior that were assumed to be known and understood by previous generations. This is at least partly because there are so many more tools for screwing up now; the damage can be spread great distances, and it is difficult to erase.

Two law schools that have started professionalism orientations are the Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC, and Drake University Law School in Des Moines, IA.

The sooner professionalism messages start, the better. Schools should partner with firms and other employers to get the messages out ' consistent messages. If they start getting guidance in school, the firm a young lawyer joins won't be thought of as singularly straight-laced or prudish. The new recruits may still think their self-expression is being curtailed by dinosaur cultures, but at least the messages will be widespread and sustaining.

New employees should be aware that a survey of professional service firms (including law) by private research organization Ponemon Institute (Traverse City, MI) found that 61% conduct Google searches on candidates and more than half search social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Firms are divided on their opinions as to whether this is appropriate or not, but the practice exists formally or informally.

For their part, Generation Y has a different take on privacy than older generations. (If Baby Boomers 'let it all hang out' sexually and politically, they generally did not feel the need to broadcast their private thoughts on everything and everybody.) Many members of Generation Y believe they should be free to express themselves on their own time, and it should not be taken into account by employers. These divergent attitudes on privacy issues can be a particular problem for employers.

Large firms with sophisticated formal recruiting programs also have long-standing orientation programs. Smaller firms may be among the one-third of organizations across many industries that reported in a 2007 Robert Half International survey that they had no orientation program in place.

Firms cannot expect new employees (or new partners) to adhere to the firm's expectations and values if they are not clearly articulated and reinforced in orientation and subsequent communications. New recruits are coming from a different world and they need guidance to channel their talents and creativity (and perhaps temper their impatience). Orientation must go beyond the usual basics, include an appearance by senior management, and be consistent with how the firm operates and presents itself to the outside world. It is too important to the firm's success and talent retention to be an oversight, an afterthought, or to be missing ingredients that help young professionals navigate the practical and behavioral aspects of firm real life.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot is the president of Practice Development Counsel, a business development and organizational effectiveness consulting and coaching firm working with law firms for more than 20 years. She is the author of The Rainmaking Machine, and may be contacted at [email protected]. For more information, visit http://www.pdcounsel.com/. ' Phyllis Weiss Haserot, 2007