It's no secret the legal field is changing. Just as legal professionals no longer expect lifelong employment with a single firm or company, many employers are realizing they cannot continue to view the staffing process as they once did. The old "one person, one job" mentality is giving way to a broader look at the real goal of staffing: to achieve maximum productivity.

Staffing strategically is a cost-effective way to obtain the specific experience required for complex needs. Although a core staff of full-time employees is key to your firm's productivity, often a combination of resources, including temporary and project workers, is needed to meet short- and long-term objectives.

Filling Needs, Not Desks
When a staff member leaves, don't automatically assume you must replace him or her with another full-time worker who has the very same skills. Examine how the work may have changed since the last employee was hired and consider the advantages of augmenting your team's talent mix.

You should also set aside time to conduct a thorough analysis of your firm's employment trends and needs, and project potential workload peaks and valleys. Then you can budget for the appropriate mix of temporary and full-time personnel to match these requirements.

Utilizing Project Professionals
Integrating attorneys, paralegals and other legal professionals on a project basis can be an intelligent way to handle the peak workloads you've identified. If actual caseloads fall short of your estimates, staffing strategically will provide a "margin of error," enabling you to easily reduce your temporary workforce. You can also call upon project professionals to fill in while you conduct a search for a full-time employee. Perhaps the most important consideration is that the use of project staff can prevent the headaches associated with overstaffing and subsequent layoffs. In short, you obtain flexibility, and, with it, the ability to maintain a more stable, satisfied team of full-time employees.

Strategically assessing your staffing needs is the kind of "homework" that will pay off many times over. A realistic yet flexible plan will put your law firm or corporate legal department in an ideal position to meet any challenges.