Have just recovered from organizing a recent event at DLA Piper – Building the Business Case for Tech Skills – and I have been encouraged to received some really positive comments from the attendees.  To quote one…. “A very informative and powerful session, thank you so much for organizing this.  It really hit the spot with our current challenges and what we want to achieve here in order to get the full ROI on both our people and products.”

There is no doubt that anyone who works at a law firm is aware of some of the important skills gaps that exist.  Law firms invest vast sums in technology yet lawyers in particular tend to be resistant to attending training sessions – for perfectly valid reasons.  As one of our contributors said “unfortunately classroom training sessions are seen as a forum for displaying ignorance” and “lawyers are clever people and do not like to admit they are not confident with the technology on their desktop/tablet/smartphone”.  Historically secretaries were expected to deal with technology queries, or a call to the Help Desk would suffice but now that secretary:fee earner ratios are so high and Help Desk calls cost time and money for both caller and recipient it is clear that things must change. Along came LTC4– a neater way to describe the Legal Technology Core Competency Certification Coalition! The recent event focused strongly on the benefits to law firms of belonging to this not-for-profit membership organisation.  Dedicated to improving both lawyer and support staff technology skills in a realistic, workflow-based way LTC4 is providing its more than 100 member firms with a simple framework where skills can be assessed, gaps identified and dealt with in whatever is the most appropriate way.

Classroom training has had to be cut back to the minimum and must be totally relevant to the individual’s working practices. Into the mix come interactive assessment tools like Capensys’ Learning in Action which identify where knowledge is lacking so that it can be addressed, then there are context sensitive help tools which link to mini-elearning snippets so that people can get help and learn at the same time.

Most important is the need for those who are involved in delivering training, in whatever format is thought to be best, to have a good understanding of what the business needs its people to achieve, and what the individual needs to know in order to do their job effectively.  This may sound simple but that research, conducted with all the key stakeholders, can make a huge difference.  Anyone who is involved in skills improvement, and in the development of their people, should be business focused.  A recent survey conducted by Neochange showed how improved efficiency with technology directly affects the bottom line and nowhere more so than in a law firm where time pressures are so great (see above).