Over the last several years there has been significant change in the work world. During the pandemic, lawyers and their teams learned how to work from home using new tools and technologies. People reassessed their lives, and some retired or changed focus and followed their passions. Economic shifts resulted in reductions in force and layoffs. Many lawyers want to continue to work remotely or adopt a hybrid approach with some workdays out of the office. All this change means that how we work needs to transform and that we must increase the focus on business continuity. When people depart or are not in the office to answer questions, what happens to their institutional knowledge and the office processes that fuel progress? Documenting procedures and tracking tasks have become essential to reducing disruption due to the constant shifts encountered in our new work world.
Why and How Processes and Procedures Should Be Recorded
The recording of a legal department’s processes and procedures has many advantages, from onboarding new team members to identifying opportunities for improvement. Documentation can help with business continuity and succession planning. Many legal departments may have a standard operating procedures manual, but is it easy to find and update? A three-ring binder back at the office is no longer sufficient. Legal departments should reinvigorate their efforts to create effective “how to” office manuals.
Onboarding
When new people start at your office, whether attorneys or support staff, an office manual can help them get up to speed quickly. Dedicating time to training often gets pushed to the side, and new hires are left to seek help or try to figure things out alone. A robust office manual facilitates training and guidance when everyone else is too busy to help right away.
Standard Operating Procedures
Legal department policies such as time off, dress code, and acceptable use of technology are often already in written form. However, there are procedures that go with these policies. How does someone request time off? Is there a primary calendar to check? A detailed policy and procedure manual can help the team stay in compliance.
Many legal offices use workflows (the series of tasks necessary to accomplish a project, from initiation to completion). Examples include everything from responding to requests, mail processing, and records retention. Are you leveraging checklists? Whether you are negotiating a contract or working on a zoning approval, a checklist can help ensure that the matter moves forward and work is done in an organized fashion with nothing falling through the cracks. Documenting office workflows and checklists helps staff perform their jobs more efficiently and ensures consistency and compliance.
There are several ways to begin compiling or improving your legal office manual. Start with a team brainstorming session where everyone is asked what tasks they routinely perform and which processes they believe require documentation. Create a team to examine the list and add any missing tasks or processes. Once a draft list is compiled, send it to all staff for another review.
After the final list is complete, assign documenting each task to the person who performs that task most often. It is best to have them record the process as they perform it, which should reduce the extra burden of documenting it.
An office manual should be available to everyone and easy to access. It can be stored on a shared file server or in the cloud. Make sure entries are dated so users will know when the process was created and last updated. Consider who can make updates or edit processes. Assign task “owners” (creators of the documentation), and make sure the manual notes the owners in the event of questions. Add a table of contents or some straightforward way to navigate through the manual. Use bullets, screenshots, videos, and other uncomplicated ways to express complex information. Schedule a periodic, overall review of the manual, but make sure that each owner keeps his or her respective segment(s) as up-to-date as possible.
Improvement
Once you have documented your policies, procedures, and processes, you can identify how to improve. You can feel comfortable knowing that your office is prepared for onboarding and succession planning, as well as business continuity. You can look at certain processes to leverage project management tools more effectively. The time invested in creating a well-designed office manual is significantly beneficial.
Tools You Can Use to Create a Manual
While the manual could be created in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, there are other tools, discussed below, that are more effective for capturing information, updating, and responding to the variety of ways people learn (auditory, visual, etc.). It’s vital that the tool allows for user-friendly updates to prevent the manual from becoming outdated.
Use What You Already Have
If your office uses the popular Microsoft 365 suite, you already have a lot of tools to get you started.
Microsoft PowerPoint. The familiar presentation software has many features available to create training videos, document processes, display screenshots and instructions, illustrate workflows and timelines, and more. Need to show a process, timeline, hierarchy, list, or cycle? Go into PowerPoint’s Insert tab, and in the Illustration group, open SmartArt. There are many graphics to help you represent information in a visual way. For example, use a Pyramid List to show hierarchical relationships, such as a review workflow or responsibilities chart. Use a Converging Text graphic under Process to illustrate how multiple steps or parts merge into a whole. Or use a standard timeline to show the typical steps along a continuum for a process. For instance, what are the primary steps on the timeline of a condemnation proceeding?
Also found in the Insert tab are tools to create and embed media, such as audio and video clips and screen recordings. In the Media group under Audio, you can record an audio clip. If you have a slide presentation, narrate what some of the graphic illustrations mean and contextualize them, all without having to type a word. Look under the Images group in the Insert tab and click on Screenshot. Take a clip of your screen and then annotate it or add voice narration with an audio clip. Would you like to capture your screen(s) to show how to do something such as navigate to a shared file repository, use a particular piece of software, or create a video of you presenting with the slides you have created? Go to the Record tab, and under Record you can present your slides with audio and screen recordings; if you have a webcam, you can use the Cameo feature to present your narration in a picture-in-picture arrangement. You can format, but not edit, any video screen recordings. Then in the Record tab you can export your file to video as an .mp4 video file or as a self-running PowerPoint show.
Microsoft Stream. If you are a Microsoft 365 Business subscriber, you will see an option to Publish to Stream in PowerPoint from the File—Export menu. What is Stream? Stream is similar to YouTube but built to house videos for an internal team. You can find it in your apps list, or go here and log on with your work account. You can upload videos, such as recorded PowerPoint training videos or recorded Zoom meetings, into Stream. Stream is on SharePoint, so you can easily share videos with people in your office or organization. Once you store your video file in Stream, you can create thumbnails, add “about” information, add transcript and captions, add chapters for longer videos, allow comments, and track views by enabling analytics.
You can also use Stream to record videos. Capture your desktop, audio, and video under the Create New—Recording option at the top of the screen. You can show how to do something or simply record a video explaining how to do something. You can add backdrops, annotate the screen, add a teleprompter, add a whiteboard, and more. Then publish and share on the Stream platform. Even for novices, this is easy!
Microsoft Teams. Another tool built into Microsoft 365 is Teams. In addition to being a videoconferencing platform and a place to have internal chat—which is helpful for folks new to the office asking quick questions and seeking guidance—Teams has workspaces and channels. You can set up a workspace for the legal department and create channels shared with specific people. A channel could be project or matter based or could describe a process such as actions to take in a consumer protection investigation. A Teams workspace channel includes chat and files shared with those who are given access. Further, you can click on the plus sign and add anything to the channel—a Word document, a OneNote notebook, a wiki, videos, written instructions, forms, and much more.
Other Tools
While it is cost-effective to use the tools you already have, they may not always be as effective as others. Although helpful, Microsoft tools are not purpose-built for documenting processes, recording standard operating procedures, or tracking new employee onboarding with training completion. Below are other tools to consider:
Loom. This video creation and hosting site has several uses. One is to provide a workplace video host for your team to access. Another is to create videos instead of having meetings, especially if it is to provide an update. They also focus on team alignment to boost productivity. Loom is easy to use; just click New Video, and it captures your screen, audio, and video. Once you record the video, you can do some minor editing, including the removal of filler words, and you have some ability to split, stitch, and trim the video. Loom can also create a transcript. People on your team can add comments in text or add audio comments.
Trainual. Trainual is built to help document and organize standard operating procedures and turn them into training manuals. Training can be updated, assigned, accessed, and tracked. Whether you write your process or record your screen, Trainual makes it easy to turn steps into training. The tools also help create actionable org charts, documenting who is who, who does what, and how they do it. Your team and the office or organization can use a directory that shows employees’ titles, how long they have been in the organization, a headshot photo, and more. This can help folks in the office know how to leverage human resources when they get stuck. In addition to helping with training manual creation and human resources, Trainual can also store information that helps people get up to speed on what your office or entity does and what are its mission, values, and policies.
SweetProcess. SweetProcess helps you document procedures, create and share business policies, collaborate on process improvement, assign and manage tasks, and develop a knowledge base. The product helps create workflows from procedures, helps turn procedures into graphical process maps, leverages artificial intelligence to help with writing, incorporates permission levels, and integrates with hundreds of other applications.
Zoho Learn. Described as “knowledge management and training software,” this subscription tool combines a knowledge base for standard operating procedures, policies, and documentation with an online learning management system with interactive courses and assessments. The suite includes business wiki software for building a knowledge repository in a collaborative environment. Employees can open the wiki, document a process, and edit, as necessary.