One of Scotland's top firms has found an ingenious way to beat the recession - increase chargeable targets whilst freezing pay.
Maclay Murray & Spens has just announced a raft of promotions from "assistant solicitor" to "senior solicitor". Which is jolly good news for the solicitors concerned. Or would be, assuming it was accompanied by a commensurate pay rise. Insiders tell RollOnFriday that salaries have in fact been frozen, although targets have been increased. Sweet.
A spokesman for the firm said that "MMS doesn't comment on matters which are clearly of a confidential nature". Although it has confirmed some salaries in the past. Had the solicitors all been given chunky pay rises it presumably would have been very happy to comment.
MMS hasn't had the easiest time of it recently. Staff are currently facing redundancy, and the firm's trainees are paid a miserly £17,000 a year before being dumped. The firm's Chief Exec emailed staff earlier this week to complain about the coverage, castigate the RollOnFriday mole and say that MMS had a duty to "play our part in training the next generation of lawyers". A duty which clearly doesn't extend to paying them a living wage or keeping most of them in paid employment on qualification...
Tip Off ROF
Maclay Murray & Spens has just announced a raft of promotions from "assistant solicitor" to "senior solicitor". Which is jolly good news for the solicitors concerned. Or would be, assuming it was accompanied by a commensurate pay rise. Insiders tell RollOnFriday that salaries have in fact been frozen, although targets have been increased. Sweet.
A spokesman for the firm said that "MMS doesn't comment on matters which are clearly of a confidential nature". Although it has confirmed some salaries in the past. Had the solicitors all been given chunky pay rises it presumably would have been very happy to comment.
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An MMS partner yesterday |
MMS hasn't had the easiest time of it recently. Staff are currently facing redundancy, and the firm's trainees are paid a miserly £17,000 a year before being dumped. The firm's Chief Exec emailed staff earlier this week to complain about the coverage, castigate the RollOnFriday mole and say that MMS had a duty to "play our part in training the next generation of lawyers". A duty which clearly doesn't extend to paying them a living wage or keeping most of them in paid employment on qualification...
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1. Engage with junior staff. Don't just send emails around when partners are leaving or when people are being made redundant. A promise was made to walk the floors and bring in office captains (whose emails have now stopped). Stay true to your word.
2. Pay staff fairly and transparently.
3. Motivate staff and censure partners who fail to do so.
Happier staff can add a lot to the bottom line.
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This is all very well but the partners with all the power are the worst and unable to embrace change. Are they going to censure themselves?
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18/05/2012 17:47
Re #1 - How lucky you are - the firm I worked at rarely sent e-mails saying people were leaving, especially not partners ... you would just get in one day and their desk was empty and the nameplates changed. If they like the person, the secretaries would pull a collection together by e-mail - but partners would inevitably have a "client meeting" and never show up to give the departing staff member the courtesy of a "thank you".
(For avoidance of doubt, redundancy consultation e-mails came from HR. All partners must have been warned in advance, as I remember during that time all of them had "external client meetings".)
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Now, if only firms would follow through on that sentiment.