With the summer months upon us, dropping COVID-19 numbers, and more people comfortable with travel again, a forecasted 85% of adults in the U.S. are planning to take a vacation between June and September. And even though more people are returning to the office each month, they are doing so in a format different than years past. How can law firms keep personnel connected and productive in these busy summer months?
One study quoted by Forbes reported that productivity drops 20% in the summer, which is no surprise given warmer weather and distractions like children being out of school. Experts recommend a different approach to work productively in summer, offering common-sense tips like:
- Focus on the right activities
- Set goals
- Get organized
- Do your important work early in the day
- Communicate with colleagues in the morning
- Avoid overload
But what about collaboration when colleagues are out of office or working different hours during the summer months? Client cases still need to move forward. Tasks still need to be completed. Court dates and deadlines cannot be ignored. Clients want status updates. Invoices need to go out.
More people on vacation this summer means fewer people available to work on matters. An intranet that’s designed for the unique needs of law firms makes it easier for colleagues to collaborate by monitoring progress on cases, picking up the slack when others are out, delegating tasks in advance of time off, and accessing all case information in a single location. With an intranet that’s fueled by a platform like Infodash, all legal applications can be pulled into a single location that can be accessed from anywhere.
Because it is built on top of Microsoft SharePoint, Infodash gives employees easy access from the same single location to the productivity tools Microsoft offers, helping your legal professionals stay on track when they’re distracted by sunshine, warm days and anticipated vacations. Infodash can easily be personalized to the user so they can access the information they need – not just what the firm thinks they need.
Finally, firms need a way to keep everyone in the loop on firm news, office happenings, milestones and more, regardless of where people are working and when their vacations take place. An out-of-the-loop attorney returning from a week at the beach wants to know what happened while they were away, and Infodash allows firms to easily provide this content via their intranet.
While an intranet platform like Infodash can’t help an employee plan their family vacation or prevent them from staring out at blue skies on a Friday afternoon in June, it CAN help everyone in the firm be more productive and continue to collaborate during these busy summer months.
Fun fact: According to an article in Inc. summarizing a workplace study, the most productive time of the entire year is a Monday in October at 11:00 a.m. According to the study, September, October, and November are the most productive months of the year.