Law Department Management Blog
The Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 85, March 2007 at 115, article on human capital management practices has spawned multiple posts (See my posts of May 11, 2007 with the first 9 practices and May 28, 2007 with the final 14; as well as June 10, 2007 on Leadership; June 11, 2007 on Employee Engagement; June 14, 2007 on Knowledge Accessibility; and June 30, 2007 on Workforce Optimization.). Here are my references and comments on the practices of the fifth and last category, “Learning Capacity”:
1. Innovation: “New ideas are welcome.” (See my post of Oct. 29, 2006 on creativity and references cited; and my article on creativity in law departments.).
2. Training: “Training is practical and supports organizational goals.” (See my posts of July 14, 2005 on training methods; April 13, 2006 on antitrust training; April 15, 2006 on role play; April 12, 2006 on university training programs for in-house counsel; May 1, 2005 on disseminating CLE learning; and Dec. 1, 2006 about law firms (rarely) training law-department lawyers.).
3. Development: “Employees have formal career development plans.” (See my posts of Feb. 8, 2006 on emotional intelligence predicting career success; Sept. 5, 2005 about a career spotlight on up and coming lawyers; Dec. 28, 2006 on career paths but few promotions in-house; March 6, 2006 on dual track careers; Jan. 30, 2006 on career development through leading teams; and March 28, 2006 on reasons to join a corporation or not.).
4. Value and support: “Leaders demonstrate that learning is valued.” My category on Knowledge Management has dozens of posts and see my post of Dec. 19, 2005 on how to think of law departments as learning organizations.). Tuition reimbursement benefits are one manifestation (See my posts of June 24, 2007 generally and with several references on training; May 1, 2005 on sabbaticals and tuition reimbursement; and Feb. 28, 2006 with a comment.).
5. Systems: “A learning management system automates aspects of training.” I have not run across a law department that had its own learning management system, but the employees of many of them take part in company-wide training programs with their attendant tracking systems (See my posts of July 5, 2006 about these systems and a number of vendors; and Dec. 19, 2005 on BP’s system.).