Principles for a successful remote paralegal placement

This year our business flipped from paralegals in offices to remote supervision and we’ve learnt a lot from this experience. In light of the recent news that office workers should ‘work from home’ where they can for the next six months, we (the Client Services team) wanted to share some of our principles for a successful remote paralegal placement:

Safety first

We know that some teams prefer to work in the office for supervision, morale or security reasons. If you would like our candidates to join your team in the office, we need to be sure it’s a safe environment. Please be prepared to show F-LEX and the candidate your H&S policy or COVID-19 measures.

Please understand that some of our candidates may be shielding, uncomfortable using public transport or be living with a vulnerable family member, and therefore may not wish to leave the house.

Set clear expectations

We’ve helped hundreds of teams through peaks of work by providing an extra pair of hands. In our experience, teams who provide clear expectations can build trust and move at a faster pace.

If you have an idea in mind of how long a task should take, we recommend telling the paralegal early on so they can update you if things are taking longer than expected.

Top Tip: You may also wish to ask the paralegal to send you a daily summary of what they’ve done and how long they’ve spent on things so you have an idea of how the time is being spent.

Provide time to answer questions

F-LEX paralegals are eager, ambitious and always strive to perform well. They may ask questions to ensure they understand the work. Please ensure there is someone readily available to answer questions and supervise their work, particularly in the first few days.

Top tip: Instant messaging platforms like Slack, Teams or Lync can be a useful way for paralegals to ask quick questions.

Technical issues may arise

WiFi going down, laptops crashing, software not loading… we’ve all been there and we know it’s frustrating for everyone involved.

Please be prepared that things may take a little longer to set up at home and timesheet hours will be incurred if the paralegal needs to be on hand to fix the issue.

Top Tip: If there is a technical issue which is preventing the paralegal from working, please make it clear that they are not expected to work and please provide the time or date when they can return to work to avoid any timesheet quibbles

More top tips:

• Lessons from the F-LEX tech team: How to effectively manage remote teams
• Gunnercooke: when remote working is business as usual
• Cybersecurity: how to stay safe when working from home
• Hire a remote paralegal