One of the requirements in the 2023 and 2024 UCLI Certification Program was to set and work towards an internal goal. These are the goals that were submitted to UCLI in those years by a wide variety of legal employers in Utah. They can provide a helpful starting point for anyone hoping to improve hiring, retention, or inclusion outcomes in their workplace.

Workplace Enhancement

• Host more casual get togethers for people to meet and feel welcome and included in our organization.
• Maintain and improve an inclusive work culture that promotes individual perspectives and fosters individual professional growth.
• Make additional efforts to ensure the workplace fosters a welcoming atmosphere that emphasizes the importance of equal opportunity and non-discrimination.
• Celebrate differences and cultivate community through creating an internal “our stories” feature and regular communications for staff and attorneys to share their backgrounds, stories, and cultures.
• Organize a Monthly Mingle for the firm, with structured activities to encourage participation and interaction.
• Host more casual get togethers for people to meet and feel welcome and included in our organization.
• Send survey to legal staff that includes questions regarding their experiences working at our firm, including inclusion and belonging.
• Implement expansion efforts and partnering on programs similar to the Utah Legal Inclusion Fellowship in two other Intermountain geographic regions.
• Continue annual internal audits for employee feedback to identify areas of improvement in the workplace.
• Maintain and improve an inclusive work culture that promotes individual perspectives and fosters individual professional growth.
• Have firm participation and discussion in the YWCA stand against racism. The organization adds different course material every year that advances education and understanding of implicit biases based on several factors including ability status, race, national origin, gender, religion, etc.

Policies

• Facilitate accessible policies and guidelines to maintain a workplace environment in which all individuals are treated with professionalism, respect, and dignity.
• Evaluate and adopt a paternity policy for male associates. 

Hiring and Recruitment

• Launch a firmwide training on behavioral interviewing which includes examples of how unconscious bias can impact the hiring process and decision making. As part of the training, we will include examples of hiring do’s and don’ts. We plan to request that all hiring partners and leaders complete this training in support of our recruiting and inclusion efforts.
• Continue efforts to broaden applicant pool across all job openings
• Eliminate or redirect low impact programming, tasks, and sponsorships and focus on high impact/high value strategic activities that translate to improved recruiting, retention, and advancement.
• Develop and execute a comprehensive plan for a Summer Law Program, including all necessary steps for its successful implementation.

Mentorship

• Focus on practice group initiatives that will support entry-level and lateral attorneys to ensure they are properly utilized, given access to a variety of work, and given opportunities to work with multiple attorneys.
• Work on a formal mentoring program for associates.
• Place more structure around our mentoring program by incorporating three trainings before the end of the year, establishing a system for feedback and check-ins, and expanding to more experienced associates and professional staff.
• Establish a mentorship program that pairs students from underrepresented backgrounds with attorneys who can assist them in achieving their goals.

Professional Development

• Focus on practice group initiatives that will support entry-level and lateral attorneys to ensure they are properly utilized, given access to a variety of work, and given opportunities to work with multiple attorneys.
• Finalize updated job descriptions and process/criteria for advancement and promotions to provide for clear and consistent expectations among legal job codes and associated descriptions
• Maintain and improve an inclusive work culture that promotes individual perspectives and fosters individual professional growth.
• Implement regularly scheduled quarterly check-ins between the boss and each employee.

Retention and Opportunity Oversight

• Further refine system to record high-visibility assignments and opportunities.
• Finalize updated job descriptions and process/criteria for advancement and promotions to provide for clear and consistent expectations among legal job codes and associated descriptions
• Implement regularly scheduled quarterly check-ins between the boss and each employee.
• Continue to facilitate one on one meetings between attorneys and supervisors. As well as ensuring these meetings are leading to opportunities for skill building and advancement in an equitable manner.
• Eliminate or redirect low impact programming, tasks, and sponsorships and focus on high impact/high value strategic activities that translate to improved recruiting, retention, and advancement.
• Focus on efforts to retain the talent in our office by engaging in a thorough review of workload among our attorneys. Evaluate demands of workload based on practice area and specific clients. This will allow us to identify areas where more support is needed and investigate options for providing additional support through various initiatives. This retention effort will allow us to take steps to promote better work-life balance and a more equitable division of work among the attorneys in our office.

Training

• Provide programming and training to the firm’s summer associates to give them the skills needed to succeed as entry-level attorneys.
• Launch a firmwide training on behavioral interviewing which includes examples of how unconscious bias can impact the hiring process and decision making. As part of the training, include examples of hiring do’s and don’ts. Request that all hiring partners and leaders complete this training in support of our recruiting and inclusion efforts.
• Hold a women’s initiative event or sponsor an event that is centered around women in business or women in law.
• Include a more diverse range of speakers at our CLE events.