Greentarget

Evaluator

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Challenge

In July 2020, just 7 percent of educators said they were prepared to address the social and emotional needs of students during COVID-19.

The Nora Project, a nonprofit devoted to providing high-quality social and emotional learning (SEL) and disability inclusion programming to schools, was there to help. But by the time they became a pro bono client of Greentarget in early 2021, the organization was struggling to get overwhelmed and overworked teachers to sign up for their vital programs.

Solution

Through discovery calls with TNP staff/partners and research of the current media landscape, the GT team developed a series of media angles that spotlighted why TNP’s programs were unique and hooked them to relevant news stories, including:

  • the imminent return to classrooms in fall 2021, and the SEL needs of students and teachers upon return;
  • the heightened importance of quality SEL programs (vs. standardized ones) in this moment of high anxiety and disruption;
  • how SEL and disability inclusion programs can lead to broader social justice awareness and education;
  • how easy TNP makes it for teachers to deliver this programming; and
  • the unique resources and capabilities TNP provides (free summer training camp, on-demand coaching, intraweb, etc.)

Greentarget also leveraged existing TNP materials and partnerships and identified key publication targets spanning local, education, and national top-tier media.

These tactics ultimately manifested in a number of different content and media relations efforts, such as promotion of a series of webinars; thought leadership opportunities for Lauren Schrero Levy, TNP’s Co-Founder and Executive Director; and a byline in connection with an educator who uses TNP in his classroom.

Results

As a result of Greentarget’s efforts, TNP had an “unprecedented number of program inquiries” with schools from across the country reaching out. In addition, following the article in Edutopia, TNP was invited to present at a large industry conference, where they hosted a session on integrating disability studies in the classroom. That presentation generated vast interest and led to numerous resource downloads from TNP’s website and several school sign-ups.

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2021 was a bountiful year for the legal industry. Surveys by Citi Private Bank / Hildebrandt and Thomson Reuters / Georgetown Law Center all predicted double-digit increases in revenue and profits. The stories about individual firm performance emerging on Law.com bear out the predictions – the revenue and profit-per-equity-partner gains in 20 stories published to date average 15 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Certain firms reported 50 percent-plus increases in PEP, truly astonishing advances. With demand for legal services at historic highs in 2021, the same rising tide is lifting all boats.

In this environment, strong financial performance is unlikely to distinguish a firm in the lateral market. So what will help your firm stand out? Frame your financial message around talent.

Missing in the Am Law financial performance coverage so far is meaningful emphasis on firm culture – as experienced by associates, professional employees and partners – and discussion of hybrid and remote work arrangements. These are the new key metrics, valued now more than ever within firms and by potential recruits.

To make an impression on lateral candidates and key audiences within your firm – two groups who keep a keen eye on Law.com at this time of year – prepare messages for your financial survey interview with the following points in mind:

  • Focus on Talent and Culture – The pandemic-fueled Great Resignation is driving greater attention to the key components of a firm’s culture – i.e., the expectations regarding performance, norms that govern behavior, and actions that display your values. How this cultural grist drives a firm’s approach to such critical issues as diversity, wellness, and work environment is meaningful to potential lateral candidates, now more than ever. Nearly every managing partner featured in Law.com to date claims to preside over a great culture, and that the culture drives the firm’s success. But few have distinguished themselves by describing the specific actions they are taking to strengthen their culture.

One firm stood out for bringing its chief diversity officer, alongside the managing partner, to its Law.com interview. She described how the firm is supplementing its compensation strategy with increased and tangible nonmonetary means to attract and retain talent. Another firm stood out for describing an innovation to address lawyer turnover – something confronting all top firms that has otherwise gone unmentioned by the firm’s peers.

  • Explain Return to Work Expectations – When are your lawyers and professional staff expected to be back at their desks? For how often and for how long? This has been a moving target for most firms. Current and potential employees accustomed to a new fluidity between work and life are closely following signals regarding a firm’s disposition towards remote and hybrid work arrangements. How a law firm responds to its workforce’s new expectations and preferences regarding work environments will impact the firm’s ability to attract and retain talent.

Further, how you plan to use space signals whether 2021’s historic profits will prove an outlier as the firm – and historic expenses – get back to “normal,” or whether a fresh reallocation of office space will permanently free up resources to sustain profits or fuel attractive investments in talent. Some firms have shared their evolved plans for space and hybrid work publicly; linking these plans to financial expectations would attract attention.

  • Discuss Financial Results (With Context) – Revenue and profit remain critically important, of course. Share and celebrate strong results. But take care to contextualize these results as a function of exceptional circumstances. Several firms were quick to point out that strong 2021 numbers affirmed their strategy. But given the historic demand for legal services recorded within every segment of the Am Law 200, everyone can claim a smart strategy whether they have one or not. Offices have been empty, and travel is rare, so expenses are down. And strong profits per equity partner were supported at many firms by a decline in equity partner head count – some of it strategic, some not. So, will 2021 prove to be an outlier or has the firm evolved in ways that will keep expenses down, and profits higher, in perpetuity?

The historic war for talent is continuing in 2022, and that is ratcheting up the pressure firms are under to recruit and retain talent. As Hugh Verrier, Chair of White & Case, put it, “What no one wants in our profession is a world where people are being driven by numbers at the expense of people. That is what is commonly known as an absence of culture.”

Verrier is, of course, right. This is the year to make it known how you are investing in the firm’s culture and managing return-to-office expectations to create an environment where lawyers and staff can succeed and thrive.

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If you’re a business leader, the Great Resignation poses a significant threat to your firm’s wellbeing in 2022. We believe the best way to address that threat is to start treating your talent with the same emphasis you historically place on attracting and serving clients.

As unprecedented numbers of experienced professionals re-evaluate their careers and exit their industries altogether, you’re faced with a significant challenge. How do you attract and retain the employees who will drive your business forward? If you’re in the legal industry, you’re likely aware that associate turnover at the nation’s largest law firms increased to nearly 25% in 2021 – up from 18% in 2019 – an alarming number that likely explains the historic rise in associate salaries, that also is an imminent talent and financial risk to firms in 2022.

We’re seeing similar attrition in other segments of professional and financial services, as well – and this isn’t just a problem for your HR and marketing teams to solve. As a business leader, you’ll need to personally make sure your firm is the kind of place where the most talented people want to spend their time and devote their efforts. In fact, you’d be wise to prioritize this issue ahead of client growth for the foreseeable future.

Here’s how to make your firm an employer of choice amid one of the most competitive and challenging hiring landscapes we’ve ever witnessed.

Define and Communicate Your Firm’s Behaviors

Although often conflated, your organizational values and culture are not one and the same. Values are what you say. Culture is what you do. Behavior is the connective tissue that links your stated values to the boots-on-the-ground reality of what it’s like to work at your firm. When your values inform and influence behavior on a consistent basis, you have a healthy culture that’s worth joining. 

It takes intentional effort to create a values-infused culture. Here are two ways to get started.

1. Talk to your talent 

It sounds simple, but very few professional services organizations communicate with their own people with consistency and intent. If you’re like most professional services organizations, you interview your clients on a regular basis. And that makes sense — you want to know that your relationships are healthy and that your account teams are delivering the value you’ve promised. 

But are you regularly conducting similar interviews with your employees – beyond an annual performance review or other HR-led initiatives? Understanding your culture begins by collecting qualitative insights from across your organization. Imagine what you could learn if you created a safe atmosphere for employees to answer questions like:

  • How would you describe our culture to your family?
  • Does the way we approach our day-to-day work match our values?
  • Do you believe our core values are an accurate reflection of how we behave as an organization?
  • Is this an environment where you feel confident that you can reach your individual goals?
  • Why do you think we exist as an organization?

Of course, these conversations will only be useful if your employees are candid with you. To earn their trust, leaders should demonstrate vulnerability and a genuine desire to listen and show that they’re willing to invest the time to shape and own this process. That’s the best way for it to truly have an impact.  

2. Articulate the Specific Behaviors You Expect at Your Firm

After you obtain a clear understanding of your current culture, spell out the specific behaviors that will create the type of environment you want your firm to embody. Your mission statement should drive your organizational values, and your values should then influence and inform the behaviors you expect.

For example, Greentarget’s mission is to drive smarter conversations for our clients. In pursuit of that mission, we value being authentic, working hard, embracing curiosity that drives creative thinking, embracing the stretch and growing as individuals and as a team. But without specific behaviors that bring those values to life, what we value are just words on a page. To really bring this to life, we identified the concrete actions we need to take to solidify our culture. These include:

  • Drawing on colleagues
  • Asking insightful questions
  • Focusing on the details 
  • Responding with “yes…and”
  • Bringing fresh thinking 
  • Staying informed 
  • Building personal connections
  • Embracing inclusivity 
  • Recharging strategically 
  • Getting uncomfortable 
  • Asking “how can I help?”

Take time to define and communicate the mission, values, and behaviors that will attract the best and brightest talent. Compile persuasive stories about your employees’ achievements and successes. While a competitive salary might be the element that gets a prospective employee’s attention, an authentic, purpose-driven work environment is what will inspire them to stay. Purpose-driven team members seek out and stay with organizations where they feel they have strong relationships, are making an impact and see the opportunities for growth.

And keep in mind this isn’t a “one and done” exercise. There’s a reason author and consultant Patrick Lencioni fondly refers to the CEO as the “Chief Reminding Officer.” Great leaders articulate the behaviors they expect, emulate those behaviors themselves and then remind, remind, remind until they’re sick of hearing themselves talk about it. (And even then, they keep going).

Take on New Clients Based on Whether They’re a Good Fit for Your Team

Your internal culture is important. But it’s not the only factor determining whether your employees remain happy and fulfilled at work. Your clients also play a significant role in shaping your team’s day-to-day experience. 

That’s why it’s so important to consider client engagements carefully. No one wants to work with a client who is harsh, demanding and capricious. Difficult clients deplete your employees’ motivation and hinder the creativity necessary to do great work. 

Likewise, you should be careful to take on clients whose values align with your own. For example, if one of your core values is authenticity, don’t take on a client who pushes your team to misrepresent the truth or uses passive-aggressive behavior to bully your team. That only undermines your firm’s stated ideals and communicates the wrong message to your employees. 

Greentarget evaluates new client engagements using a quadrant that plots them based on financial opportunity and cultural alignment. Even if the potential client could bring significant revenue to the firm, we turn down the work if there are signs of low cultural alignment. We’ve assessed what we’ve learned over the years about strong client relationships, and we use this list to assess “fit” using more than our gut instinct.

There is plenty of client work to be had — especially in today’s climate. Be choosy about whom you welcome into the fold. Engage clients who are a pleasure to work with and who will treat your employees with respect. These engagements foster the best collaboration between your team and their clients, which in turn will keep them motivated, engaged and loyal.

A client once told us: “I want to be the account that your team is clamouring to join. The one that people talk about around the lunch table with appreciation. That’s how I know I’ll get your best and most creative work.” What does that type of client look like for your organization?

Prioritize Talent to Realize Greater Success

The only way you’ll meet your growth targets is if you have the talent to support your business objectives. And it will take more than pay and incentives to overcome the challenges brought on by the Great Resignation.

The good news is your culture can become a differentiating factor that attracts and retains the employees you need to drive your organization forward. A leading technology-focused professional services firm with an enviable culture and impressive DE&I track record recently added “Culture” to the head of communications’ title and responsibility. This individual is now focused both internally and externally on continually demonstrating and celebrating the firm’s most important cultural assets, initiatives and successes. This is an excellent example aligning culture and brand. 

You too can prioritize culture and employee experience over client growth, thereby creating the conditions that will ultimately lead to higher levels of success. And rest assured – if you take care of the talent, the revenue will follow.

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Establishing true authority in a crowded landscape requires an effective PR strategy. One proven way to cut through the noise is research-driven thought leadership – a strategy that Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law firm representing management, has effectively leveraged in partnership with Greentarget for a decade.

Since 2012, Littler and Greentarget have conducted an annual survey of in-house lawyers, C-suite executives, and HR professionals to understand the top regulatory, social, and technological issues impacting the workplace. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 created a need for Littler to provide quicker and more frequent data. Companies of all sizes were facing unprecedented challenges and the firm’s clients expressed a strong desire for benchmarking data to help respond to a rapidly changing pandemic environment.

Solution

To stay ahead of the curve, Littler and Greentarget reconfigured their strategy by introducing shorter “pulse” surveys focused on time-sensitive issues. In the early months of COVID-19, team members across Greentarget’s Media Relations, Research & Market Intelligence, and Content & Editorial teams – led by Littler’s account team – developed a more efficient approach that cut down lead time before publication.

From March 2020 through the end of 2021, eight survey reports (six in the U.S. and two in Europe) were published, providing valuable insights for employers on such issues as vaccination policies, return-to-office expectations, hybrid working models, and safety protocols.

Results

The surveys have generated substantial media visibility, with more than 1,100 media placements stemming from the 2021 research in top-tier publications – including the Associated Press, Axios, Bloomberg News, CNBC, Financial Times, Forbes, New York Times, PBS Newshour, Politico, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post – as well as in a range of industry trade and regional media.

The reports also led to a considerable increase in website traffic for Littler, including a five-fold increase in page visits to press releases related to the reports and almost double the traffic to report landing pages from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, the survey on the Delta variant’s impact was cited multiple times in OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard as part of the agency’s factfinding with respect to employer vaccine mandates.

Perhaps most significantly, Littler has received a plethora of direct feedback from clients who are relying on the data to help guide and support workplace strategies, as well as understand how their peer group is approaching emerging issues. More than 4,500 executives completed the surveys in 2021 – the highest response rate in the history of Littler’s surveys and another clear indicator that issuing brief surveys on timely and relevant issues is resonating with clients.

Taken as a whole, the research reports have further bolstered Littler’s standing as the go-to employment and labor law adviser and authority across a broad range of industries – all while providing critical insight to employers in uncertain times.

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Even with a contentious presidential election and the worst of COVID-19 behind us, journalists say the fake news situation isn’t getting better. And they don’t know how to address it.

But if journalists don’t know how combat fake news, who does? That was the focus of Greentarget’s 2021 Fake News report, which was released in late October.

In this episode of Authority Figures, Aaron Schoenherr sits down with members of the Greentarget team – including Betsy Hoag, Director of Research and Planning, Lisa Seidenberg, Vice President of Media Relations, and Paul Wilson, Vice President of Content and Editorial— to discuss the report and its findings. The team discusses how fake news can be combatted, what role regulation might play and how we can prepare the next generation to face the challenges presented by fake news.

Episode Highlights:

1:00 — Betsy describes the background behind the report, what went into devising the survey questions, and who answered them

4:26 — Paul defines fake news and discusses the term’s polarizing nature

5:47 — Acknowledging fears of journalism’s delegitimization, Lisa goes over what clients should take away from this year’s survey findings

7:37 — Betsy and Lisa talk about how survey respondents’ political beliefs challenge preconceived notions about who is affected by fake news, and how to counsel clients in such a polarized environment

10:23 — Paul and Betsy try to get at the heart of journalists’ hesitation to amend Section 230

13:40 — Lisa and Paul speak about how to engage journalists amid the fake news controversy, and what journalists can do to combat fake news

19:30 — Betsy, Lisa, and Paul examine the psychological impact of consuming a fake news story, and share their own experiences with fake news

25:39 — Knowing that trust in news media is at an all-time low, Betsy, Lisa, and Paul contemplate ways to prepare their children to navigate the fake news landscape

Click here to download Greentarget’s 2021 Fake News report.

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Professional services firms are under more scrutiny than ever when it comes to the clients they represent. Employees are no longer reticent about protesting clients they consider unsavory. We’ve seen other stakeholders and the public actively lobby firms to drop certain clients, as well. 

Think about the way at least three law firms distanced themselves from representing the Trump administration after initially agreeing to help challenge election results. Public and internal pressures forced these firms to reconsider their willingness to be involved.

Controversial scenarios like this can land on the doorstep of any professional services firm.  To protect your firm’s reputation in an era of more aggressive social activism, you can mitigate risk by considering carefully which clients you’re willing to work with.

Professional services firm can do this by applying the logic investors are increasingly using – it’s associated these days with three letters: ESG.

ESG Minimizes Risk and Maximizes Long-term Results

In the financial services realm, investing with a fund manager who touts a strong commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices is not just about making a positive social impact. It’s also a way to reduce the likelihood that your investment will lose value while increasing the likelihood of positive returns over time.

Companies with weak ESG performance often find themselves in situations that can lead to a decline in valuation. If a company is cutting corners on safety protocols, harming the environment, or exploiting its workers, there’s a much greater likelihood it’ll eventually be sued, fined, or otherwise penalized, which can negatively impact its stock price. Activision’s shares have tumbled since revelations of sexual misconduct among its employees, a clear failure of governance. So an investor or fund manager may choose to benefit society by putting her money into a company or a fund with stronger ESG standards, sure, but it should also de-risk her investment.  

How is this strategy relevant to who professional services firms take on as clients? Like investors, they should weigh the short-term gains they stand to make against the long-term risks associated with their choices. Is the initial financial windfall of working with a client of questionable or dubious integrity worth a ding to your firm’s reputation?

Socially Responsible Investing is a Way for Investors to Live Out Their Values

There are firms who choose to represent society’s most controversial and polarizing characters as a matter of principle. In the legal industry, for example, firms rightly argue that everyone deserves skilled representation, even those who some may consider unsavory. That’s certainly true, and if the employees and stakeholders of those firms know that is how they make decisions, there’s less risk for those firms. But when a firm purports to hold certain values and then makes decisions that contradict those values, the firm takes on significant reputational risk.

Assuming you’ve taken steps to define your values, applying an ESG investment lens to client selection can help you live them out.

Ethical investing got started in the 1980s when students in the U.S. demanded that their colleges and universities divest from companies that did business with the apartheid government of South Africa. Over the years an investing strategy known as “exclusionary screening” became popular, wherein investment managers would screen certain industries out of their portfolios. Tobacco, firearms, pornography, fossil fuels, etc., were common targets. 

Investors have largely moved from screening out whole industries to selecting best-of-breed companies across all sectors of the economy.  Regardless, protocols aligned with your corporate values can help you make decisions about the types of clients you’re willing to represent or the kinds of projects you’re comfortable taking on. Failing to make decisions in this way can cause backlash among other clients, employees, and even law enforcement.

Google, whose motto remains “Don’t Be Evil,” faced intense blowback when employees discovered its plans to work with the Pentagon on a project using artificial intelligence technology. After workers spoke out, walked out, and even resigned in protest, Google abandoned the project. Executives recently announced they’ll be exploring another contract with the Pentagon — but this time Google took care to explain how this decision fits with its principles.

PR giant Edelman has been assailed recently by employees who decry statements it made praising COP24’s “new level of international consensus that climate change is an existential threat,” calling for “more scrutiny of corporate climate lobbying efforts,” and arguing that many pledges made at the conference “fall short of what is necessary to avert climate disaster,” all the while representing companies that exploit fossil fuels and the trade groups that lobby for them. 

McKinsey advised the pharmaceutical industry for years about how to increase opioid sales at a time when abuse of pain medicine was widespread. Sued by 46 states’ attorneys general for contributing to the opioid epidemic, the firm ultimately apologized for the work and paid a $573 million settlement to resolve investigations into it conduct, though the firm remains beset with fresh lawsuits. To avoid such entanglements in the future, the CEO Kevin Sneader struggled to draw bright-line rules around the kinds of industries from which it would no longer take clients, including defense, intelligence, justice or policing institutions in nondemocratic countries. Consensus among its partners on this has been difficult to achieve, and the divided opinions are said to have contributed to the Sneader’s ouster.

Investing in Funds with a Low ESG Index Can Influence Positive Change, Too

Sometimes, investors with a strong ESG commitment still invest in companies with environmental, social, or governance liability, but make this seemingly contradictory decision to encourage a company to change. For example, they might invest in an oil company to influence management’s decisions around replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.

This logic might guide you to take on projects or clients that appear to be objectionable on the surface but have the potential to drive reform.

One example of this is impact litigation, which Harvard Law School defines as filing or defending lawsuits focused on changing laws or focused on the rights of a larger group of people than is directly involved in the suit. On the surface, such representations could beg the question, “Why are you doing this work?” But under certain circumstances, a firm may enter unsavory territory not only to earn fees, but also to make the world a more equitable place for more than just its client. Alan Isaacman’s work on behalf of Larry Flynt, published of Hustler in Hustler Magazine v Falwell, a landmark First Amendment decision, is a clear example. Indeed, John Adams’ defense of the reviled British soldiers who fired on colonists at the Boston Massacre in 1770 – rooted in his concern for the rights of the innocent and the rule of law – reveals how this practice has long been a feature of American jurisprudence. 

Make Business Decisions that Align with Your Firm’s Values

Whether you’re more concerned with mitigating risks to your firm’s reputation or using your talent and expertise to effect social change, the business decisions you make are most defensible when they align with what are commonly understood to be your organization’s values. Applying an ESG filter can help your firm make choices that maximize long-term earnings over short-term gain, enter boldly into social reform territory, or screen out clients and projects that don’t fit with your core principles.

It all comes down to who you are and what you want to represent. Define your values. Communicate them to your clients, your employees, and the community at large. And then commit to making decisions with those guidelines in mind.

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