Law Society of Ireland

With origins dating back to 1830, The Law Society of Ireland is the educational, representative and regulatory body of the solicitors’ profession in Ireland. Providing a collective voice for the legal sector, the organisation aims to drive excellence within the industry.

With an increasing number of projects to handle, The Law Society of Ireland needed to reduce the administrative burden on its HR team – a situation that was not only limiting efficiency, but also restricting opportunities for personal development and career progression. Freeing up colleagues to leverage and build upon their expertise in the areas which demanded their unique skillset became a priority.

The team required a software package that would be user-friendly, providing a level of self-service functionality which would enable colleagues throughout the business to manage basic requests such as statutory leave and annual leave, independently.

Having previously used a HR platform, which failed to attract the desired levels of colleague engagement, The Law Society sought an alternative which would more adequately meet the needs of the wider Society team – each with different levels of IT proficiency.

With the aim on streamlining its processes, and requiring less administrative input from the HR team, The Law Society of Ireland came across Natural HR – a platform that incorporated the desired self-service element and user-friendly interface.

Combined with a host of additional functionality, the organisation could benefit from increased efficiencies, including people analytics which would help to improve understanding of trends within the workforce, while also streamlining reporting procedures.

The recruitment module is a newer addition for The Law Society of Ireland, but one which is intended to simplify and improve the onboarding process for new recruits — something that is incredibly valuable during what is currently considered to be a challenging climate for recruitment.

Having adopted Natural HR in 2019 and, therefore, already digitalising its employee documentation and processes, the Covid-19 pandemic brought only minimal disruption to the department since it was able to utilise the platform’s cloud-native capabilities and continue to offer much of the same service, from any location and via any device.

The team has seen increased efficiencies, with less of an admin burden and more time to dedicate to strategic HR activities such as driving meaningful change throughout the organisation. Colleagues have also been able to advance their own professional milestones increasing overall satisfaction among the department.

Meanwhile, the recruitment offering has provided a more structured process whereby new employees are onboarded swiftly, with a series of touchpoints to prepare and welcome new recruits into their roles.

Having enjoyed a multitude of benefits since adopting Natural HR, the team is considering how its current package might evolve – to offer additional functionality and efficiencies, but via a familiar and easy to use technology. For example, the payroll module is a feature currently under consideration, as it seeks to enhance accuracy and ease in relation to The Law Society’s all-important weekly and monthly processes.

To find out more about Law Society of Ireland, please visit www.lawsociety.ie