Demand management and work allocation

The challenge for in-house teams

Legal work needs to be allocated efficiently and effectively, to the right resources and for the right price however this can be a challenge unless in-house teams know:

• What work is coming in and from whom;
• Who is doing that work currently;
• What service levels are required or expected by business stakeholders;
• How long the work actually takes;
• Where the pain points or bottlenecks are; and
• What the future strategic objectives and plans of the business are, that Legal needs to support.

Often, lack of data means decisions are made based on anecdotal evidence and assumptions. Teams complain of being overworked or business feels that work is ‘stuck with legal’ but GCs lack sufficient visibility to understand the root cause of the problem and therefore address it appropriately.

Ensuring that allocation decisions are data led, not only to inform work triage and resourcing, but also to track future performance and service levels against KPIs is key to a sustainable resourcing strategy. This allows in-house teams to evidence value add to the business and build a culture of continuous improvement.