The dos and don'ts of effective resource allocation

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Find out how to structure your resource pool for the most effective to support your business.

Key takeaways

• Legal design and service delivery design are key to reshaping legal functions, emphasising user-centricity to transition from being perceived as blockers to value-added partners.
• Effective workload management involves categorising tasks based on risk and volume, prioritising high-risk, high-volume tasks to build competence and strategic value.
• Outsourcing lower-risk, high-volume work to legal service providers reduces overhead and allows the legal team to focus on high-value tasks when aligned with user needs.
• Shared service centres, functioning as internal customer service units, can provide cost savings and process efficiency for high-volume, low-risk legal work with proper governance and processes.
• Insourcing involves assigning non-legal teams within the organisation to handle legal tasks that don't require specialised legal expertise, reducing the legal team's workload while leveraging existing expertise.

In a recent webinar titled "The Dos and Don'ts of Effective Resource Allocation," Electra, the founder and CEO of TLB, along with Rob, the head of delivery at TLB, discussed strategies for optimising resource allocation within in-house legal teams. The webinar focused on key themes, including legal design, service delivery design, workload management strategy, outsourcing, shared service centres, and insourcing.

Legal Design and Service Delivery Design

The webinar emphasized the importance of adopting a design thinking approach to reshape legal functions. Rather than solely focusing on legal processes, legal design involves prioritising the needs and experiences of users. It goes beyond simplifying contracts and entails redesigning the entire legal function to be more user-centric. By adopting user-centric design, legal teams can shift from being perceived as bottlenecks or blockers to being seen as value-added partners.

Workload Management Strategy

To effectively allocate resources, legal teams should categorise tasks based on risk and volume. The four categories for task classification are as follows: high volume, low risk; low volume, low risk; low volume, high risk; and high volume, high risk. By prioritising high-risk, high-volume tasks, in-house legal teams can build competence and deliver strategic value.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing certain tasks to legal service providers can be a strategic approach for efficiently managing lower-risk, high-volume work. It reduces management overhead, provides specialised expertise, and allows the legal team to focus on high-value strategic work. Applying legal design thinking principles to outsourcing ensures alignment with user needs and expectations.

Shared Service Centres

Shared service centres, which function as internal customer service units within an organisation, can contribute to cost savings, process efficiency, and scalability for high-volume, low-risk legal work. When considering shared service centers, proper governance, playbooks, and processes are essential to ensure effective operation.

Insourcing

Insourcing involves assigning non-legal teams within the organisation to handle legal tasks that do not require specialised legal expertise. For example, customer service teams can handle data subject access requests (DSARs) with clear playbooks and guidelines. Insourcing reduces the workload of the legal team and leverages existing expertise within the organisation.

TLB's Approach

TLB specialises in legal design methodology and offers a range of services, including legal operations consulting, contract reviews, data protection support, strategic workshops, optimisation projects, and large-scale transformation projects. Their expertise helps organisations align their legal strategies with broader business goals, ensuring user-centricity and efficiency in their legal functions.

In conclusion, the webinar highlighted the significance of adopting legal design thinking and strategic resource allocation for optimising in-house legal teams. By categorising tasks, considering outsourcing and shared service centers, and leveraging insourcing opportunities, legal teams can enhance their efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and value as partners within their organisations.