Hiring a remote team for law firm is easier than ever. Find out what difference a virtual receptionist will make for your legal practice.

How to Hire a Remote Team for Your Law Firm

There’s only so much time in the day, and when you’re running a law firm, it’s important to delegate what you can.Your firm won’t be successful if you spend all day on the phone and responding to emails. It will run much more efficiently if you hire people to handle tasks that don’t require your expertise. Since it’s easier than ever for employees to work remotely, you don’t even need to hire people who live near your office.

Why Should You Hire a Remote Team?

There are some key advantages to hiring a remote team instead of hiring people to work in-house. You’re going to save money because you don’t need to worry about added overhead costs. When employees work at your office, you need to purchase equipment for them, pay for the additional resources they use, and potentially even rent a larger space. With remote employees, you can choose to hire anyone, anywhere. You’re not restricted to people who live in the area or are willing to move there, and this opens up the talent pool. It will also save your business some substantial money; Entreprenuer.com reports that a typical business would save on average $11,000 if they allowed employees to work from home half the time.

How to Find the Right Candidates

Although a remote team can be a big help for your firm, your success will depend on who you hire. Since remote employees work unsupervised, you need people who are motivated without someone looking over their shoulder. The smartest thing to do is check references for anyone you’re planning to hire. If you use a service designed to help employers find remote workers, such as Upwork, you’ll be able to access reviews of their work from previous reporters. Researching candidates can help you find the most productive people for your team. You now know why going with a remote team is a smart decision, and how to hire that team. Here are a few ideas about the type of tasks you can outsource.

Taking Calls

Do you really want to hear your phone ringing all day? Probably not, especially as a bustling law firm. That’s where a virtual receptionist can make a world of difference. A virtual receptionist functions exactly like a regular receptionist, handling your calls with the professionalism you’d expect in-house. The only differences are remote location and the price; a virtual receptionist costs 1/10th the price of an in house receptionist.Nexa has remote receptionists available that can match your industry. You don’t need to worry about callers speaking to someone who doesn’t even know the basics of the legal system. You can even get bilingual virtual receptionists who handle incoming calls. Another benefit of virtual receptionist services is that you can have someone available by phone for your law firm 24/7. If a call comes in during your normal business hours, your virtual receptionist can either route it to the appropriate person or send them to voicemail. After-hours calls can be routed to voicemail.

Office Administration

All those administrative tasks, such as bookkeeping and billing clients are certainly important, but they’re also a hassle when you have casework to do. By outsourcing that typical office admin work to a remote team member, it gets done and the documentation can be kept online, which means no more stacks of paperwork cluttering up your office. While there are plenty of remote office admin options available, Watson is our favorite because it is intended for law firms. It offers admin support, paralegal support, and billing assistance – all tasks you’ll be glad not to do yourself.

Digital Marketing

When people need a lawyer, the first place they’ll turn is probably their computer or smartphone for a search. That’s why your firm needs a high-quality website with valuable content and effective search engine optimization (SEO). The right website is instrumental in bringing in new clients. Local SEO is especially important so that you get visitors who are looking for lawyers in your area. Digital marketing agencies are all over in this day and age. For the best results, you need an agency that understands law firms and their unique needs. Juris Digital is an excellent example. The agency can get your site setup and optimized, and then promote it through marketing campaigns based on getting you more clients. If you need help at your law office, going remote is a great decision. You can save money and get the absolute best performers when you hire remote team members. While you can outsource many different tasks, there are a few areas that are typically smart for law firms, in particular, to outsource. With the number of calls you could receive, it’s good to have a virtual receptionist to handle the call load and decide how to route each call. A remote office admin can take care of the important everyday tasks, and a digital marketing agency can keep the clients coming. Once you’ve got your remote team in place, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to run your firm.