Health, Safety and Wellbeing for Professional Services
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
What this looks like in professional services
The parts of health, safety and wellbeing that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Wellbeing Under the Billable Clock
Where long hours are the business model.
What this coversHide
Wellbeing Under the Billable Clock
Where long hours are the business model.
What this coversHideProfessional firms run on chargeable hours, which makes overwork structurally rewarded. Wellbeing initiatives that do not address utilisation targets are addressing the symptom.
- Utilisation targets reviewed for sustainability, not only for margin
- Recorded hours monitored for sustained excess, particularly at juniors
- Busy season and deadline periods planned rather than absorbed
- Work allocation reviewed so the same people are not always loaded
- Client deadline pressure managed by the firm
- Confidential support route independent of the practice group
- Partner and manager capability in noticing overload
- Recovery time after peak periods actually taken
Junior staff are the population most at risk and least able to refuse work, which is why monitoring their recorded hours specifically is the most useful control a firm can adopt.
The general method — what health, safety and wellbeing covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the workplace health, safety and wellbeing page. What is above is the part that differs for professional services.
Other HR topics for professional services
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for professional services, or another industry.