Performance management for CA, legal and consulting firms

KRAs by role

Each role carries a different mix of output, quality and growth. Give each person between four and six goals, each with a weight, and make sure at least one is about quality of work and one about learning, since a firm's reputation rests on both. Goals for articles should lean towards learning, and goals for managers towards engagement results and the development of their juniors.

• Article assistant: assignments completed, review points cleared, training areas covered, exam progress
• Audit senior: engagements closed within budget hours, quality of working papers, review notes
• Tax manager: returns and replies filed on time, notices resolved, client queries answered
• Litigation associate: drafts filed on time, hearings prepared, partner feedback
• Consultant: utilisation, deliverable quality, client feedback, proposals supported

Utilisation: an input, not the verdict

Utilisation is billable hours divided by available hours. Take a consultant with 1,800 available hours in a year who records 1,440 billable hours: utilisation is 1,440 / 1,800 = 80 percent against a target of 75 percent. It is a useful number, but a person doing internal knowledge work or business development will always look low. Use it as one weighted goal and read it beside the quality and client goals. The hours come from your time-recording tool, while ZeniaHR holds the goal and its weight.

Review after the season, not in it

Nobody writes a thoughtful review two days before a filing deadline. Tax practices can run the annual cycle after the autumn deadlines, and audit practices after the statutory audit season. Articles benefit from a shorter quarterly or half-yearly cycle, because their training moves fast. Hold review conversations face to face with the engagement manager and the partner, and file the signed outcome in the employee's documents.

Praise for the work nobody bills

Mentoring articles, fixing a template the whole firm uses or staying calm with a difficult client never shows up in billable hours. Praise badges such as Mentor or Problem solver, and a monthly leaderboard, give partners a quick way to recognise that work. They also tell juniors what the firm values beyond hours, which shapes behaviour more than a year-end rating ever will.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Create review cycles in Performance: annual after your main season for staff, and quarterly or half-yearly for articles.
2. Add weighted goals per person, typed as KPI or KRA, with a quality goal and a learning goal for every role.
3. Add utilisation as a KPI goal for consultants and associates, and bring the hours from your time-recording tool to the review.
4. Check weighted progress and the cycle summary before partner meetings, and keep signed outcomes in employee documents.
5. Enable praise badges such as Mentor and Problem solver, and read out the monthly leaderboard at the firm meeting.

Read more about performance in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions