Few people would say they were sad to see 2020 come to an end. We have learned much during this year in our industry, and as we continue to battle against a once-in-a-century pandemic, adapting to a world that looks exceptionally different than it did just 10 months ago.
At Ball Janik, we consider ourselves fortunate to have grown stronger together despite the pandemic — and perhaps even because of it. This is attributable to some specific initiatives and business decisions, our hardworking employees, the many resources ALA offers, and a culture at our firm that nurtures innovation to drive us forward. We are writing to offer lessons learned and a message of hope to the ALA community as we move forward into 2021.
Well before the pandemic, Ball Janik and Elevate Technology Group teamed up to assess the firm’s use of technology among its coast-to-coast offices. We used the findings to implement new solutions centered around security, productivity and performance. Thanks to this analysis, we made dramatic changes that helped facilitate faster data access no matter where our personnel were working. Consequently, we were able to bolster our cybersecurity posture and develop continuity plans to keep the firm operational in a disaster.
“We shifted to a [work-from-home] model almost overnight,” says ALA member Heather J. Oden, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer. “It was important to us to make our employees comfortable, so we did our best to mimic their work environment by sending chairs, floor mats, standing desks and extra monitors to those employees who needed them.”
Our marketing team was largely instrumental in successfully digitalizing our many offerings. They not only researched and implemented platforms for usage, but also came up with innovative ideas to keep our clients and audiences engaged in our services and offerings. They fully transitioned educational courses and events entirely to digital and did the same with client and internal team meetings.
We are writing to offer lessons learned and a message of hope to the ALA community as we move forward into 2021.
As a result of these drastic yet necessary changes, 100% of the marketing budget went to digital efforts and resulted in our website traffic going up by 24% and our social media engagement skyrocketing by a whopping 1,400%. By integrating polished webinar software and being at the helm of fostering ideas for the industry trade organizations, our marketing team focused on providing valuable information in newly enhanced platforms.
Ball Janik relied on the many resources offered by ALA, including Legal Management, virtual events and other educational platforms. We also partnered with several ALA members to brainstorm in a safe space on how to best address the many changes we are all facing.
These innovative initiatives, coupled with a culture that embraces efficiency mining, allowed our bicoastal firm to thrive during 2020. Today, we continue to adapt and improve our use of technology thanks to internal focus groups that share lessons learned about what works well and what needs to be improved. The challenge to innovate has been set before us and our people have embraced this challenge in incredibly thoughtful and creative ways. The firm is reaping the benefits of this innovation in many ways we did not anticipate at the beginning of the year.
We owe much of our success to our employees. During this time of change, we remain close by, communicating often and staying involved in one another’s lives. We also placed a greater emphasis on mental health and well-being by offering expanded mental health services through our provider. Additionally, we have a robust Women’s Leadership Initiative that meets regularly and helps our female employees to support one another.
As we look ahead to 2021 and leave 2020 behind, we at Ball Janik are focused on the continued evolution of our firm. We plan to move forward with the belief that we are all headed toward greater things in the years ahead, and we will act accordingly. We continue to focus on efficiency and continuously improve our operations. We remain extremely thankful to all the wonderful people who helped us enjoy a magnificent year, and we can’t wait to see all the great things we will continue to accomplish together. We are and continue to remain #BallJanikproud.