Picture the happy scene. Someone has just completed on their dream home and is overwhelmed with excitement when they’re given their keys. You’re a huge part of the reason that scene has played out. Whether it’s a young person finally flying the nest or someone relocating to start afresh, that momentous milestone in their life would have never happened without you. That should provide you with a huge amount of job satisfaction. It’s not like you’re dealing with a messy divorce or a heart-wrenching custody battle like your counterparts in family law. Your job is providing happy outcomes for clients, so being a conveyancer should be a joyful job with a high level of professional fulfilment. And yet it’s not. Not even close.
In this blog, we will examine the reasons why so many conveyancers are leaving the sector and why morale is on the floor. We’ll also take a look at some of the things that can be done to help improve the well-being of conveyancers.
Caseloads are through the roof. You’re juggling multiple transactions at once, and each one calls for meticulous attention to detail. Burnout is a worrying trend in the industry as conveyancers are pushed to breaking point. You’re trying to manage the expectations of the client and estate agent while working on complex issues.
In the Conveyancing Foundation’s Wellbeing at Work Survey Report in June 2023, 72% of conveyancers reported being under severe pressure. It’s understandable to some extent as these are high-stake transactions. However, for such a large proportion of conveyancers to feel so strongly about the levels of stress in the field, something isn’t right.
The Negotiator has reported on TM Group’s soon-to-be-released survey ‘Back to the Future,’ stating that one in three conveyancers plan to quit the industry in the next 5 years and many even sooner than that. This is disheartening. We can see it happening already with Today’s Conveyancer reporting that conveyancer numbers shrunk by 13% in 2 years. In fact, in Shaun Jardine’s survey Pricing Confidence, Profit Awareness, Strategy and Values, 52% of those surveyed said they would leave the profession if they could wave a magic wand.
With so much talent leaving, it falls to the law firms to take on new recruits and train them up, adding further pressure and burden on conveyancers with already high workloads.
We wrote a blog last month about how it’s time for conveyancers to raise their fees. It’s little wonder that morale is so low when you’re not being paid for the value that you provide to property transactions. The takeaway from the blog is that conveyancers need to increase their fees and be paid their worth. This will improve job satisfaction immensely.
Residential property law can often feel like a thankless job. Clients tend to have unrealistic expectations of the transaction time scales. They want to complete yesterday. Such is the world we live in where everyone expects immediate answers and instant results. It’s easy for the estate agent to blame you for any delays when they have little understanding of the complexities of your role. This results in frayed relationships.
In The Conveyancing Foundation’s Wellbeing at Work Survey Report, the number one change conveyancers wanted, was an improvement in personal well-being and to feel more valued. It’s hardly surprising morale is so low when conveyancers simply don't feel appreciated for the job that they do.
According to Index Digital, moving was ranked as the most stressful life event by 57% of people. It seems that all this stress is then directed at the conveyancer. Waiting to exchange contracts ranked as the highest bugbear in the process of moving home. Property transactions are fraught with emotion and unfortunately, it’s the conveyancer who gets it in the neck. Whether the client is worrying about the buyer pulling out, additional costs or legal complexities, the law firm bears the brunt of their frustrations. Client contact is overwhelming, and the standard workday is filled with constant phone calls and emails fired your way.
With such unmanageable caseloads comes working weekends and evenings. Many conveyancers admit that they do so purely because they can’t get anything done during a normal nine-to-five when they’re taking client phone calls and replying to emails. Work-life balance is shaky, especially in today’s world when you can get emails straight to your mobile. This means that there is little escape from the pressures of the job.
There’s no doubt that your responsibility has increased hugely over the years. Regular changes to legislation only stand to make the job more complex. As well as keeping atop your workload, you need to constantly stay abreast of regulation and compliance requirements. The cladding crisis, the rise in Japanese Knotweed and leasehold reforms to name but a few.
If we want to improve morale in the industry, change is needed… unfortunately, something conveyancers are often reluctant to do.
Margins are squeezed. As per our recent blog on pricing, we call for conveyancing firms to raise their fees. The truth is that you’re not being paid enough for the crucial and complex job you do. It’s little wonder your morale is low, you’re not being duly compensated to deal with the difficult cases and problematic clients that come your way.
It isn’t just about higher fees but also reducing the caseload. The Wellbeing at Work Survey Report from The Conveyancing Foundation stated that the key to lowering workplace stress is to reduce the volume of workload. With fewer cases comes less pressure and better results. This should help to speed up efficiency, which is what every party involved wants.
Your firm needs to manage the number of caseloads they take on and not overwhelm staff. Management needs to encourage better work-life balance to prevent burnout. This could be through offering hybrid working or flexible hours, both of which will help to improve productivity.
The management needs to support their team with training and development. The more experienced conveyancers could help train the less experienced counterparts and share the knowledge gained from years of experience. Mental health support initiatives could be established to aid individuals grappling with the pressures of the job, pre-empting the need for sick leave.
Conveyancers are notorious for being slow adopters of technology. It’s crazy really considering how tech can alleviate a lot of burden on the conveyancer’s shoulders. You can automate many tasks to reduce administrative duties and speed up processes. Take a read of our guide to embracing software for more advice.
Implementing Upfront Information initiatives should help to improve morale and reduce the stresses of the role. Compiling thorough property information at the marketing stage can accelerate the completion of transactions. Fall Throughs should drop as the buyer has no surprises about the property further down the line. You can detect any potential issues early and get them resolved sooner to prevent delays. It will help to improve time management as you’ll know the scope of the work earlier in the process.
Today’s Conveyancer stated that 1 in 3 adults consider themselves to be aware of what conveyancing is. That means a massive 66.6% don’t! The truth is that clients and estate agents (to some degree) don’t understand the conveyancing process. They don’t appreciate how long cases can take. If you better communicate the complexities of the case, stakeholders would ease off on their demands. Happier clients equal happier conveyancers.
In Shaun Jardine’s survey Pricing Confidence, Profit Awareness, Strategy and Values a whopping 94% of conveyancers felt confident that the work they do helps and benefits their clients. So why do clients not feel the same way? You need better communication to demonstrate the value you add. Once the client appreciates just want goes into a property transaction, they’ll ease off chasing you for a completion and blaming you for delays.
Employee-owned companies seem to enjoy improved morale. Whilst there’s only a very small percentage of these law firms (20 out of 9,500 solicitors in the UK according to Postlethwaite & Co. in June 2023) it will be interesting to see if more law firms opt for this route in the future. Some of these are through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT.) Stephens Scown was the first large law firm to do this in 2016, allowing all eligible members of staff to have an equal share of the profits. (Staff of EOTs can get an annual tax-free bonus of £3,600.)
Aside from the financial benefits, many other advantages can be garnered too. This type of set-up develops a strong collaborative culture as everyone shares a unified sense of purpose. Each staff member needs to contribute to the success, so the employees are more loyal and committed as a result. Everyone also gets a say in how the firm is run. All of this contributes to happier and more engaged staff which leads to improved performance and increased innovation. Independent researchers found that EOBs are between 8 and 12% more productive. The employee-owned model also drives better results for clients and tends to be more trusted by the community.
Take Hedges Law, founded in 1789. They became an employee-owned firm in May 2021. The reason behind this was to drive service excellence and promote fairness. Employee-owned Ison Harrison’s staff received a £4,000 bonus last year, up from £3,600 the year prior due to increased turnover. These law firms are enjoying the benefit of increased motivation and staff satisfaction from being employee-owned. Talbots Law, which became proudly employee-owned in 2021 shared the following insights:
“In just 3 years, Talbots Law has grown its income from £18m to £24m and grown from 250 staff in 6 offices to 460 across 11 offices. With that has come the inevitable considerations of increased workload, large recruitment drives and continually supporting the team both in their delivery and their progression. The risk of low morale is a real one and it’s why, as we’ve grown, we have invested heavily in staff initiatives and employee benefits to ensure that our team feel supported and valued as we continue to grow and push ourselves to deliver the best service on the biggest scale we can. As employee-owners, we put the emphasis on ourselves to be the best employer we can be to our team so that they can feel fulfilled in their roles and deliver the level of service we are synonymous with.”
-Callum Haynes, Sales Director, Talbots Law
Conveyancers need to join forces and foster a culture of support and innovation. Take The Conveyancing Foundation’s ‘Be Kind, We Care” initiative. They aim to enhance the lives of those in the conveyancing field and get everyone talking about wellbeing. Similarly, LawCare is a mental health charity for the legal sector that offers free support, training and resources.
We need to stop the blame culture in property transactions. Ultimately everyone is working for the same end goal, so each stakeholder needs to support and respect one another. This ‘blame the conveyancer’ culture needs to end.
Low morale stems from various influences including feeling undervalued, receiving low fees, and being overworked. However, by implementing various factors such as price increases, support networks and technology, job satisfaction should rise. We all need to work together to boost morale in the conveyancing industry to prevent more talented conveyancers from throwing in the towel.
TwentyConvey provide conveyancing leads with our client re-engagement tool Convey Alerts. We also provide conveyancers with business intelligence and data thanks to our Market Insights platform.