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Feature Rees Morrison President General Counsel Metrics New Jersey, USA moving from red to yellow, white and then toward the green Our senior management team rated us 81 in 2010, but our other colour that denotes the best ratings internal clients can give when clients scored us 67 — so there is a message there.We are deliver- marking the survey. ing a level of service to our senior management team, which is So too did the participation rate.Backed by the strong support obviously perceived to be a higher level of service than that which of Bruce Power’s CEO, the response rate for the 15-minute sur- we are delivering to our other clients. If we want to drive these vey, sent to more than 150 executives, went from 55 per cent in results higher, we have to pay more attention to the other people,” 2002 to over 90 per cent last year. he says candidly. Each of the law department’s five metrics outlined in the “This is not about blame, it’s about how do we get better? annual review is bonus-related.“In terms of client satisfaction, if How do we improve?” we had achieved less than 60 per cent, nobody would have received anything for that portion of their bonus that turns on Monthly metrics this metric,” he says. At more than 200 pages long, the annual review understandably Armstrong understands too well that unhappy internal clients takes time to put together. will go to great lengths to avoid the in-house law department, But for the most part it is based on individual metrics reports often to the detriment of the organization. that are tracked monthly (though client satisfaction is done annu- In 2010, the department achieved an overall client satisfaction ally). “Every month we produce a report on each of our metrics rating of 73 per cent, a record high rating [the target was 65 per and a summary scorecard that tells us how we are doing on each cent.] So what happened? “We upped the target… absolutely,” of them year-to-date and full-year forecast,” says Armstrong. says Armstrong. As to how well the law department delivered The personal assistants are all trained on how the metrics work service which reflects the corporate values, “the respondents and are responsible for preparing these monthly reports. Four scored us at 89… something we put a lot of stock in,” he says. department assistants each handle one metric; the assistant cor- The client satisfaction survey results are also analyzed by divi- porate secretary handles the fifth. sion and by client group. For example, the results for the senior In-house counsel at Bruce Power need to be comfortable with management team (executive vice-presidents and vice-presi- this kind of in-depth reporting based on very clearly defined dents) are compared with the results for other clients. metrics; about their department, their individual performance JON ROEMER honing in on a particular metric.“Take overall service for example: and the value, together and separately, they add to the business. “The data that you can mine from this is unbelievable,” he says, Newcomers to the department have to understand the ongoing AUTOMNE 2011 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 31