As a legal professional, do you often find yourself derailed at work – from the frequent requests for client meetings to email messages, or seemingly endless caseloads and calls on your time?

It can sometimes feel like you’re being pulled in all directions the second you step into the office. So, focusing on using your time and energy effectively should be paramount to ensuring the success of your law firm, as well as your sanity.

In this article, I will share the secret productivity hacks top legal professionals use to make the most of their working day – they’ll work for you too!

1. Eat the Frog

Firstly, let’s start with one of the main time-consuming issues – that vast amount of paperwork you need to plough through. It may be a report you need to complete or a case you have to prepare; whatever it is, it looks daunting, and you, therefore, spend time ignoring it rather than tackling it head-on.

It was Mark Twain who coined the phrase ‘Eat the Frog’. The basic premise is that if you have a significant but slightly overwhelming task to complete, (i.e. your ‘frog’) – do it first thing in the morning.

Not only is it more likely your productivity levels will be higher earlier in the day, but it will mean you can get it off your desk and concentrate on other work without it looming at the back of your mind.

If you find it challenging to tackle substantial tasks in one sitting, try breaking them down into smaller chunks. Then eliminate all other distractions and make a stat. Sometimes once you’ve started, the rest comes easy. This is because of the dopamine rush we get when we feel productive, and you can harness this to get the job done.

2. Control Your Calendar

Online calendars are a useful tool when planning your time allocation – but be sure use them consistently. Leaving spaces where you have plans will indicate to others that you are available.

So, block out the time you need to tackle critical tasks – and (top tip) if you feel you need thinking time block that out as well. That way, you won’t be thwarted by an unexpected meeting request from a colleague.

3. Plan in Advance

As well as ensuring you have all your needed time blocked off on your calendar, planning is key to managing your productivity. Creating a smart to-do list will help you focus, and save time trying to juggle multiple tasks at the same time (spoiler: this never turns out well).

Getting into a habit is crucial – so, every evening, list five essential tasks you want to accomplish the next day. Doing this means you will already have your agenda when you arrive at the office in the morning.

Rank the tasks in order of importance (remember – Eat the Frog), so you are in control of what is essential, rather than what is pressing (or what sounds easy to tick off the list).

4. Manage the Ping

We are increasingly are overwhelmed with distractions from various connected devices, and legal professionals are no exception. With smartphone and tablet use increasing at a rapid rate, we now spend the equivalent of an entire day every week online.

Harvard Business Review reports that this reliance on our technology is stopping us focusing. And Stanford psychologist Emma Seppälä says: “By constantly engaging our stress response [when we check our phones], we ironically are impairing the very cognitive abilities — like memory and attention — that we so desperately need.”

Being in a perpetually hyperconnected state doesn’t allow us the opportunity to process, recharge and refocus our thoughts and energy. So, set aside specific times to check your phone messages, email and other digital distractions. For example, you could check incoming mail at 8 am, 2 pm and 5 pm.

And don’t forget to put your devices on silent.

5. Cut Meeting Time

Are you inviting just the essential people to your meetings? If not, you should be!

Countless studies, including this 2015 HBR research, have shown the benefits of smaller teams.

Focus and responsibility are more challenging to coordinate with a big group. And if you invite colleagues who are not critical to discussions, you will end up with half of the group staring silently at their laptops for the duration of the meeting.

Additionally, it’s worth considering stand up meetings – they are not for everyone, but they certainly cut down on time. If you can’t face the thought of a stand-up meeting, consider quick ten minutes catch-ups over coffee. That way, everyone doesn’t get settled in for the long haul in the boardroom, where scope creep can flourish.

6. Know When it’s Good Enough

Many legal professionals are just that – professional.

But sometimes it’s easy to slip into wanting to make everything perfect. And while I’m not suggesting you should cut corners, sometimes good really is good enough.

For example, if you’ve spent days working on a report and you know it’s finely crafted, ask yourself -will it make any difference if you send it to your senior partner now, or wait another night to tweak it even further? Is it good to go?

7. Don’t Forget to Delegate

Failure to delegate can result in overwhelm.

You don’t have to take on everything yourself. Your competent and professional legal team are there to help!

So, delegate work where you can. Not only will it free you up to concentrate on the critical cases, but it will also allow your paralegals to prove that they can be trusted to do a good job.

8. Remember to Take Time Out

It’s essential to allow yourself frequent breaks. Taking time away from your desk provides the opportunity to reflect, de-stress and recharge, leading to better levels of productivity.

Additionally, it’s critical to keep learning new things to expand your knowledge and creative thought. So, invest in lifelong learning – from training on how to use the new computer data programme in your law firm, to reading up on the latest legal cases and news in the Law Gazette.

Next Steps

I hope these hacks have provided you with some useful tips on managing productivity better to get the most out of your day.

If you’re reading this article because you are looking to develop your legal career, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from Partners to Legal Executives, Solicitors to Paralegals and Legal IT Personnel to Practice Managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

The ‘war for talent’ is much documented at the moment across many sectors as the number of vacancies advertised continue to grow as firms ramp up hiring activity after a tumultuous 12-18 months. And, according to statistics from Broadbean, despite a 20 per cent rise in vacancies advertised in Q1 2021 compared to the last three months of 2020, applications to those roles rose by only 4% in the same period.

Law Firms are one again competing for the same, sometimes scarce, pool of talent; some of whom are reluctant to move roles against the backdrop of a pandemic and perceived market uncertainty, and some who do have that confidence and have whole host of options available to them.

With Firms jostling for supremacy in the hiring stakes, eager to attract the best talent to work for them, it does beg the question: how does your firm perform when it comes to attracting and hiring the best people – particularly in the current market?

If you’re finding it challenging to hire great talent, it could be that your law firm is repelling would-be employees – and it goes deeper than your salary offer.

It could be down to your Employer Brand.

In this article, I will be looking at how your Employer Brand could be repelling would-be talent from joining your law firm, and how you can redress the balance, create an engaging market presence and attract and retain the talent you want to work for you.

What is Your Employer Brand?

If you haven’t yet heard the term Employer Branding – it’s time to take a leap of faith and embrace this workplace phenomenon. Your Employer Brand isn’t something new – in fact, it’s been around forever, and all firms have one – whether they are aware of it or not.

Your Employer Brand is, in essence, the market’s perception of your firm. It re-affirms what you stand for; your reputation, leaders, history and customer service ethos.

It also goes far beyond these specifics – it includes other’s emotional response to things like your adverts and how they feel when using your services or when talking to others about your firm.

It has a secondary function too. And this is the one that may be repelling talent from your firm.

Your Employer Brand also describes the agreement or ‘promise’ you make to your employees in exchange for their experience, talents and skills. It is how you are viewed as an employer and the attitude and response to your law firm that lives in the hearts of your employees.

This is known as your Employee Valuation Proposition, or EVP, and it’s a compelling factor in attracting – or repelling – the legal talent you want for your firm.

If you’re wondering how to embrace your EVP to make sure you’re attracting the right legal talent to your firm, this article will illustrate the benefits of having a winning EVP, and how to create one to attract new talent.

But first, let’s look at the potential pitfalls of failure to invest in your EVP.

The Dangers of Non-Investment

There are definite downsides to not investing in your EVP. And not just in the general happiness levels of your employees. It can affect your firm in recruiting cost-per-employee, your HR budget, and the overall bottom line.

With the costs of employee turnover being anywhere up to 2.5 times your team member’s salary, depending on their role, it’s worth thinking about investing in your firm’s EVP.

Moreover, as well as lost employee and rehiring costs, there’s also the financial impact of lost productivity, training and the decreased morale of other employees to consider too.

Additionally, when thinking about your EVP, it’s worth remembering that more and more individuals are valuing an attractive workplace culture over salary, and failure to invest in this area of your firm could lead to lower retention and less appeal when compared to other law firms who offer more benefits.

So, investment in your workplace will see attraction and retention levels increase.

The Benefits of Investment in Your EVP

If you needed further reasoning for investing in your EVP, did you know that when top talent wants to work for you, your recruitment costs don’t just drop, they plummet?

The latest figures reveal that costs go down by around 43%. This is mainly because recruiters find it easier to get top talent into law firms they are keen to work for, i.e. those with great reputations. Less persuasion is needed, and therefore turnaround is much quicker.

In addition to this, the rewards of investing in your EVP include definite and measurable upturns in your ability to retain the best employees.

Your EVP embodies your mission and values and is a powerful communication tool for both current and potential employees. It can help you prioritise aspirations and goals for your law firm, and used effectively it can not only attract new talent but re-engage current employees who may have found themselves demoralised or disengaged in their work.

And with a great EVP, your existing pool of talented staff can help drive and promote your firm – not only officially on your company website, but in their social media engagement, recommendations to friends and family, network conversations, job reviews and testimonials.

Provide an excellent EVP – and your team will become cheerleaders for your firm, influencing others around them who may be looking for their next legal career move.

How to Create a Winning EVP

Your EVP is primarily an employee centred approach – it should be defined by and road-tested by your current employees.

Conducting an audit of your current EVP will help you gauge your position in the legal marketplace right now. If yours is short of the mark, consider what can be done to improve it.

Here are some of the things you may wish to look at when considering improving your EVP.

Values and culture. A workplace study found that 56% of employees valued an excellent company culture fit over salary. That’s how vital company culture is to individuals.

By embracing an inclusive and diverse company culture, you will attract new employees as well as retain existing ones, and build morale. And that means harbouring an environment where employees are respected and valued, where there is a shared vision, and where communication, transparency and teamwork are paramount.

Career development. LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report showed a whopping 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers.

Especially in the legal world, having a transparent career path in your employee’s personal development plan and offering training to achieve it, will set you ahead of your competitors and boost your attraction and retention figures.

Employee recognition. From providing excellent feedback to saying ‘thank you’, it’s crucial for Senior Partners and Managers to acknowledge their staff to maintain a sense of wellbeing and pride in a job well done.

Work-life balance. Investing in better work-life balance for your employees starts with leading by example. So, Senior Partners should set a good example, as well as seeking to develop a more supportive culture where everyone feels they can take advantage of better work like options.

Benefits. From salary to flexitime, gym membership to annual leave allowance, there are many options for a firm to include in their benefits package.

Conclusion

The most exciting thing about your Employer Brand and EVP is that it’s not just about having your mission on the firm’s website.

Employer Branding begins and ends with real people – your employees. By building a great culture for them to work in, you will find that they will not only enjoy working for your law firm, feel engaged and part of a bigger picture – they will actively promote your firm for you.

Attracting new talent starts with making the most of those already working for you – and letting your reputation do the rest.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking to scale your law firm, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have placed thousands of legal professionals in new roles; from Partners to Legal Executives, Solicitors to Paralegals and Legal IT personnel to Practice Managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

Before we look at ways to build a diverse workplace for your legal team, it’s worth thinking about what exactly we mean by a ‘diverse workplace’. There are so many buzz words around at the moment that it’s hard to know what they all mean – and if they communicate the same thing to everyone.

The ‘company culture’ that diversity and inclusion bring have gained momentum as de rigour in the world of work for candidates looking for employment. A recent workplace study found that 56% of employees valued a good company culture fit over salary.

Workplace diversity means employing people with a wide range of diverse characteristics. These could include age, gender, race, religion, cultural background, language, sexual orientation, education, ability, etc…the list goes on.

But it’s not just a fad – there are tangible benefits from offering a diverse workplace in the form of achieving higher productivity and profits for those who embrace workplace diversity in their law firm. And workplace diversity was one of the key trends last year – with no signs of stopping as we head towards 2020.

So, how will building a diverse workplace for your legal team encourage them to flourish? Here are 9 ways diversity can help your law firm achieve success:

1. Increases Creativity

Diversity is one of the critical ingredients for creativity. Diverse solutions come from having multiple options that are provided when you have a group of individuals with different thought patterns, world views and ideas.

In your legal team, having employees who are all very similar in terms of mindset and life experience inevitably leads to a smaller viewpoint overall.

Conversely, harnessing the personal creativity-diversity techniques of a group of people who recognise that everything can be viewed in multiple ways can lead to the generation of more creative ideas. If your Fee Earners and Solicitors come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, they will inevitably have a wider pot of knowledge from which to draw fresh ideas and solutions.

2. Allows Different Perspectives

Different perspectives are beneficial when it comes to strategic planning.

The ability to see things from alternative points of view will allow your firm to better judge which direction it should take in goal planning. Having varied options, and a clear idea of results from those options will enable your firm to decide which is the best route to take to achieve the required overall result.

3. Makes Problem-Solving Easier

Again, the scope provided by a diverse team makes it quicker to problem-solve. Because different individuals think in different ways, it’s possible to quickly come up with various potential solutions to a problem, from which a final decision can be made.

This Harvard Business Review report confirms that diverse teams solve problems faster than cognitively similar groups.

4. Encourages Innovation

A melting pot of novel world views can open doors to innovation. It can be inspiring to be part of a group that sees things in a different way and can come up with creative innovation that otherwise may not have been considered. The ability to think outside the box and from a different angle can enable diversity of ideas to come to light.

Additionally, in an environment where diversity and inclusion are nurtured, it’s likely that individuals are more inclined to voice their ideas without fear of reprisal or ridicule. For example, junior members of the firm such as your Legal Secretary or new Personal Injury Assistant are more enabled to come forward with ideas if they believe they will be listened to and encouraged to contribute.

In a forward-thinking legal workplace, you are more likely to achieve innovation through group participation – you never know what ideas your team may hit upon!

5. Engages Employees

The link between diversity and engagement is an obvious one. Where employees experience inclusivity they automatically feel engaged and loyal to their firm.

A law firm that has engaged employees will benefit from a strong team with shared values. Along with diverse and inclusive traits comes a nimble and agile team who can turn things around quickly, achieving more in less time and with access to multiple possible solutions – driving your firm forwards.

6. Improves Company Reputation

Your Employer Brand is how you are perceived by the outside world. To ensure your law firm is seen in a positive light as knowledgeable, reliable and at the top of your game, it’s essential to ensure that your employer brand is truly reflecting your worth and achievements.

Having happy and motivated employees helps your law firm retain its status and reputation. In addition to the better service they will inevitably provide your clients, their online chat and information – formal and informal – alongside word of mouth and personal recommendation to friends and family, will help position you as the go-to firm.

7. Achieves Better Retention

A law firm who offer a diverse and inclusive workplace is going to make their employees feel valued and appreciated as individuals. Happiness in work leads to better retention levels, with staff showing loyalty to a fair employer and staying with them to build their career. Employee turnover can be costly, so investing in your diverse team is pivotal in achieving better retention rates.

8. Attracts New Talent

Ultimately, a law firm with a great reputation for diversity and inclusion, who has engaged employees, good profit margins, innovative ideas, a superb reputation and high retention levels is bound to attract new talent to want to work there.

And if that isn’t enough to convince you…

9. Increases Profits

McKinsey & Co found that where companies had more diverse teams, they also performed better financially.

Diverse teams are better able to win new talent to the firm. This, in turn, helps to improve client service, employee satisfaction and make decision-making faster.

All this gives a forward-thinking, diverse law firm an advantage over competitors and enables them to achieve more profit as a result: a cycle of increasing returns.

Conclusion

Bringing a mix of skills and experiences to the workplace is good for business, providing an admirable company culture for your law firm. It’s worth noting that this starts at the top, too. Diversity at senior level is more likely to introduce new product innovations than are those with homogeneous “top teams.”

In the millennial age, offering diversity and a great company culture means harbouring an environment where all employees are respected and valued, where there is a vision shared and worked towards by everyone, and where communication, transparency and teamwork are paramount.

While I’m not suggesting that achieving excellent diversity across your law firm will be easy, it’s something to consider working towards. The benefits are multiple, and your employees will thank you for it – as will your Senior Partners when they see the benefits reflected in the firm’s reputation and profit margins.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking to build a better working environment for your legal team, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options. With our help, the transition can be smoother and quicker.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

In the legal world, as everywhere, teams come in all shapes and sizes. Getting the right people into your legal team can be challenging. When you onboard, you are looking for a good team ‘fit’ – attitude as well as aptitude to do the job.

For the most part, if you have followed due process when onboarding, your team should ‘gel’ well and work collaboratively.

But what happens when one of your employees isn’t a team player?

For example, you have a new, big client. You want your top team to work together on a case this client has given you. It will involve much collaboration, sharing out the tasks, visiting the client, days in court, etc. Everyone is excited to be part of this.

Your Compliance and Risk Manager will handle the case review and ensure call listening is carried out; your corporate paralegal will review all documentation, maintain the files and attend meetings; even the graduate trainee is looking forward to experiencing being part of an exciting case.

But your new Corporate Solicitor, who is in a pivotal role, is not engaging with the project at all. In fact, they are looking distinctly as though they wish they were somewhere else.

Are they just not team players, or is it something else?

The Pitfalls of Not Engaging Your Team

It’s a fact that people grow your law firm. If one or more of your team are disengaged, it will affect productivity and performance across the whole team.

Collaborative working may not be top of the priority list for everyone, but the job of a team is to move the firm forward to success. The bottom line is that it is part of everyone’s job description – and that means working together.

TEAM – the rather cheesy acronym of Together Everyone Achieves More, does ring true. Handling a member of your team who doesn’t believe that collaboration and communication are the way forward can be a major challenge and one that you need to address – quickly.

So, what are the best ways to deal with your legal employee who just won’t join in?

Look for Hidden Reasons

As Stephen Covey advised, “Seek first to understand”.

It’s easy to leap to conclusions about other people who aren’t playing the way you want. You could dismiss your new solicitor as just lazy or being deliberately awkward in their unwillingness to work with the team.

But maybe there’s something else?

It could be that they don’t believe they have the necessary skills for the project in hand, or that they have a personal problem at home that no one at work is aware of.

They are only human – and problems can manifest in many ways.

So, check-in with them and give them the opportunity to explain if there’s a problem that’s stopping them from getting involved.

Check Your Communication is Clear

Make sure you are clear with your instructions and communications.

Is it possible that the individual has misinterpreted your intentions? Have you been clear?

Especially if you have more than one disengaged member of the team, it could be that you need to communicate your intentions more clearly.

So, make sure your expectations are transparent so that each individual knows exactly what their role is and what is expected of them.

Listen

It can often be the case that an employee feels disengaged because they don’t believe they are being listened to. So, consider talking less, and allowing them to voice their opinions, concerns and ideas.

By practising active listening, you will gain valuable insight into what makes them tick, and where the root cause of their disengagement lies.

You will also empower them, and they will be much more likely to see themselves as part of the bigger picture with a role to play. By engaging them in this way, you can also encourage feedback and offer support.

Acknowledge Their Work

Do you remember the last time a senior member of staff said ‘thank you’ to you for a job well done?

Receiving praise and acknowledgement is a sure-fire way to instil a sense of passion and willingness to do more in an individual employee.

The ‘win’ doesn’t have to be major; it could simply be a thank you for staying late to help finish a case or write up a report. But it indicates your appreciation of the employee and the part they play in your law firm.

Offer Development Opportunities

Whatever job role you have, sometimes the daily grind can seem just that. Let’s be honest, we all have moments where we feel bored at work; stuck in the same routine every day.

Mixing it up, where possible, will reignite enthusiasm in your team. So, send your Paralegal out to visit clients with a Solicitor, or allow your Legal Secretary to work on an extra project where they have autonomy.

Coaching or mentoring is a great way to get individuals involved and build up their confidence and skills.

By offering opportunities, either official training and development or just something a bit different in the daily workload will help re-engage disinterested employees.

Embrace Inclusivity

Inclusivity into a team and the law firm as a whole will ensure that each individual can see how they fit into the overall aspirations of the firm and make them feel that they are contributing to its success.

As part of that inclusivity, it’s crucial to ensure that all staff are kept in the loop with the firm’s news – whether that’s good or bad.

Good news will, of course, help engage and inspire, but not so good news is also important. Delivering bad news is never easy. But sweeping it under the carpet is a source of frustration for many employees – it can lead to a feeling of being kept in the dark by employers (and consequently a feeling of not being important) as well as leading to the rumour mills springing into action.

So, deal with news, whatever kind it is, by engaging your team, so you can all move forward together.

Be Aware of Social Styles

Finally, remember not everyone absorbs information in the same way.

The way individuals interact is known as their preferred ‘social style’, a phrase coined by David Merrill and Roger Reid in the early 1960s. It explores how people behave in social (or work) situations to ascertain how to predict managerial, leadership and sales performance and therefore how managers can get the best out of their team.

Spending time with your team will enable you to understand how each member prefers to interact and contribute. You can then use that information to moderate your behaviour towards them, making them feel more comfortable to make their contribution.

So, bear in mind that a disengaged employee isn’t a lost cause.

By utilising one of two of the suggestions in this article, you can help foster a culture of inclusivity where individuals are inspired, encouraged and motivated because they feel part of a bigger team and can see the role they play in contributing to growing your law firm’s success.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking for the next move in your legal career, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options. With our help, your transition can be smoother and quicker.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

Even with a backdrop of economic uncertainty, we are still witnessing a buoyant legal jobs market with  many practice areas looking to hire new talent with relative urgency. However, by the same token, and amidst a still-current skills-shortage, the number of applications from jobseekers is still not accelerating along that same trajectory.

As we have seen before, demand once again exceed supply which translates to a highly competitive, candidate-led legal marketplace.

With competition at its fiercest, law firms are looking to attract the best (and often the same pool of) talent, so it’s imperative that they look for ways to create standout. And, once those candidates have expressed an interest, ensuring that the recruitment process from end-to-end is on point, engaging and compelling.

Are you making critical mistakes that could be hindering your chances of engaging and retaining the best talent to grow your law firm?

Here are some of the questions that will help you recognise if you’re in danger of making some critical hiring mistakes.

1. Is Your Recruitment Process Up to Date?

Are you clear on what you want from your ideal candidate? If your job description and person spec are vague, you won’t attract the top level of legal professional you need.

Too often, law firms believe they can reuse an old job description, but that just isn’t true. Today, legal candidates are looking for challenging opportunities in a career that will advance their knowledge and experience.

A dry, ‘dusty’ old job description that has clearly seen better days isn’t going to attract the right calibre of candidate to you.

So, think carefully about the job description, the person spec and the advert for your legal vacancy. Is your offer going to create a stir in the marketplace? Will candidates be beating a path to your door, eager to work for your firm?

If not, its time for a rethink and a revamp.

2. Is Your Offer Right?

Talking of which, it’s crucial to make sure you’ve got the offer right. And we’re not just talking about salary here.

Although remuneration remains an important factor, there are other big elements in the game that contribute to whether a candidate ultimately decides whether to apply for a legal position or not.

These deciding factors often include a package that offers additional benefits such as flexible hours, working from home options, the chance to work at different locations and with different teams, great company culture and friendly, productive environment, a clearly defined career pathway and extras such as healthcare, gym membership and profit-sharing schemes.

Now, that might seem a lengthy list of wants, but with Glassdoor reporting that 57% of job candidates list benefits and perks as among their top considerations before accepting a job, are you confident that your law firm has the right offer for the role?

Are you sure you can meet marketplace expectations?

3. Is Your Interview Strategy Thorough?

Having a well-timed plan for your interview process is pivotal in choosing the right candidate, having your offer accepted, and seeing your new legal hire at their desk.

Failure to achieve any part of the process in good time could see you miss out on securing your ideal employee.

Sorting applications and deciding who to interview can be a lengthy process if not planned well.

For a successful interview strategy, you need to consider:

• A timely plan for processing applications
• A crib sheet for marking to ensure all candidates are treated equally and fairly
• Synchronised diaries so everyone involved is available when needed their role in the interviewing/marking process
• An allocated member of staff to meet and greet – and set up tests if these are required
• Rooms for the interview and discussions afterwards
• Scheduled breaks for the interviewing team
• A deadline for deciding and contacting the successful candidate to avoid the candidates accepting another law firm’s offer first

If you believe you will struggle to deal with this time frame, it’s worth considering talking to a specialist legal recruiter such as ourselves at Clayton Legal, as we can help you speed up the process because of our unparalleled access to both active and passive legal candidates.

4. Are You Exploring Future Potential?

It’s advisable to resist hiring on qualifications (or first impressions) alone.

Personality is essential, as is the right cultural fit for your team. Will the candidate gel with your other team members? Will they make a good team player, and do they have the same ethos and values that your law firm holds?

Additionally, it’s worth considering the future – apart from the initial role they may hold in your firm, do they have the skills, or the ability to achieve them, that will enable them to develop with your team? Are they potential managerial or partnership material for the future?

Don’t be tempted to reject individuals out of hand.

Although the candidate may not be the right person for the current vacancy, if they have a good range of skills and traits, and a professional outlook, they may be worth retaining in your talent pipeline for future opportunities.

A good talent pipeline will enable your law firm to quickly find a replacement for a member of staff who leaves or an additional person for an expanding team. Having someone in mind already will save you time and money.

5. Do You Have a Strong Employer Brand?

It’s easy to put all your effort into getting the recruitment process right and forget that it’s important to maintain a credible and attractive employer brand to appeal to candidates.

But what exactly is your employer brand?

It’s the way you differentiate your firm from others; your USP, and what will attract the ideal candidates to apply to work for your law firm over another.

Having a strong brand will help you compete successfully in a candidate-driven marketplace. It should reflect your ethos, culture and approach to its employees. Keep it authentic to retain a trustworthy reputation.

6. Are You Onboarding Successfully?

It’s crucial that having found your ideal candidate, you don’t fail to onboard successfully.

A recent Harvard Business Review study indicated that a good onboarding process can reduce the average amount of time for a new employee to reach full performance by a third, from six months to four.

Conversely, many new employees leave their new role in the first few months due to poor onboarding. Forbes suggests a strong correlation between onboarding and unwanted employee turnover. For example, nearly all low-turnover firms (95%) have an onboarding process that helps with retention. In contrast, 20% of high-turnover firms do not have an onboarding process.

The onboarding process will play a pivotal role in your employee’s early days perception of the firm and will influence the level of loyalty they develop as a direct consequence. So, a great onboarding process won’t just result in having a team player up to speed quickly; it can also mean better retention rates and therefore lower recruitment needs and expense for the firm in the future.

With the (albeit forced) rise in remote working last year, and the anticipated step change towards hybrid-working models on a more long-term basis, virtual onboarding may also need to be taken into consideration. We’ve created a guide to onboarding remotely which contains the critical points to remember if this looks to be a viable option for your firm.

7. Are You Getting Expert Help?

Recruiting can be time-consuming and expensive. If you are struggling to recruit to your law firm, perhaps a specialist recruiter like Clayton Legal could help?

With over 20 years’ experience of partnering law firms to build resources, we can help streamline your hiring process.

Rather than tying your staff up in trying to find and hire the ideal candidate, we can speed up the process. With access to a vast range of contacts in the legal sector, including both active and passive candidates and a well-developed talent pipeline, we often have someone suitable straight away, saving you time and money.

Our expertise in the legal marketplace makes us the ideal partner for your busy law firm when looking to hire new talent.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking to scale your law firm, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options. With our help, your transition can be smoother and quicker.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have placed thousands of legal professionals; from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

Feedback is something of a controversial subject.

Some argue that it doesn’t fulfil a valuable function in the legal workplace; that it merely wastes the time of those giving and receiving it and that it can undermine an individual’s confidence in their ability to do their job.

But feedback can be a powerful tool in your legal team.

Useful feedback has benefits for the giver, the receiver, and your law firm as a whole; it can be used to make critical decisions.

Continuous improvement is not just the latest buzz word; it focuses your law firm on building performance by helping individuals make better decisions going forward, doing more of what is already going well, and establishes a culture of ongoing two-way communication.

Feedback is a Skill

Firstly, it’s essential to recognise that giving and receiving feedback is a skill.

Good feedback relies on your ability to embrace emotional intelligence – using your self-knowledge to enable you to accept positive criticism and use it to learn and grow, and using your empathy to put yourself in another’s shoes to see things from their point of view when providing feedback.

Feedback also requires active listening – making sure that both parties know they have been understood and that what they said holds value (more on this later).

So, the trick to implementing valuable and worthwhile feedback to your legal team is to understand what it provides and to use it correctly.

Feedback is a Constant Process

Most law firms, when asked, would say feedback is given during employee surveys, at performance appraisals or in training evaluations, and that’s true. But, feedback is also there all the time in our day to day working lives.

So, be aware of feedback being a constant – and aim to use it wisely when communicating with your legal team. In effect, good feedback between senior partners or managers and their teams can enable you to grow the firm by instilling a sense of support across all employee levels, from trainees to Senior Partners.

Feedback is a Two-way Conversation

Feedback provides an effective way of giving value to and acknowledgement of another’s thoughts – it’s also critical to ensure that for everyone concerned, feedback provides an opportunity to speak and be heard.

That means providing feedback and allowing for comment back on your observations.

It involves practising active listening to ensure that both parties are on the same page with exactly what the feedback means.

It’s so easy for comments to be misinterpreted: I find it useful to repeat what someone has said to me to be sure I’m clear on their meaning.

So, for example, if you are giving feedback to your legal secretary, you might say, “So, from what you are saying I understand that you are unhappy with the level of caseload work and would like to know if it’s possible to introduce a software package to help speed up the admin process. Is that correct?”

This sort of clarification opportunity ensures that you don’t misinterpret the message – which of course can lead to problems further down the line.

Feedback Provides Opportunity

Feedback should be an opportunity to help individuals know where they are doing a great job and where they need to focus on developing skills and abilities.

Without feedback, there is a lack of understanding for an individual as to how they are measuring up in their legal work and therefore, limited opportunity for them to improve.

If individuals do not receive feedback or don’t know how to receive it in a constructive fashion, they are likely to lose out on potential promotion and the chance to grow in their skill set, knowledge and capabilities – and gain a fulfilling career in law.

Feedback Addresses Specifics

Feedback should be delivered with respect – always.

Even if the feedback is negative, it’s critical for the giver to be aware of the manner in which they are delivering their comments to ensure that the feedback is constructive and specific.

That means referring to specific incidents rather than vague statements, for example, “In the meeting last Thursday you interrupted Jim before he had a chance to put his case” rather than “You’re always talking over other people.”

The feedback should be non-judgemental – so, “I believe you may have misunderstood the reasons for the client costs going up?”, rather than “You were wrong to say the cost shouldn’t have been increased.”

It should also let the individual know the effect their action or comment had. For example, “After you talked over Kim’s suggestions in the meeting last week, she felt upset and undermined, which affected her confidence in her professional opinion.”

Feedback Enables Growth

Remember, feedback isn’t just about the negatives.

It’s also an excellent opportunity to acknowledge where good work has been done and to formally recognise it as part of your employee development plan.

Positive feedback provides a significant morale boost and is part of the learning process – reinforcing what a team member is doing right. It shows you recognise excellent performance and enables the employee to be able to move forward, doing more of the same behaviour.

Of course, we’re all only human, so feedback can never be entirely objective.

It’s crucial, though, to focus on delivering all feedback in a way that minimises the chances of the recipient feeling threatened or defensive and allows them to take on board comments (good and bad) and see them as drivers to inspire learning and development.

This will enable individuals to grow and flourish in their legal career and will allow you to develop a legal team who perform at the top of their game.

Initiating Feedback

Asking for feedback unprompted shows that a team member is more likely to accept it as a positive and learn from it.

These are the employees who are more likely to advance in their legal career. Conversely, it’s often the case that those who never ask for feedback are less open and likely to be more defensive if they feel challenged in their behaviour.

If you have team members who actively seek your feedback, then be prepared to provide constructive comment to help them.

And don’t forget, asking for feedback yourself shows excellent leadership qualities – after all, no-one’s perfect!

Feedback, either informally requested or as part of a formal review process, can provide an excellent platform for improving performance.

Instilling a culture of feedback in your law firm and seeing it as positive will enable you to remain aligned to overall goals, help create strategies for the firm, develop services, improve relationships and achieve success.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking for the next move to grow your legal team, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options. With our help, your transition can be smoother and quicker.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

How long is it since you wrote your strategic plan?

Some Senior Partners and Managers in law firms write their plan and then place it with some reverence in a dusty file somewhere, never to be reviewed again.

I know that’s a bit extreme, but it does happen.

It’s best to consider your Strategic Plan as a working document that you can refer to as you move from where you are to where you want your firm to be.

You may have incorporated long- and short-term goals in your plan. You may have mini-milestone achievements to celebrate along the pathway. And you may even have referred to the plan to make sure you are still following it.

But is it still relevant?

Things can change, and your law firm may have different goals to those in the original document. A Strategic Plan should not be something that is set in stone; it’s an honest, relevant and significant document that reflects your firm’s current state and how you plan to achieve your aspirations.

Therefore, you shouldn’t be afraid to review it and ask yourself the question, “Is it still fit for purpose?”

If it is, then that’s great. You can go back to work and don’t need to read further!

However, if you have an inkling that perhaps it could do with a few tweaks here and there to make sure it’s current and reflects your law firm’s ambitions as they stand today, then read on…

Is It Realistic?

So many strategic plans fail, and the main reason for failure is that they are not achievable.

It’s fine to set yourself high goals, but if you make them impossible to achieve, you only serve to demotivate your entire firm as they struggle in an uphill battle that they can’t win.

So, while your goals should be something to aspire to, they should also be realistic.

Conversely, it may be that when you wrote the original plan, your end goals were something you considered as something to strive for in the future, but now you know they are easily achievable in a shorter time frame.

In this case, you may want to move your original overall goals into ‘milestones’ and set yourself another ultimate goal.

Just make sure it’s realistic too!

Is It Still Aligned to the Firm’s Ethos?

Depending on when you wrote the strategic plan, it could be that the ethos of your law firm has changed.

For example, you may have improved workplace well-being; by embracing diversity and inclusion in your law firm and implementing recognition and reward schemes for employees.

Celebrate and reflect this by adjusting your plan to accommodate these admirable factors and set milestones for more of the same!

Are the Timelines Still Relevant?

Additionally, check your timelines and deadlines. Are they doable?

It could be that you have more – or fewer – staff in your law firm than previously. This could impact on your ability to achieve deadlines and may need some adjustment either way.

Or it could be that your employee numbers are the same, but your workload has increased dramatically. In which case, you may want to allow yourself a little longer to hit deadlines.

Who is Leading the Projects?

Initially, you will have assigned individuals to lead specific projects within your strategic plan.

Are the personnel in charge still the best people to lead on projects?

It might be that they have moved on, retired or even been promoted to a role which doesn’t allow them to focus on the initial area assigned to them.

What about the new talent within your law firm?

It may be that you have a new, gifted IT Manager who would be perfect to take over the reins of developing an improved in-house IT system, or that your recent Practice Director hire is ideal for overseeing the firm’s expansion plans.

Have You Communicated Goals to Your Team Recently?

Are your employees all up to speed on the strategic plan?

If you have had several staff changes, now may be a good time to go over the plan again, taking into account the new talent within the firm who can help you achieve long and short-term goals.

Revisiting the strategic plan will also embed a sense of belonging and ownership within the law firm as a whole, encouraging everyone to play their part in its achievements, celebrating milestones and working collaboratively to achieve the aims set down.

I can’t overemphasise the importance of transparency in your communication with your team – you need to get them on board with your strategic plan; otherwise, that’s all it is, a plan with no-one engaged and willing to take it forward.

And trying to take anything forward in those conditions will prove difficult.

Has the Marketplace, or Your Clients, Changed Significantly?

Finally, take some time to consider the legal marketplace around you.

It may have expanded or decreased in your area, both geographically and in terms of specialisms; talent may have become more challenging to find and hire. It may be that you should consider revisiting some of your plans.

Have the requirements of candidates changed since you wrote your plan? Is it worth reconsidering your hiring, onboarding and expansion strategies?

Do you need to rethink company culture and the part it plays in helping you grow your legal team?

Additionally, what about your clients? Has your client base changed? Does your geographical location still work in terms of serving those clients?

Does the service you offer reflect their needs? Do you offer more specialisms, or has the firm decided to go more ‘niche’?

In either case, do you need to revisit any of your original goals?

What Next?

Revisiting your Strategic Plan and ensuring it’s still fit for purpose will enable you to make sure you’re on the right track for success in your law firm.

It will enable you to move forward with relevant goals and strategies in place, and help with employer branding by positioning you at the front of the pack.

So, it’s crucial to see your Strategic Plan as a working document in order for it to be useful.

Don’t let it sit in a file any longer!

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking to grow your legal business, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options. With our help, your transition can be smoother and quicker.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

In the current marketplace, two things loom on the horizon that can directly affect your law firm.

The first is the B-word. Brexit.

Now, I appreciate there’s not much anyone can do about the effect it will have just yet. However, the second trend is something you can address.

And that’s the fact that in a skills short legal arena, competition in the marketplace is fierce as law firms position themselves to attract the top legal talent.

To ensure you are ahead of the pack, you need to consider a strategic plan.

If you have not already got one, it’s crucial to get one in place quickly. If you have a plan but it was developed some time ago and you don’t refer to it – check to see if it’s still fit for purpose and if not, update it.

What Is a Strategic Plan?

All law firms, from the smallest family-run business to a multinational organisation, need an effective strategic plan to help drive business.

A strategic plan is a working document that allows you to put in place a plan to move from where you are now to where you want to be. Sometimes referred to as ‘Escape and Arrival’, it lays out the law firm’s ambitions against specific timelines.

A good plan utilises milestones along the way to enable your legal team to celebrate progress as you move along, boosting morale and keeping you on track.

According to a report in Harvard Business Review, many strategic plans fail due to various reasons including lack of rational goals, refusal to adapt, poor communication and more.

So, when compiling your strategic plan, keep it real. Make it fit for purpose and set realistic goals and deadlines.

And remember, it’s not set in stone – if something isn’t working in your document – change it.

Define Your Goals

Start your plan by outlining your vision: Where are you now? Where do you want to be in the future?

• Consider your firm’s ethos, ethics, reputation and aspirations; these form part of your employer brand and help you differentiate your law firm from the competition. The key points need to be tied into your strategy to give weight to the plan and ensure you are aligned to company beliefs.
• Factor in how you plan to move the firm along to achieve these goals, how you will implement ideas and be able to ensure time, finances and resources are effectively utilised to achieve goals.
• Think about problems that may hold you back. How will you tackle any that arise?
• Is it possible that you may need to consider a relaunch, additional staff or even a change of location?
• I recommend you keep your objectives aspirational but achievable. Setting unrealistic expectations will only serve to demoralise you and undermine your plans.
• While it’s beneficial to have a timescale for your ultimate goals, its equally crucial to check in regularly, celebrating those milestones achievements along the way. More on this later.
• Finally, be clear on who is leading the project and who is responsible for different areas of development. A positive and reliable team is needed to drive the plan to fruition, so choose wisely.

Conduct an Internal Audit

A good place to start your plan is with an internal audit. It will allow you to assess the current state of play. It should include a review of the systems you have in place and their effectiveness, the skills and current knowledge of your employees, and the procedures you currently use.

What works, and what could you improve?

Do your teams work coherently across your law firm, and understand how they fit into the ‘bigger picture’? Are their skills being fully utilised?

Are your systems out of date and do you need to upgrade? A reliable and secure network will allow your employees to access information quickly to leapfrog competitors.

Are procedures time saving and coherent, or could things be done better?

Would you benefit from additional team members bringing new skills and experience?

Check Out the Marketplace

An external audit gives you powerful knowledge of current trends in the legal market and how competitors are faring.

Legal journals, law-related books, news and industry blogs will provide intelligence on development across the legal world and ensure you stay up to speed.

Consider a survey of your current clients. Asking for suggestions for improvement could provide you with a plethora of information that could inspire future goals.

Additionally, if your survey results are complimentary this will bolster your morale – and you could use the accolades for promotion on your website!

Communicate Your Intentions

The strategic plan is not a dusty document to be kept in the boardroom for only senior leaders to view. It’s for everyone to understand and pull together to achieve.

So, always remember to communicate your ideas to your staff – from Partners to secretaries.

Respect your employees by keeping them up to date and ensuring transparency across your law firm.

Additionally, when employees know what is happening in the firm and where its future goals are, it will increase confidence and security, enabling them to engage with the plan.

And engaged colleagues are happier and more productive. So, it’s a win-win situation.

Create a Great Company Culture

Company culture is a buzzword at the moment. It defines the environment in which employees work and incorporates everything from your company ethics to diversity.

As specialist recruiters, here at Clayton Legal we are finding that the demand is now for more than a good salary and benefits package. The move is towards a focus on the culture of a company.

It’s therefore important to assess your company culture in order to ensure you can attract the top talent to your law firm.

So, examine your ethics, values and attitude to inclusivity and diversity and if they need improving, add them into your strategic plan.

Celebrate Milestones

It’s very easy to get caught up in the long-term goals of your law firm. But setting a distant goal may soon seem unachievable, and you may become despondent.

It’s much better to work on a 90-day plan. So, schedule in what you want to have achieved in three months and how you’re going to get there. This will inevitably involve some creativity and forward-thinking, but it will enable you to regularly review your achievements so far and create a plan for the next 90 days based on that data.

Make sure that you address pain points in the plan – ones that are causing current friction in the team or wider firm.

For example, is the processing of court documents taking longer than expected because of faulty or old IT equipment? If so, plan to have new upgraded software installed by date A, and staff trained up to use it by date B.

Celebrate the small milestones along the way. It will boost morale and encourage you and your legal team on to the next base.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking to scale your law firm and achieve your goals, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

What is Employer Branding?

First coined in the early 1990s, Employer Branding has become widely adopted across global management, gaining momentum as the preferred way businesses differentiate themselves in the marketplace to attract the best talent. Employer Branding focuses on your legal firm’s reputation as a place to work, the value proposition of its employees, and company culture.

Put simply, it is the essence that, according to LinkedIn, ‘lives and breathes in the minds and hearts of your former, current, and future employees’.

Why Do You Need to Build an Employer Brand?

All employers have an employer brand, whether they are aware of it or not. The trick is to control your employer brand and ensure you are creating a strong presence, establishing credibility in the legal arena. It’s a useful tool to have, helping you showcase your brand and attract the best legal talent to work for you. Without it, recruiting can become challenging, especially in candidate short practice areas such as commercial and property law, to name just a couple.

You want to attract and hire the best legal talent to drive your practice forward, and so it’s crucial to have not only a great salary offer but added benefits such as career development opportunities and an inclusive culture to attract people to want to work for you. This will build your reputation and encourage staff retention, saving you time and money in the long run.

Improving Your Legal Brand – Key Steps

Define your message with your tone of voice. Consistency is imperative across all marketing from your website to correspondence, advertising to individual conversations. It should reflect your status and your role as a professional legal practice.

Be clear on company culture. The culture your workplace offers will make or break the hiring and retention of great legal staff. More and more, Millennials hitting the workplace now are looking for more than a good salary offer; they are attracted by company culture.

A recent Deloitte report states that 83% of Millennials become actively engaged in a job hunt if they believe the organisation fosters an inclusive culture experience. Also high on the list are career development opportunities, teamwork, a good work/life balance, and a cooperative and supportive environment.

Understand the perception of your brand. How do others see your firm? Are you maintaining your firms branding across online platforms? As these are often the first point of call for candidates (and your competitors) its essential to present a streamlined and consistent approach. Consider whether your brand reflects your aims, facilitates awareness and encourages brand loyalty.

Don’t underestimate Word of Mouth. Brand advocacy can influence how people perceive you. Getting the thumbs up from your employees is the icing on the cake. We live in a world where employees past and present can review their opinions on what it’s like to work for you online. What would your employees say about you? From the Receptionist or Paralegal, to a Legal Analyst or Senior Partner, it’s crucial to ensure that everyone is a brand ambassador, helping to positively build the firm.

It’s a fact that more people trust a recommendation from friend or colleagues than general marketing and advertising claims – peers, friends and acquaintances can tell you about their first-hand experience of a legal firm, so make sure yours is a great experience.

Move with the times. Technology can streamline your operations, ensuring a good experience for candidates and clients alike. It can save you time and money, and help build your brand as a positive experience. It also shows that you are quick to embrace progress and receptive to new ideas, planting a subconscious seed in the candidate’s mind that you are a progressive legal firm with their eye on the future.

Communicate like a real person. Let candidates see your human side. Profiles of the team including Heads of Practice and Senior Partners, and engaging testimonials from satisfied clients, will help attract talent that’s a good fit for your legal firm. Use social media to connect and showcase your brand to your target talent.

How Do You Know It’s Working?

It can be problematic to measure employer branding awareness. However, a drip feed method of communication using the brand does result in better brand recall. It can also heavily influence an
in-demand Senior Commercial Litigator’s decision to join your firm or your competitors.

There are several ways to measure employer brand awareness ROI, including traditional surveys and analytics. Conducted face to face, by email, or on your website, surveys are one of the easiest ways to check your employer branding is working, simply by asking your clients and candidates.

Analytics can measure blog shares (like this one!), an increase in social media engagement, external links, higher footfall to your website and improved online ranking via refined SEO. For more information on how to track these, see here.

The good news is that a few fundamental steps like these can improve your employer brand and help you attract, recruit and retain great legal employees who will want to stay with your firm. If you’ve found this advice helpful and would like to talk more about developing your strategies to recruit better candidates, call one of the Clayton Legal team on 01772 259 121 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year, download our latest guide here.

After weeks of searching, you finally interviewed the one candidate you thought would be a good fit for that tough-to-fill role. They ticked every box on your list, and you thought you’d ticked every box on theirs; you eventually made an offer, which they enthusiastically accepted.

The first week or two came and went without any cause for alarm, and they seemed to be happy and making progress in their new role. But then, without a word of warning, they handed in their notice and left.

If this, or a similar scenario, has ever happened to your firm, you know just how frustrating it can be, not least because – apart from all of that wasted time, effort and money – that one looming question remains unanswered: WHY? What went wrong.

Chances are, it could have been due to one or more of the following oversights in your recruitment process.

1. Not Knowing Or Being Clear About What You Want

One of the biggest reasons why hiring managers struggle getting their hands on the perfect talent is that they simply don’t know what they need in the first place. It’s hard to build your legal talent pipeline if you’re not sure what skills you need to hire for.

A vague job description or a blurry view of your ideal recruit can mean that you waste time interviewing people who are only semi-qualified for your projected role. Job descriptions communicated well will make all the difference between exceptional and terrible hires.

Be sure that you have created a talent-attracting job description. In addition to using an accurate job title and including the correct information in the job summary, you should align the description with your firm’s employer brand and clearly demonstrate what you can offer. In other words, seek to sell your law firm in the ad.

2. Not Having An Efficient Process In Place

With case deadlines, meetings and other logistical problems to overcome, you probably aren’t going to have time to interview dozens of professionals who might be suited to the job. However, not devoting adequate time to initiate the screening and interviewing of candidates will only increase your chances of hiring someone that doesn’t have the skills and personality you’re after.

Having said that, it’s also extremely important to shorten your recruitment timescale. In a candidate-driven market, you simply cannot afford to keep a candidate waiting through a lengthy recruitment process.

Having to wait more than a week to hear back from a potential employer can send a negative message to candidates, sowing the seeds of doubt in their mind. Among other things, it can give the impression that your organisation may have some management issues. If they have other interviews lined up during that time, and if any of your competitors are faster off the mark in making an offer, it’s unlikely that they’ll hold out for yours.

Just as crucial as making a timely offer, is backing it up with actual paperwork. It’s one thing to make an offer verbally over the phone, but if you haven’t confirmed the offer in writing within a few days, this again sends a negative message and can erode any sense of budding loyalty or trust they might feel toward your firm.

3. Holding Out For The Perfect Candidate

In addition to being decisive and expedient, you’ll also want to be more flexible in terms of your expectations. In a candidate-driven market, employers don’t have the luxury of finding the ideal candidate who ticks all of their boxes.

While there’s nothing wrong with being discerning about the kind of talent you want to bring onto your team, the chances of finding the ideal candidate are very slim. The longer you spend pursuing that dream candidate you desperately want in your firm, the more likely you are to miss out on the fantastic applicant that’s standing right in front of you.

This leads back to recruiting the right person according to the job description we mentioned earlier.

4. Not Considering The Candidate Experience

Of course, successful hiring isn’t just about attracting the right employees; it’s about retaining them too. Even if you manage to bring the right person into your team, you might lose them quickly if you provide them with a sub-standard onboarding experience.

According to SHRM, 50% of new hires leave their roles within the first four months. The best way to address this challenge is to find a way to immerse each employee in the workings of your firm from the start, which is why having a good onboarding plan is essential.

Everything from the interview that you use to assess your new hire’s ability to do the job, to the way that you welcome that individual into your team, can improve or diminish your chances of holding onto the right talent. From teaching crucial skills to ensuring your people become part of your company culture, proper onboarding leads the way to an invested and productive new hire.

5. Listening To That “Gut” Feeling

While some of the best leaders may trust their instincts when making crucial decisions for the future of their organisation, you’re going to need a lot more than a “gut feeling” about someone to ensure that you’re making the right hire.

Recruitment shouldn’t be about instinct or luck; if you work through a controlled recruitment process, where you ask the right questions, you’ll consistently get better results than if you follow a less thorough, slap-dash process.

When recruiting for an in-demand role, it is essential to have a robust and consistent process in place.

6. Neglecting Cultural Fit

There’s more to choosing the perfect candidate than making sure they have all the right credentials and certificates. A great employee is one that can work well in a team, so remember to hire based on attitude as well as skill.

Before you formally offer the role to anyone, make sure that the person you’re speaking to is passionate about the long-term opportunities that your firm can offer. This will help you to reduce the risk of job-hoppers. It’s also worth looking for characteristics that blend well with your current working environment.

For instance, if your team is most effective when collaborating together in-person, then it may be a bad idea to bring someone into the fold who’s shy, withdrawn, and unable to communicate well in a crowd.

7. Not Using An Experienced Recruitment Agency

In addition to implementing the strategies mentioned above, the fastest and most effective way of finding the right talent for your firm is to enlist the help of a legal recruitment specialist who understands your sector and can help to put you in touch with the right people from day one. This means that you spend less time sifting through inappropriate applicants.

An experienced specialist recruiter like Clayton Legal can give you the insight and guidance necessary to streamline your recruitment process and target the right talent. This is because they have a more informed and objective perspective on where your company fits in the recruitment market and how your offers are likely to be perceived by potential candidates.

Knowing where your firm stands amongst the competition will save you time and money in looking for the talent you need.

About Clayton Legal

Clayton Legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability. We have made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you are building your legal team or looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to know more about recruiting trends in the legal sector this year download our guide here.