From artificial intelligence for candidate sourcing to a new generation of employees – what does the future hold for the legal profession and its employees?

As we enter a new decade, now is the ideal time to focus on the predicted trends in legal recruitment and ask which ones will dominate the legal recruitment sector in 2020.

Recruiters are conscious that significant changes are ahead in the next twelve months. A retiring baby boomer generation, advancements in technology and a new generation with a considerable set of alternative world views will join the workforce, impacting on current employees, law firms and their clients.

So, in a legal marketplace where it seems change is the only constant, what can you, as a legal professional, expect to see over the next year?

In this article, I will address some of the critical areas predicted to impact on the legal recruitment arena in 2020.

1. Automation

Advancements in automation technology mean that sifting through individual CVs is becoming a thing of the past for hiring managers and recruiters. Today, automation can take the strain – and time –out of the hiring process by helping facilitate candidate screening, scheduling (and conducting) interviews and performing skills and personality analysis (more on this later). For candidates, this will mean paying extra attention to constructing job applications and CVs to ensure the right words are picked up by automated processes.

Additionally, a rise in e-discovery professionals is expected. This rapidly growing legal field will aid legal professionals, offering significant advancements in technology to facilitate legal procedures and manage electronic data in 2020. E-discovery allows both parties in a lawsuit to discover information in possession of the other, without the inevitable hold-ups created by physical searching for paperwork and holding vast quantities of data in paper form.

2. Psychometric Testing

Alongside other new ways of hiring, such as video interviewing, is a surge in preference for psychometric testing. First developed in the early 20th century, this tool has gathered credence as a valuable asset within the hiring process. It is predicted to gain further traction as one of the go-to methods of selection in 2020.

Psychometrics will save employers time, help ensure the ‘best fit’ candidates are selected for an interview, maintain a consistent standard for hiring, and enable employers to work out the best personality type to enhance their legal team.

For employees, it will mean a better chance of aligning their ethos with that of the firm they want to work for, and ensuring that they will be a good mix with colleagues at the firm, if successful in their application.

3. Employer Branding

Purpose-driven firms evolve faster than others, and in the new decade, employer brand becomes more crucial than ever in positioning law firms in the legal marketplace.

Employer brand encompasses the vision, mission and goals of the firm. Those who ensure their brand is seen favourably in the marketplace will see an upsurge in top legal professionals who wish to work for them.

For candidates, clear employer branding will enable you to know precisely what the firm stands for – their culture and goals – before you apply for a position. Once in place, good company culture and EVP will ensure you want to stay and grow your career with that firm and help them achieve long-term aspirations.

4. Hiring on Attitude

More and more employers are discovering the merit of hiring on attitude rather than skillset – good news for many candidates.

There is a rise, backed by evidence, that attitude is a considerably more significant predictor of success than IQ, and that disengaged, negative employees can have a costly impact on the economy.

So, it stands to reason that as we move into a new decade, law firms realise that employees with a positive outlook, good communication skills and well-developed emotional intelligence are the way to create a successful legal team and enhance the firm’s financial position.

So, for those looking for a new legal role, it will be crucial to offer a robust set of transferable skills and show a positive attitude.

5. Candidate Experience

When it comes to hiring, it used to be the case that the employer had the upper hand. Not so any longer. With so much competition for top talent in today’s legal marketplace, would-be employers must make sure to provide an excellent candidate experience.

2020 is likely to see a rise in the pressure on firms to offer an enticing combination of salary, benefits (more on this next) and company culture to attract new talent and enable them to feel connected to the firm’s culture and philosophy. Firms will need to manage their hiring process effectively to avoid losing candidates and consistently maintain an excellent reputation via social media.

In effect, this means that candidates can expect to enjoy a smooth and professional hiring process and onboarding experience.

6. The Desire for a Better Offer

Competitive hiring market means that to secure talent, employers will need to re-examine not only the remuneration on offer but the whole benefits package.

Candidates can expect to see flexibility in working hours, with employers offering (where possible) working from home options. For Millennials and Gen Z, who see work-life balance as a critical decider when looking for work, these flexible working options could be the deciding factor in deciding which law firm to work for.

Alongside better benefits, employees desire for a workplace that matches their ethos and values is expected to grow significantly. Consequently, law firms who embrace the concept of company culture will be positioned firmly at the front of the pack for jobseekers.

7. Diversity and Culture

A study by McKinsey & Co in 2015 found that companies with greater racial and gender diversity were 35 per cent more likely to have higher financial returns than the respective industry average.

And since then, employees desire for an excellent company culture that embraces diversity in all its forms has grown. Company culture is a pivotal part of the decision-making process for candidates with multiple job offers – and this trend looks to build, with more and more firms realising that they need a great company culture and career pathway options offer as well as a good salary.

8. Rise of the Next Generation

Baby Boomers will continue to retire in large numbers as we enter the new decade. This will have an inevitable impact on the legal arena, as an estimated seventy-five million retirees will see a surge in demand for legal services focusing on retirement planning, securing assets for the next generation, and the legalities of living arrangements for old age.

For the younger generations entering the marketplace as high tech and hyper-connected individuals, a rise in employers recognising what drives this generation will enable them to find their place in a forward-thinking law firm with excellent career prospects. And with their passion for innovation, new employees will thrive in their legal career where they are recognised and appreciated for the skills they bring to the workplace.

Conclusion

While it’s impossible to predict the economic future, it is relatively safe to say that advancements in technology, innovation and a Gen Z surge will define recruitment in 2020.

Legal services are one of the most important world markets, and with a demand for legal services comes a competitive race to attract top candidates to firms. Therefore, legal professionals can expect to have a variety of options open to them when looking for a new role and can look ahead to a fulfilling legal career that enables them to achieve their ambitions.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this article because you are looking to develop your legal team to stay ahead of your competitors in the new decade, 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.

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.

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.

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.

Effective teamwork is crucial for any Legal firm.

Whether it’s an outstanding legal secretary, fielding calls and organising schedules and paperwork or a competent paralegal, interviewing witnesses and taking statements, everyone at your firm needs to be engaged and focused on the same goals to facilitate great results.

Finding the perfect blend of knowledge, skills and attitudes for your team can help you to get ahead of the competition and achieve your goals faster. However, before you can start reaping the rewards of a high-performing team, you’ll need to know how to set your employees up for success.

Here are just some of the ways that you can develop a more cohesive community within your legal firm.

Step 1: Recruit Based On Shared Values

A high-performing team is defined by a group of people who can support each other in reaching critical professional goals. Cohesiveness is essential to your team, which means you’ll need employees who can pull together for the greater good based on a clear understanding of what your firm wants to achieve.

This will happen more easily when your employees share your organisational values. When recruiting, build into your process, questions and exercises that explore a candidate’s beliefs.
This will give you an opportunity to test if their ethics match the firm’s.

When onboarding new employees, remember to explain why your legal firm’s values are important and provide them with examples of how you see these beliefs being expressed, so they have some ideas of what’s expected.

Being clear and consistent about your vision and values will give your team a sense of direction and some common objectives. Even if individual solicitors or legal teams are working on different cases, it’s important that everyone still understands the bigger picture.

Step 2: Embrace Diversity

Legal firms can often be attracted to a specific type of candidate. After all, you need someone with the requisite qualifications and experience who understands your field of law and shares your vision. However, this doesn’t mean that everyone in your team needs to have the same perspective. In fact, you can often accomplish more by embracing a wide selection of diverse viewpoints.

As the digital world continues to have more of an impact on every aspect of our society, it’s also increasingly critical to find candidates who have varied backgrounds and skills to offer. The more diversity you have in your team, the easier it will be to overcome complex challenges with ‘out of the box’ thinking. What’s more, diverse recruitment can help to improve your employer brand, which will help you to build your legal talent pipeline.

Step 3: Build a Supportive Environment

High-performing legal teams need to feel as though they can rely on their members to help them accomplish goals on behalf of the firm. A supportive team environment will not only enhance employee morale, promote peer-to-peer learning and lead to increased retention of your legal talent, but most importantly contribute positively to the quality and consistency of service that your firm provides its clients.

Creating a supportive environment within your firm begins by exploring the idea of psychological safety. Your team members need to know that they’re not going to be punished if their creativity and independent actions lead to mistakes.

Recognising and rewarding out-of-the-box thinking among your people and celebrating those who try new things is a great way to help your legal team flourish. By encouraging as well as modelling these behaviours, you’ll bring your firm’s vision and values to life.

Step 4: Give Employees Room to Thrive

Although effective teams need to collaborate to achieve their goals, they also need room to explore their unique skills. A high-performing legal team is bound to have people from a range of backgrounds, each with their own strengths and areas of expertise. Team leaders will know how to delegate tasks to take advantage of certain talents.

Make sure that you’re providing your staff members with the environment, resources and support they need to thrive both in a team environment and individually. For instance, it’s critical to ensure you develop the right atmosphere to enable the fee earners on your team to manage multiple caseloads.

Every member of your team will have their own strengths and development areas. Pairing the right people together will naturally lead to mentorship opportunities that supplement skill gaps as well as providing bonding opportunities.

Step 5: Focus on Great Leadership

Finally, in any legal firm, it’s crucial to make sure that your team has the right leadership to guide them towards success. Regardless of your area of law, your leadership team needs to be ready to inspire and motivate the rest of your legal team.

Leaders are the people who set the standard for the rest of the group, by showing them what “excellence” means to your organisation. According to the CIPD, the input of the right leader can be enough to improve workplace engagement by 39%.

Develop leadership strategies intended to keep employees motivated as they work together with their peers, and make sure to offer rewards and recognition for those that achieve great things in their roles.

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 to build a talent pipeline for your legal practice is a question many of our consultants are asked.

Logical when you consider that developing your team and the talent within your organisation will be key to your growth this year.

What Is A Talent Pipeline?

Contrary to what you might expect to read on a legal recruitment website, building a talent pipeline involves developing your current employees in addition to recruiting legal talent to ‘plug’ skill or experience gaps or fill your expansion needs.

Both will be critical for your success.

Building A Legal Talent Pipeline: Business Strategy

The first question to inform your talent pipeline is focused on your current business growth strategy.

Are you planning to move into a new geography or perhaps offer a different aspect of your service?

You might have focused on business services such as property or corporate and commercial law and now want to expand into home and family; perhaps even consider wealth management.

The question is, do you have the capability in these areas currently or do you need to bring in a director or consultant to build a new vertical and/or develop new fee earners who are keen to move?

Considering these questions, how will you now plan your recruitment and within what time frame?

As a legal recruitment company with twenty years experience, we notice that many clients when they first come to us haven’t thought through their long term plan.

Remember to factor in budget and time to hire to hit your growth goals and be prepared for people leaving, which will produce gaps which need to be filled.

Building A Legal Talent Pipeline: Your Current Team And Their Development

In today’s current legal market and depending on the size of your firm it’s unlikely that you will be overstaffed with employees, ready, willing and able to be developed into a different role.

However, if you have a robust training and performance development process, it is more than possible that members of your current team will be able to move into different roles. Depending on your timelines it may be viable that some members of staff can develop to fill your growth gaps over the next one to three years.

Remember in today’s workplace; Millennials rule and are increasing in numbers across the globe. Something they deem key in their work is the opportunity to be developed. Therefore factor this into your talent development strategy and your future recruitment plans too.

Building A Legal Talent Pipeline: Your Employer Brand

We have recently carried out research with candidates on why they choose to work with certain clients and not others.

Employer branding, culture and approach were giving as three influencing factors. One candidate even shared a story how after she came out of the interview she had been overwhelmed, in a positive way, by the  ‘feel’ of the organisation and their approach and was ‘keeping everything crossed’ that they made her an offer.

This isn’t an uncommon story, and the impact of your employer brand is more critical than ever. If you would like to know more about this important strategy we have written a complimentary report which you can download here.

A strong employer brand showcases the values and company culture in your organisation – all essential for attracting talent to your legal organisation and engaging your current staff.

More than 59% of managers say that branding is one of the critical components of their HR strategy.

While there are many different definitions for “employer branding” depending on whom you ask, they all mostly say the same thing. Your brand is the way that ‘potential new legal team members’ in the business world perceive you, and your opportunity to showcase what makes you unique.

Otherwise known as an “Employer Value Proposition”, your brand can help both you and your legal recruitment partner truly attract talent to your organisation while ensuring that you fill your team full of people who share the same values.

For more insight into Employer Value Propositions click here to understand how they can help give you stand out when recruiting in competitive markets, particularly post-pandemic.

Building A Legal Talent Pipeline: Using A Specialist Legal Recruiter

The majority of clients we work with here at Clayton Legal come to us to help them build their talent pipeline because they have neither the time or connections to do the job as well as they would like.

Recruiting is our job; unlike most law firms who have to attract and work with clients, develop their fee earners and growing teams and then, as the business dictates recruit new members of the legal team.

A challenge for an already time-pressed individual.

Though it is great to recruit from within, it’s also key to bring in new ideas and perspectives from key hires who might have a different portfolio of experience and results.

Finding these individuals in a skill short market takes time.

Though we would always encourage building a network and leveraging your existing contacts and old law school connections, this doesn’t always produce the results you want.

For instance, James who you have met at various social law gatherings may have a high profile, however, might not have the detailed attributes your role description indicates is pivotal.

This is why working with an experienced recruitment company in the legal sector will make all the difference in building your talent pipeline.

Utilising all these different ideas and suggestions in your legal practice will enable you to start the process of building a strong legal talent pipeline this year.

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 3,000 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.

As we head towards the end of the year and get ready to welcome a new one, it’s an ideal opportunity to reflect. That’s why we’ve put together this blog, to help you assess what difficulties the legal sector has faced this year, and how to plan so that 2019 gets off to a successful start.

Challenges and opportunities in 2018

Earlier this year we published research into the legal sector’s biggest challenges and opportunities in 2018. One of the main things that emerged was firms’ fears about how skills shortages might impact on growth. Conveyancing, both residential and commercial, was highlighted as a particular area of concern, as property specialists come under increasing pressure. There’s certainly no shortage of work for those that do specialise in property, and changes to the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality scheme may add to conveyancing professionals’ list of things to do.

The other major challenge highlighted in our white paper, was the political landscape – no, we’re not quite on to the ‘B’ word yet! At the start of 2018 firms were facing uncertainty over what would happen regarding the so-called ‘whiplash reforms’. Thankfully, as we approach the end of the year there’s much greater clarity, with the reforms having been pushed back to April 2020. We reported back in October that we’d already seen a sharp increase in the number of personal injury vacancies emerging, which offers greater job security for those who specialise in that field, at least for the next year or so.

What’s happening across the market: plan now, succeed later

The good news on whiplash reforms isn’t the only piece of positivity that 2018 has delivered. While the legal sector, and many other professions, have found Brexit to be a challenge, firms have also reported that it represents an opportunity.

The changing relationship with Europe could actually mean that those who specialise in litigation may find themselves in demand, as businesses and individuals require advice. The best thing to do is to plan for all eventualities. Faced with uncertainty and skills shortages, firms’ best bet is to work hard to retain staff now. In fact, research carried out by CIPD shows that 26% of organisations are placing a greater emphasis on developing existing staff. Our blog, ‘Save Time, Money And Resources: Retain Your Best Legal Talent’, has tips on how best to achieve that.

Changes have meant that some situations have become clearer, for example the whiplash reforms. And while some things remain a little foggy – Brexit being a prime example – planning and retention strategies can help secure your success in 2019 and beyond.

Partnering with Clayton

Equipping clients with what they need to achieve their objectives now and in the future is what we aim to do, after all, we’re only as successful as our clients. In order to help you achieve your goals, we use two vital elements:

• Each client has a dedicated legal recruitment consultant
• We build strong, trusting relationships with clients by always taking the time to listen to your needs and challenges. Candidate relationships are key also and we have built up a large database of quality candidates

By focusing on your success, we have reinforced our own values of trust, relationships, and growth. These values are what clients appreciate, and we often share the same values as the firms that we serve, making for a stronger partnership.

We take building positive client relationships seriously, and also strive to build strong relationships with our employees too. So if you’re the kind of firm that is committed to building an employer brand that not only attracts but retains talent, then we could be a good match!

In fact, a prominent law firm was recently struggling to source quality candidates with the right skill set for the role. By upholding the two key elements above we were quickly able to fill the post. Not only did this reduce the demand on the client’s time, it allowed them to focus on their day job, which was much more beneficial for business. The client was delighted with the outcome and commented that “Clayton Legal understand what we want and deliver by taking the process away that leads us to being able to concentrate on the business.”

Of course, each client measures success differently, although 91% of clients have reported being really pleased with Clayton and the results of working with us.

Talent can be the scarcest resource, which is why our goal is to use our market expertise, insight and networks to ensure that we provide the right people to the right firms, so that they become their greatest asset.

Clayton Legal’s success stories

We’re delighted to hear such positive feedback and are proud to say that we have filled over 3,000 placements in our lifetime. We have worked alongside firms to recruit positions ranging from:

• Partners to Legal Executives
• Solicitors to Paralegals
• Legal IT personnel to Practice Managers

Our ongoing dedication to and passion for legal recruitment means that we’re continually refining our knowledge of the market and improving the service we offer to clients.

As part of our continual desire to improve, we have achieved the following successes this year:

• 2018 has seen our fifth continuous year of growth, which is testament to our MD Lynn, the work of the whole team, and the fantastic clients that we serve.
• It’s not just in a financial sense that we’ve grown. From our base in the North West, we’ve expanded across the UK and are proud to be supporting clients as far afield as London, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, as well as the South East.
• This year we’ve also introduced a service providing locum professionals across the legal landscape. We understand that sometimes your firm needs a helping hand without taking on the financial responsibility of an entirely new member of staff; a locum worker is a great alternative.

Looking forward to 2019

While we’ve celebrated some of our own successes here, it’s been a good time for the legal profession as a whole, despite various obstacles. Indeed, at the end of November the number of solicitors on the roll was 192,516, up on last year and at the highest point in 2018. The sector is proving to be healthy, regardless of its challenges.

This is reflected in our 2018 Salary Survey which highlights that, despite ongoing skills shortages in areas like conveyancing,  firms have felt more positive about the availability of legal skills in general. And while there have been plenty of challenges in 2018, they have been balanced with opportunities. We’re certainly looking forward to 2019 and continuing to support law firms with their needs.

And if you’re thinking of recruiting, it’s not too late to get things underway before Christmas. We’ll be here until the 24th of December and will be more than happy to help with whatever recruitment challenge you’re facing.

Whether it’s a last-minute locum emergency or a full-time employee for 2019 expansion plans, call us on 01772 259 121 and one of our talented consultants will be able to assist you.

In the meantime, you might like to find out more about what a specialist firm can bring to the table in our blog: Big firm, little firm…get the best from your recruitment provider.

You may also like to download our latest report on trends in law: The 7 critical recruitment trends in law that will impact your talent pipeline in 2019.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A stable workforce means that your law firm runs smoothly and without interruption, so when a staff member leaves it can have a big impact on the rest of the firm. Valuable skills and job-specific knowledge that have built up over time disappear with a departing staff member, leaving you in a tricky position to bridge the gap. These practical implications of recruitment can have just as heavy a cost to your firm as the financial element.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help explain what the true cost of recruiting is to your firm. From finances to how attrition rates impact your recruitment, we’ve considered some of the things you may not have thought about when it comes to your recruitment costs.

Recruitment costs: facts and figures

To understand the true cost of recruiting, it’s useful to look at the facts and figures and what costs they refer to. When a staff member leaves, your firm could find itself paying for everything from agency fees to the wages of temporary and locum staff.

Research carried out by Oxford Economics suggests that it costs more than £30,000 to replace a staff member, with the legal profession bearing the highest costs at £39,887 per employee. Two main reasons for this cost are highlighted in the findings:

• Firstly, the logistics of recruiting a new staff member and the associated costs that go along with that. For example, HR activity and the cost to the firm of the interview process.
• Secondly, the reduction in productivity while the new staff member gets up to speed. According to the report, the average legal professional takes 32 weeks to reach optimum efficiency, which makes it one of the longest periods of reduced productivity. This makes the legal sector the most costly industry in which to replace a lost staff member.

The financial figures are striking of course, although it’s important not to overlook the bigger picture. Not only does a departing staff member result in a monetary cost to the business there is a range of knock-on effects:

• HR spends considerable time going through leaving and joining processes, completing all the relevant paperwork as well as sourcing a replacement.
• Management has to spend time arranging for the work to be covered, either by distributing it amongst existing staff or appointing temporary cover. There’s also the time spent away from everyday work conducting interviews to account for.
• The workload of colleagues increases and there is a general reduction in productivity as staff take time to readjust and the new person to settle in.

Not only is this expensive, it’s time-consuming: resources which could be used to retain staff are instead spent on finding a replacement. There’s the commercial element to consider also, as time and energy are put into recruitment which could be put to more effective use by serving clients.

Attrition rates and their impact on recruitment costs

Losing a well-established member of staff is undoubtedly a blow to your firm, although it’s equally important to consider how attrition rates play into your overall recruitment costs. If you find that you hire someone only for them to leave after a short while, or if staff aren’t sticking with you for the long term, it can greatly influence the cost of recruitment to your firm. What’s more, if staff churn is causing disruption, then it’s unlikely that the workforce at large is working at optimum productivity.

There’s a mixed picture on attrition rates across the board. PwC’s Annual Law Firms’ Survey 2018 shows a difference between the top 25 law firms and the firms in the rest of the top 50. The number of newly qualified solicitors in the top 25 firms has decreased, as did those with up to two years’ PQE. While PwC suggests that this is due to ‘underutilisation’ of legal professionals at this level, it does perhaps show that the top firms pose a problem to the rest of the sector in their ability to attract the kind of experienced, talented individuals that smaller firms would want to retain.

However, the NQ headcount was up by 33% amongst firms in the top 26-50. In our own research, firms felt more positive about attrition rates in 2018 which suggests that law firms are getting better at retaining staff, at the Newly Qualified level at least. Indeed, the PwC findings back this up suggesting there has been a greater desire to ‘nurture’ talent.

Showing staff that you are invested in their development is one of the most effective ways to retain them. Legal professionals that can see a future with your firm are less likely to leave and this reduces your costs associated with recruitment.

It’s important to point out, however, that attrition hasn’t disappeared entirely. Numerous respondents to our Salary Survey did say that high salaries offered by bigger firms can be problematic. This means firms either need to try and compete financially – for example, paying city-like salaries to tempt candidates to a rural location – which is a costly move. Or, they could try alternative tactics such as offering flexible working and a better work-life balance than the big firms can.

Why law firms benefit from using a recruitment agency

Knowing what will attract candidates, what will drive them away, and what will help to keep employees is invaluable. And especially when it comes to attracting candidates in the legal field, having a specialist recruitment agency on your side can make a big difference. As the Oxford Economics report suggests, the legal sector is more likely to use a specialist recruitment agency because of the need for quality over quantity; specific skills and knowledge are needed, therefore an agent that understands the sector is beneficial.

A legal recruitment agency will not only be familiar with all the quirks of the legal profession, they will be able to think outside of the box and help you to consider candidates that you might not otherwise have done, giving you more choice. Of course, using a recruitment agency rather than recruiting in-house incurs a cost. However, by making use of a partner with specialist skills, your staff are free to do what they do best, meaning that you save time and money in the long term. Placing the right candidate with your firm will also reduce attrition rates, meaning you spend less on recruitment than you would do if attrition rates remained high.

If recruiting, or even retaining staff, is something that your firm has been struggling with why not give us a call on 01772 259 121? We’ve over twenty years’ experience in the legal recruitment field and would be pleased to help.

You may also find out recent blog ‘Save time, money and resources: retain your best legal talent’, of interest if you’re looking for some new ideas on how to retain your staff.

And please feel free to register your vacancy online, if you’re looking to recruit at the moment.