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!

Highly skilled legal professionals set your firm apart and finding individuals with the right talent takes time and resources. This is why firms need to consider the importance of retention, rather than just focusing on recruitment.

Yet it’s something that firms can struggle with – even the big players aren’t immune. The most recognisable names in London saw retention rates of newly qualified solicitors as low as 74%. Retaining talent isn’t a cost-cutting exercise, it makes your firm much more competitive in the long term.

Cost of recruitment

Recruiting new talent is a cost to your firm. According to research published by Glassdoor, the average time it takes to hire a new recruit in the U.K. is 27.5 days. This means one-twelfth of a year is spent on reviewing CVs, carrying out preliminary interviews, secondary interviews, communicating with recruiters and checking references. Factor in multiple hires, and that figure increases significantly. Considering the amount of resource, time, money and effort hiring takes, it’s evident that concentrating efforts on retention becomes far more beneficial.

Onboarding is the first step towards retaining talent. Yes, of course, it’s more effective to retain existing talent than recruit new talent, but sometimes a new hire is what your firm needs. Your firm needs to start looking after them even before they start. A welcome pack that explains benefits and expectations makes the perks of working with you clear to solicitors. Prompt, clear communications are professional and ensure candidates remain happy to work for you.

Brexit might be a source of uncertainty for many industries, but it seems to have sharpened the mind on one thing – ensuring your staff feel valued. CIPD found that 26% of organisations ‘report a greater emphasis on developing existing staff’. The report also highlighted that more organisations are involving employees with their business strategies and encouraging them to contribute their own ideas.

Management is your best defence

When your employees feel secure and supported at work they are less likely to look elsewhere. Management must demonstrate excellent leadership skills, this isn’t just managing a caseload or a team of solicitors with exacting standards, it means having good soft skills too.

If you want to keep hold of staff, then you must also encourage them to manage themselves and be invested in their careers. Maintain regular contact with them through formal appraisals, informal and open discussions and put the ball in their court. If they feel that they have a say in their own work and career they’ll be more engaged and more likely to remain with your firm.

Training and development

These two words are the most important words in your vocabulary if you’re going to successfully retain staff. If your legal talent doesn’t have what they need to do the job, then their focus and energy will be put towards finding a new position elsewhere.
The SRA has a whole section of its website dedicated to how solicitors can plan their development. Investing in your people shows that you’re committed to them and will increase commitment from them.

Remember that legal skills, especially in disciplines such as conveyancing, are in short supply. So not only will developing your staff make them more likely to stick around, it will mean that your firm doesn’t feel the effect of the skills shortage. And employing highly skilled legal professionals with subject expertise will make your firm more competitive in the long run, as they’ll be better equipped to handle client demands.

Your recruitment agent and retention

Using a recruitment agency can be very beneficial to retaining talent. There are many advantages to working with a partner when it comes to retention, and perhaps the two most important factors to consider are the personal touch and a recruiter that specialises in your market. A recruiter that takes the time to build relationships with you, the client, as well as candidates makes retaining that talent easier later on. A positive working relationship that starts on the right note will ensure that the candidate feels happy to stay with your firm for the foreseeable future. A recruiter that specialises in the legal market understands the sector and is better able to represent the role to candidates. Candidates that feel the job matches up to their expectations are much more likely to stick around than those who feel the reality is different.

Recruitment costs vs. benefits

Recruitment takes time, effort and resources. There’s no denying that the right hire at the right time can make a huge difference to a firm, yet a revolving door of talent increases the cost of recruitment exponentially. Retention starts to look a lot more appealing if you weigh the cost of recruitment against the benefits of retaining staff. Time spent training and looking after your best talent will pay you back dividends, with happier staff you’ll have happier clients, and your firm will be all the more competitive.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, you might like our other post: Legal talent drought: How to attract the best talent against the odds.

And if you’re recruiting now, you can talk to one of the team on 01772 259 121, or you can register your vacancy online.

A high-performing team is what any employer would want. A high-performing team of solicitors that is efficient, drives profits and gets results might not be as far off as you think.  It takes work and to build an attractive employer brand; writing compelling job descriptions and creating an excellent culture is only the beginning.

High-performing teams require excellent leadership, support in their development and constant engagement – even before your new recruits join the firm. Our guide to high-performing teams tells you everything that you need to build one successfully.

Successfully onboard legal professionals

Building a high-performing legal team requires careful onboarding. There are two stages to this process:

1. Establish what you want to achieve. You need to decide when onboarding will begin, what impression you would like to give to new staff, the tools that will help them do the job and goals you’d like them to meet. The most important thing to think about is how you will measure success and get feedback on the process. If you don’t have the information to work with it’s hard to make future adjustments.
2. Put systems in place to achieve what you want. Prepare the essentials like security cards, work emails and computer equipment in advance. Providing information around basic housekeeping points such as where the loos are, tea and coffee facilities as well as who to approach with questions will help put the new recruit’s mind at rest. And don’t forget that a warm welcome will ease nerves. Let the office know that a new colleague is joining and to welcome them to the team.

High-performing teams need a high-performing leader

According to the Adair International Institute, a three-pronged approach to leadership underpins successful teams. Leaders need to manage the task, the team and the individual in order to get the best results.

The task needs to be clearly set out and defined aims must be communicated to the group. Research by EY into high-performing teams indicates that 44% of team members believe that clear, achievable goals are the most important factor in what makes a successful team. The group needs to understand the task to perform it well and leaders must ensure this happens. Providing resources, establishing responsibilities and offering feedback are critical at this stage.

The team needs support to achieve its goal and leaders can do this effectively by: equipping team members to deal with conflict, ensure morale is high, establish standards of work, and develop leadership in team members. At an individual level, leaders must know all members of a high-performing team well. Awareness of strengths and weaknesses means leaders can effectively delegate and improve management of the high-performing team. This links closely to another key element of high-performing teams: how to manage support and training.

Support high-performing individuals, benefit the team

Awareness of individual weaknesses means that a leader can put in place measures to help them overcome issues and contribute to the team. Praise and recognition at the right time are beneficial in maintaining motivation.

Training is key to keeping the overall team on track. Seeing that an individual needs help in a certain area means training can be given to bring them up to speed. Managing the individual carefully benefits the team because each person has the skills to achieve the overall task aim. When new legal professionals come into the team, working with them to establish a plan for their development means you can cover all bases and fill in any gaps that might cause the team to fall short. section. In turn, you’ll get the very best from your employees.

Get the best from your employees

High-performing teams don’t happen by accident. Strong leadership from the top down keeps the team unified behind a common goal. Demonstrating integrity, inspiring others and problem-solving are among the top traits of an effective leader according to the Harvard Business Review.

There are three stages to getting the best from your employees:

1. Clear expectations: Set out what you expect from the start. Provide definitive goals and milestones to keep the team on track. Decide how the goal will be measured and build deadlines into the process that break the goal down into smaller, manageable chunks.
2. Consistent feedback: Feedback allows your team to keep adjusting and making continual improvements. Explain what you need as the task progresses and you can even encourage peer feedback, carried out in a constructive way.
3. Motivation and empowerment: Show that you value your staff and their effort. Offer praise, reward and an all-important ‘thank you’ when targets are reached to keep employees motivated and focused on the task.

Employee engagement

Building a team of talented legal professionals means constantly engaging employees. Culture, employer branding, and effectively leading your high-performing team are all important. The crucial element is managing performance at an individual level.

This is where deep knowledge of the individuals that make up your high-performing team pays dividends. As soon as a new solicitor, paralegal or member of support staff joins your firm it’s essential to understand their objectives. Engaging them with the work, the team and the task integrates them firmly into the group. You can increase engagement through an ongoing system of performance management:

1. Individual fit with the team: Know what you want to achieve and communicate it to everyone. Make sure all team members are aware of how the goal relates to their role.
2. Conversations are powerful: Communication builds trust and relationships which are both vital to high-performing teams. Engage staff in conversation about your vision, their development and keep coming back to the subject. That way you’ll not only engage employees you’ll join up their development with the rest of the team and business, which will strengthen the team.
3. Agree S.M.A.R.T objectives: Unite team members who share a similar role behind a common goal. Make the goal ‘S.M.A.R.T’ – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound. By making use of their knowledge experience on the job you can create something meaningful which engages individuals and enhances team performance.

High-performing legal teams take time to build and need a clear plan for success. Your efforts will be rewarded with a group of individuals that work in sync with efficiency and precision. Constant feedback, conversation, motivation and inspiring leadership ensure that your team move forward as one, performing highly along the way.

Interested in turning your firm’s staff into a high-performing team? Our ‘Ultimate Guide to a High-Performing Team’ has more and will explain in detail how to create a formidable force. Download your complimentary copy or call us on 01772 259121.

If you found this guide useful, please do take a look at our other blogs and guides and don’t forget you can register your vacancy online.

You’ve found your ideal person for the role: they tick all of the right boxes and you can’t wait to get them on board. But after you’ve offered them the job, they suddenly aren’t sure. Their current employer is equally keen to retain them and has made a counter offer to incentivise them to stay. What should you do next?

Of course, all legal firms want to retain their best talent and a last-ditch attempt to encourage highly in-demand candidates to withdraw their application, is not an uncommon scenario. However, there are several steps that you can take to minimise the risk and ensure the role you are offering, remains a viable option.

Determine why they want to leave

Preparing for a counter offer needs to begin at the very first stage of contact with prospective employees. Asking ‘Why do you want to leave your current job?’ is an important part of understanding the candidate’s motives and aspirations. If their only reason for looking for a new role is to get a pay rise or a little more responsibility, their current employer can easily address this with a counter offer which includes a salary increase or a change of job title. During the interview process, consider which job seekers are interested in the full opportunity that you’re offering.

Cover counter-offers at interview

It’s totally fine to ask a candidate during the interview stage what they would do if their current employer asks them to stay. It may be uncomfortable, but if it is clear at this point that they aren’t totally sure that they really do want to leave, question them further to find out the full picture.

Get them engaged with their future colleagues

The onboarding process can start from the moment that a candidate accepts your offer and can also be extended to include candidates who are still weighing it up. It’s a good idea to invite them in again to meet with key colleagues, such as line managers, peers and the leadership team. Personal connections can make it easier for people to envision themselves as part of the team.

Keep in touch

When recruits are seeing out their notice periods – which can be as long as three months – their excitement at getting a new job can fade a little. Plus, of course, their current employer still continues to see them each day and may well be doing all that they can to dissuade them from leaving. Be sure to stay in contact with your new hire until they join you on their first day. Invite them to team events, where possible. This will help you keep the momentum going and cement your company in their mind as the place where they can’t wait to be.

Sell your strengths

If you’ve done all of that and a potential new employee still is having a moment of uncertainty about switching jobs, remind them of the opportunities in your organisation. Pinpoint what initially made them apply for a job with you – career progression, improved work/life balance, an appealing organisational culture or more challenge – and reassure them that those benefits exist if they make the move.

Use a recruiter

A good recruiter will ascertain why the applicant is searching for a new role before putting them forward for interview. Often, jobseekers reveal information to recruiters that they don’t at interview and some do say that they are really only looking for a bargaining tool! Recruiters will be well-versed in scenarios where counter-offers emerge and they’ll be able to prepare candidates for the possibility that their current employer may try to dissuade them from leaving.

Know when to walk away

The recruitment process works both ways. Even in a skills-short environment, you still want to attract the right person who has enthusiasm for the job: a candidate that needs endless persuasion to join your organisation is unlikely to be right. So, make your first offer your best one: sell the benefits of your company and role throughout the process and let it be the opportunity of working for you that attracts the right talent – not extra perks added to the salary package in a last minute attempt to get them to choose you.

If you would like specialist advice from experts, get in touch today to find out how we can help you find the right legal talent.

For more advice from the team, check out our other posts

Long-winded, time-consuming and hard work; if any of those words spring to mind when you hear the phrase ‘interview process’, you’ll be relieved to know that there is a better way. An
interview checklist streamlines the process – whether you’re hiring solicitors or paralegals and support staff, a clear process and list of requirements ensure you appoint the best candidate to the post.

Because it’s not just how the candidate performs in the face-to-face interview that matters. Law firms and recruiters need to prepare too. And with the number of solicitors holding practising certificates on the rise, it’s clear that firms will be coming up against the need to interview more and more candidates.

From the very start of the process to the end, an interview checklist will prepare your firm and recruiter, help you glean the right information from interviewees, and choose the most suitable candidate. You can think of the ‘interview process’ as three steps to success: preparation, the interview itself, and decision making.

Preparation

Successfully hiring the right legal professional requires preparation. The two most important factors are:

• Timings – Don’t try and rush the process as you will increase the risk of making a hasty decision. Ensure that the timings of the interviews work for all involved in the hiring process and leave enough time for note comparison and decision-making.

• Communication – Make sure there is a good two-way flow of information with your recruiter, whether they are in-house or external. If working with an external legal recruiter, establish how information about candidates will be passed to the firm – and how often. Too infrequently and you may miss out on candidates, too regularly and it may be too piecemeal.

• Pareto Principle – The Pareto Principle is the idea that 80% of possible effects will come from 20% of the possible causes. Also known as the 80/20 rule, the Pareto Principle can be applied to interviewing, with the candidate speaking for 80% of the time and the interviewer for 20% of the time. This allows the candidate to answer questions fully, which helps give a better insight into suitability for the role.

The interview

An effective interview process will help those candidates that fit your criteria to shine and will reveal those that are not such a good match. But it can only be effective if careful thought has been given beforehand as to what’s required of the successful candidate. Decide what you’re assessing at the interview stage(s): hands-on skills and knowledge, fit, or potential for development if hiring someone with a view to a training contract for instance.

Before the interview, look over the CV and note any areas you want to ask about. For example, gaps, achievements and why the candidate is moving firms. Notice how the candidate talks about their current employer; any unprofessional comments are likely to be a warning signal.

On the day, ask some initial questions to build rapport. This will paint a fuller impression of the individual than is provided by their CV. Enquire about their experience; the more demanding and senior the role, the more detailed the questions. Be clear amongst colleagues and recruiters what’s skills are ‘nice to have’ and what’s ‘need to have’ – check these off throughout the interview.

Competency-based interview questions give the candidate a chance to answer fully, helping to keep the interview in line with the Pareto Principle. Here are some example questions and responses:

“Describe a situation when you had to work under pressure? How did you approach it? What was the outcome?”

The law can be challenging and often requires quick-thinking. Listen out for positive action and problem solving – the way in which the candidate used their professional experience to work around the issue is likely to be very telling. Even if the outcome was not successful, observe whether the candidate maintained a positive attitude or learnt anything.

“Tell me about a time when you were faced with conflicting priorities?”

A good response might sound like a candidate working through a logical process to resolve the conflict. For example, prioritising by urgency or juggling a caseload while making sure work was systematically completed.

“What do you do differently to your other colleagues who have similar roles?”

This gives candidates a chance to show off their initiative and unique skills. Doing things differently can give your firm a competitive edge, so can be highly valuable. The response ‘Nothing, really,’ is not a great sign if you’re looking for innovation.

Finally, asking a candidate about their career aspirations and progression gives you an idea of how they see themselves in your firm. An assured answer also demonstrates that the candidate has a clear vision for their own progression – and this clarity of vision could be beneficial to your firm and clients too.

The aftermath

Space for reflective thought is important, and it’s a good idea to take some time to compare notes with colleagues and your recruiter. Wait until you’ve seen all of the candidates before jumping to any conclusions – if interviewee number two impressed you and swung your vote, that’s great. But what if the last person on the list is even more suitable?

Finally, relaying the information to candidates – and being able to make a swift offer once the decision has been made – is the last piece of the puzzle. Decide what the process will be for feedback to unsuccessful candidates – and who will deliver it. And once you’ve reached the end of your checklist and are ready to say a resounding ‘yes’ to one lucky candidate, who is the best person to make the offer? Your recruiter will be able to help, although it may be more personable coming from the firm directly.

Working through a process before, during and after will ensure the interview goes smoothly and provides the result you’re looking for. Our interview checklist has all the tips and information you need to make a successful hire. Click here to contact us or call 01772 259 121 to request a copy.

And if you enjoyed this blog, you may also like to read our blog on ‘How to shortlist candidates effectively and efficiently’. Don’t forget you can register a vacancy with us online or give us a call to see if we can assist.

Hiring new legal staff is no easy task. You need to consider qualifications, hands-on experience, area of specialism, salary, bonus; the list of things to think about is endless. Add to that the fact that many areas of law are facing talent shortages and hiring becomes a real challenge. Solicitors are in short supply in a number of specialisms – the Law Society has published findings reaching critical shortage levels.

In the face of chronic shortages, you need to ensure that hiring is efficient and effective. If you can’t find the right person or if your hiring process just isn’t working then your firm will lose out in the long term. That’s why we’ve put together a guide to smooth any bumps in your hiring process.

Tips for hiring the right legal candidate

Follow these steps to help you get it right first time, every time:

1. Act fast: When a candidate with an interest responds you must act swiftly. The longer you wait to get back to someone that shows an interest in working for your firm, the greater the risk of them being snapped up by the competition.
2. Project your brand: Treat your potential employees like you would your clients – show them what’s so great about working with you and demonstrate that your firm is an attractive place to work. For a greater insight into employer branding our blog has everything you need to know.
3. Avoid mistakes when hiring: It is absolutely crucial to get the hiring process right, not just from a business perspective, but from a legal perspective. While this is true of any organisation, it is especially true for law firms. We’re not teaching you to suck eggs here, but the importance of this cannot be overstated. Ensure that the person handling your recruitment is experienced and has a sharp eye for detail so that you won’t be exposed to accusations of discrimination or lack of due diligence. Not only do you not want to avoid hot water, the embarrassment factor of getting it wrong would be significant. Which takes us to our next point…
4. Dodge recruiting blunders: Ensure that your recruitment agency is experienced and unlikely to make errors. Having an external recruitment provider cause an issue would be just as embarrassing and uncomfortable as if the mistake was made in-house.
5. Be clear on how you will go about recruiting: Will the process be in-house or outsourced? Will there be a single point of contact within the firm, or will recruitment be handled by a group of people? Having a clear process in place ensures all parties know where they stand and will enable the firm to respond quickly to candidates, giving you the best chance of hiring the right person.
6. Be transparent: If you’re going to attract the very best legal talent – and retain that talent – you need to be upfront and clear about everything: expectations, culture, the type of work available, salaries and bonuses. Any unexpected surprises could just put potential candidates off your firm, or see them jump ship shortly after joining you.
7. Have a plan for the interview stage: A clear process for assessing candidates is crucial to screening the most suitable legal professionals.
8. Ensure the recruiter understands the job spec: Nobody knows your staff or the vacant position you need to fill like you do. That’s why it’s so important to give a clear, detailed and accurate job description to whoever is doing your recruitment – especially if you’re handing the task over to an external recruiter. Ensure that they understand the job spec entirely, as being able to accurately represent your firm to prospective employees stands you in good stead for finding the solicitor with the skills and experience needed. Plus they’ll be able to filter out what you want to avoid. It may be a good idea to enlist the help of a reliable legal recruitment specialist who has experience of recruiting for the legal profession and is familiar with the intricacies of the sector.

Hiring the right person is tough for any organisation, especially so in the competitive climate of the legal profession. We hope these eight steps will make recruitment efficient and straightforward, so you can successfully appoint the right person to the post. Not only will a clear recruitment strategy and a trusted recruitment partner make the hiring process better, it’ll give your firm the boost it needs to thrive in the long term.

You might also like to read our blog on Talent pipelining for success, and if you’re looking to recruit now, get in touch with us by calling 01772 259121 or Register a Vacancy directly online.

Click the following link to download our latest report on trends in law: The 7 critical recruitment trends in law that will impact your talent pipeline in 2019.

Developing robust and effective talent pipelines is vital for any legal firm looking to grow, or indeed not looking to fall behind the competition. However, according to research from Lee Hecht Harrison, a worrying 30% of employers describe their pipeline as poor or non-existent. But why is building long term relationships with potential employees so important and how can legal firms do it effectively?

The issue is particularly important in the current market because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find and recruit good people, at a time when a number of sectors, including law, are not only suffering from skills shortages, but the uncertainty surrounding Brexit is impacting hiring too. And in order to ensure your firm doesn’t reach a stage where it can’t find the talent it requires, the best practice is to build pipelines for all the areas you may potentially need staff in the short and long term future.

The importance of employer brand

By determining the gaps between available and needed talent, firms can identify the most effective strategies for acquiring and developing those individuals. After all, it’s not easy to tap into and engage with talent pools if they have no idea who you are or what you can do for them. In order to build up this relationship, professionals need to recognise and engage with your employer brand, which takes time. It can’t simply be done overnight.

By building an effective pipeline, your firm can shorten the length of time needed to fill positions, because it will likely already have a ‘warm’ relationship with people, meaning you won’t have to recruit from a standing start. It can also help you to engage with the enormous pool of passive talent in the UK. By developing a pipeline into your organisation you can engage with individuals who would be compatible with your firm, but aren’t necessarily ready to move right now.

Identifying future talent gaps

Another significant benefit of strategic recruitment like this is that it allows you to plan for your talent needs not just now, but years into the future. It’s highly likely that your firm could diversify and break into new specialisms or geographical locations, and employing professionals to work in these new departments and locations requires careful planning. If your firm plans to move into litigation, for example, you can build up relationships with talent in this field way before you’ll ever actually need to employ them. This means that when the time does come round to recruit, you will be prepared and ready, rather than scrabbling about looking to promote yourself to potential employees. It also allows you to gain a much greater insight into the people that you’re hiring and whether they would be a good cultural fit for your firm. Anyone can come across well in an interview, but by engaging and keeping a close on eye on the people in your pipeline, you’ll be able to see if they really would be a good match for your firm.

To read more insights from the team take a look at our other blogs. And if you’re seeking a recruitment partner we should be talking. Get in touch today to see how we can help your firm.

There’s no doubt that recruitment in the legal profession today is very different than it was a decade or two ago. Firms have had to adapt to new hiring processes – online communities, digital meet-ups and candidate data all play a significant role in today’s recruitment.

And with so many different aspects now to consider, the lure of using a big recruitment agency is appealing; the legwork is done for you, the burden is taken away from your HR department, and in the past it’s proved an effective way to access large pools of available candidates.

Yet all this can come at a cost – aggressive third-party recruiters, increasing placement rates and commission fees, and dealing with recruiters that are only interested in fulfilling their activity quotas pose a potential risk when working with a large recruitment agency.

So, what if using a recruitment giant wasn’t the only option besides taking on the recruiting yourself? What if you could benefit from a more personal touch in the hiring process, enabling you to find and attract unique top legal talent that could really help your firm excel?
Here’s why you don’t have to settle for using the big recruitment firms:

• Jobs boards are universal – despite what you may hear, jobs boards are accessible for all, and there’s no reason why you need to rely on the biggest firms to advertise for you. Don’t forget that a cleverly written, engaging job description will help you stand out amongst hundreds of job vacancies advertised in exactly the same way.
• You can get the same level of candidate access elsewhere – don’t be fooled into thinking that it is only the biggest agencies that have access to the greatest range of candidates. It’s not simply a case of volume, you need access to quality, talented candidates that are the right fit for your firm – and that means tailoring the hiring process to meet your specific needs.
• Smaller firms give the personal touch – smaller recruitment agencies can put in the time, effort and legwork to build relationships over time – both with you the client, and with those all-important candidates. The best specialist agencies will have built up relationships with firms over many years, building trust and reputation as they do.
• A credible voice in the legal market is invaluable – specialist agencies will be able to demonstrate detailed knowledge of the legal sector, and you’ll benefit from working with true experts in the field, rather than relying on a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Plus, you can tap into valuable industry help and advice, as and when you need it.
• Speed takes priority – this isn’t always the case but big recruitment agencies will often prioritise filling quotas, meeting targets and making commission, over providing you with the service you’re looking for. Time is money as they say…but what if speed over quality costs you more in the long run?
• They come at a high price – as well as charging high fees for their services, you might also find costs mount up elsewhere too. Failed hires, in particular, are extremely expensive for legal firms, highlighting the importance of investing wisely from the start to find the right candidate to fit your role.
• Sophisticated data analytics aren’t just for the giants – increasingly data analytics are playing a bigger part in recruitment but you don’t have to be using a big recruitment agency in order to access them. Specialist firms will often have a better insight into the data that specifically concerns the legal profession.
• Thinking outside the box pays off – if you want to successfully reach out and recruit a range of legal professionals, you need to be thinking outside of the box. Not only are millennials more likely to jump ship, research shows that 90% of professionals are interested in hearing about new job opportunities…so it’s important you don’t overlook passive candidates, in search of only active ones.

Finding the right fit for your firm is more important now than ever before and having the right recruiting process in place – with a focus on the personal touch as well as just ‘filling the role’ – is essential.
Of course, the most effective way to find, access and attract exceptional legal talent is by ensuring you’re working with a recruitment provider that understands your firm and helps you to get the most out of your candidate search. To find out more about what a specialist firm can bring to the table, just get in touch with us here at Clayton