We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it a million more times: your people are your most valuable assets. No matter how big or small your law firm is, without top lawyers, paralegals and legal support staff, your firm simply cannot thrive.
Finding and recruiting the best-of-the-best legal talent is simple—you hire us to do it! However, if your law firm isn’t attractive to the industry’s top talent, it makes our job a lot harder.
More so than ever before, the job market heavily favors candidates—not companies. The kind of talent you want, well, they know you want them. They know what they’re worth. And they want to know what’s in it for them if they bring all they have to offer to your law firm’s table.
To stay competitive when it comes to attracting the cream of the crop to your boutique law firm, here are a few recommendations:
Have a mission, and make it clear
When candidates can connect with your firm on a deeper level than job title and salary, you instantly become a more attractive employer. Communicate that what they would be doing for you firm matters, and that they would be working alongside other employees who also care about making a difference. Having a dedicated career page on your website is a great way to communicate your firm’s mission.
Be non-traditional
Gone, gone, gone are the days of 9am-5pm, a strict one hour lunch break, two weeks of paid vacation, and a 401K match program (although the 401K thing is still a big seller). Today’s talent wants some semblance of work-life balance. If you can’t offer a work-from-home benefit, consider an open office environment that allows your team to float around a little more freely.
Get your team involved
The best ambassador for your firm is a loyal employee. Ask leaders and employees at your firm to create talent ambassador LinkedIn profiles, to conduct interviews about your firm on Glassdoor or Indeed, or to generate content that positions your firm as an enviable “employer brand.”
Don’t just have a value proposition—live by it!
Any firm can rattle off an out-of-the-can value proposition about why they’re the best law firm to work for ever in the history of law firms. However, if you can articulate how your firm “walks the walk,” so to speak—that is what will resonate most with the top talent you’re seeking to attract.
Treat your people like what they are—your most valuable asset
Have we mentioned that your people are your most valuable asset? Because they are, and they deserve to be treated as such. When you create an environment of trust and respect, you people will talk and, eventually, you’ll develop a reputation as being one of the more desirable firms to work for.
Leverage the power of social media
Fill your firm’s social media profiles with more than business-to-consumer focused content. Sprinkle in photos from employee-centric events and present yourself as the kind of firm that puts its people first. Before a job candidate accepts an interview with your firm, you can guarantee he or she looks at your Facebook page to gauge what it’s like to work for you. Give them a taste of your firm’s culture and commitment.
Offer career trajectories rich with training & development
Many of the law firms we work with enroll their people in our Team Empowerment Academy, a virtual training and development program that fosters professional growth and teaches employees hundreds of tools and techniques to become effective leaders. Knowing that they will be able explore new experiences is always attractive to talented lawyers, paralegals and support staff.
Our Smart Hire Solution™ process is highly effective for finding and recruiting top talent for your law firm—and it’s even more effective when your firm can compete with what the major industry players are offering new hires. Just because your firm isn’t world-renowned doesn’t mean you can’t play in the same talent management ball game—you just have to get a little more creative with what you have to offer.
Contact Hiring & Empowering Solutions
Whether you have an open position you need help filling, or you just want to bounce around some ideas with our team of highly experience legal staffing and HR consultants, we’d love to hear from you! Contact us using the brief form below, and we’ll get in touch with you shortly.
