The competition for legal talent remains fierce, even with the pandemic still hampering the economy globally. While approaching the post-pandemic period, law firms, alongside companies across all industries and sectors, in need of new talent will have to hire externally to support their anticipated quick recovery. Therefore, finding the “right” talent is a core driver for growth, especially when organizations are facing unprecedented cost and cash flow pressures caused by the pandemic.
How organizations stand out from the crowd and convince the best-suited candidates to join them will define their success. What follows are five tips to help your organization stand out to hire the perfect-fit candidates.
Craft a winning strategy
Firms and companies should carefully define their primary hiring objectives to best organize and streamline the hiring process. A detailed plan should be crafted incorporating specific strategies in order to achieve its objectives. The plan may include leveraging internal referrals, external networking, exploring advertising channels, and engaging with experienced recruiters to source talent more efficiently.
Nobody knows the vacant position you need to fill, or indeed the firms itself, as well as you do. Therefore, it is important to give clear, detailed, and accurate information to whoever is handling the recruitment process. Ensure that they fully understand your culture, structure and growth plans, and give them the opportunity of being able to present your firm to prospective lawyers in the best possible light.
Draft well-thought-out job descriptions
Too often, law firms and companies fail to view the job description as a key way to attract candidates. Firms should be able to articulate why the role they are looking to fill provides a great career development opportunity for candidates. Take this unprecedented period as an example; stability and flexible work polices are among the most important thing to current job seekers, so any firm should highlight these aspects on the job description.
Focus the job description on credentials that are advantageous rather than required. This is particularly true when the position has general rather than specific responsibilities or skillsets. If you merely concentrate on rigid requirements, you may miss out on a chance to hire someone with a proven ability to learn rather than those who have experience in certain things but are not interested in expanding their horizons.
Introduce key members of your organization
Your senior legal staff are busy people who will likely have been working remotely during the pandemic. It may be hard to find time in their schedules to meet with candidates in person. Having candidates meet with representatives of the firm online or via video conference is often the only practical method. Candidates always want to know who their future leaders will be and hear about what it is like to work at the firm. Delaying such interaction may end up with the candidate going elsewhere.
Maintain an expansive online presence
Legal recruitment is changing. To keep up in a talent war nowadays, you need to promote your brand on social media. Companies no longer take to social media just to answer customer services questions or sell their products/services, but to promote social policies, charitable initiatives, community outreach projects, and so on. For example, over the last twelve months and beyond law firms post Covid-19 related content on different channels to demonstrate how they have dealt with the various challenges.
Digitalization is the new normal in recruitment. Your firm needs to utilize technology, such as recruitment tools, virtual screening methods, interview scorecards, and online conferencing software. A virtual interview will frequently be one of a candidate’s first interactions with your firm. So, your recruiting team needs to make sure you are ready to be in front of the camera to communicate smoothly with the candidate. Also, your team should understand how virtual interviews are different from in-person ones and hone best practices as a group.
Form a working relationship with a reliable agency
Organizations need to ensure that hiring remains efficient and effective over time. If your firm cannot find the right lawyers or if your hiring processes aren’t working, then your firm needs to take the initiative in effecting changes. Hiring processes can be long, tiring, and arduous as firms and companies will see a high volume of applications that hiring managers have to assess and evaluate comprehensively. Partnering with a seasoned and trusted legal recruitment agency offers up-to-date insight into the current talent pool, an already-developed pool of active/passive candidates that can be filtered according to your bespoke requirements, and a second pair of experienced eyes to help your candidate search and evaluation. Candidates also welcome the opportunity to consult with recruiters over the interview processes and the professional and cultural environments of different firms so working closely with a firm that you exchange information with frequently will be mutually beneficial.