Attracting and Engaging Top Legal Talent
There are many ways to attract and engage top legal talent. Law firms need to be creative and innovative when it comes to recruiting new talent. The most successful law firms understand that attracting top talent is a process, not a one-time event. It's important to create a positive work environment that attracts and retains top legal talent.
Here, we are going to cover four focus areas of attracting and engaging top legal talent.
ONE | CREATING A LEGAL TALENT PIPELINE
Gone are the days of posting a job to Indeed.com and waking up the next morning with 40 qualified, “ideal on paper” candidates. Today, law firms must constantly be focusing on networking. This is to avoid “reactive hiring” wherein you suddenly have a hiring need, and are starting from square one.
It is essential to consider both active and passive candidates. Active candidates are those that are directly applying to your job ad, or who have contacted you directing about potential opportunities with your law firm. Passive candidates are candidates that aren’t necessarily looking for work, but may be open to the right opportunity. They keep themselves “open” in super-secret recruiter insider ways, and wait for a position that aligns with their career goals and strengths, and who’s work culture better aligns with theirs.
Good legal recruiters are constantly focusing on building meaningful connections and relationships with passive candidates every day. They have an internal pipeline developed for both direct connections as well as potential referrals within your geographical reach.
To boost your own recruitment efforts, create a robust and updated careers page, highlighting your employer brand and painting a pretty picture about what it is like to work with your company. Make sure to attend networking events, and consider implementing an employee referral program.
TWO | STAND OUT AS AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE
There are many things a quality candidate is seeking on a personal and individual level when they are job searching, but one thing stays consistent: they want to work for a well-respected law firm with high moral values and a strong workplace culture.
You have maybe heard of building a business brand for your law firm that centers around creating a distinct identity for your target clients and their needs. It helps you to stand apart from your competition. A the most basic level, branding is made up of a company’s logo, visual design, mission and tone of voice/emotion within your message.
Many law firms are unfamiliar with the term “Employer Brand.” It is the same concept as outlined above, but it is focused on how you market your company to desired job seekers. Building an employer brand can be done by showcasing your law firm’s unique cultural differences and working to amplify them so you can position yourself as a top place of employment.
Employer brands take time to develop, but that shouldn’t deter you from starting today, especially if you’re just about to head into legal recruiting. Here are a few ways to develop your employer brand:
Audit your employer brand.
Know your Employer Value Proposition (Salary, career development, management style, evaluations/promotion tracks, volunteer opportunities, job security, flexibility, etc.)
Sharing employee stories on your social media and website.
“Day in the life” videos of your employees that are willing.
Highlighting employee education and training programs and initiatives.
Just as you ask your clients for testimonials, ask your employees for their own.
Create a positive hiring process (yes, lawyers, you have to respond to emails promptly during the recruiting process).
Showcase your entire team on your website (not just the lawyers).
THREE | EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH
One way to stand out from the crowd is to partner with local community projects or schools. This demonstrates your company's commitment to its core values and helps you reach a specific target market. For example, you could create an annual internship program that provides candidates with the opportunity to learn about your law firm and its goals.
Alternatively, you could mentor local students (law students, paralegal students, etc.), and help them develop the skills they need to succeed in the business world. By offering specialized opportunities like these, you'll be able to attract top talent to your company. I bet one of your paralegals would love to host a paralegal seminar/meet and greet at your law firm.
Showcase all of this on social media and your website. Volunteering your success and the success of your employees back into the community is a great way to stand out as a notable and mission driven law firm top legal professionals would love to be a part of.
FOUR | RETAIN THE TOP TALENT YOU ALREADY HAVE
A happy employee is a productive employee. That's why it's in a law firms’ best interest to keep their employees empowered with opportunities for career growth and the ability to learn new skills. A company culture that is inspiring and engaging will help to foster a sense of happiness and loyalty among employees.
These engaged employees will serve as positive ambassadors for your talent brand, making it easier to attract even more top talent to your organization. So, not only will empowering your employees make them happier, but it will also help you build a stronger talent pipeline. It's a win-win situation!
Here are some focus areas for retaining top employees:
Have a great and positive onboarding and orientation experience.
Offer mentorship programs (outsource or internal).
Don’t fluff around the employee compensation realities.
Perks (remote work options, generous PTO, free parking, technology stipend, funded Starbucks cards… get creative)
Wellness offerings (mental, physical, financial). Check with your bank to see if they offer any financial literacy benefits for your employees, bring in a personal development coach every year, and mandate personal days.
Communication. Your employees should never have to chase you down for days to get an answer on something. Always maintain an open-door policy.
Continuous feedback doesn’t always have to be negative or constructive. It can be positive too! The more you recognize and provide excitement towards good performance the more your team will want to achieve it.
Work-life balance. Encourage employees to set boundaries with work and respect those boundaries.
CONCLUSION
While the process of attracting and engaging top legal talent can feel like a marathon you haven’t totally trained for, it is important to focus on the above four areas that will have the most impact. By following these tips, you are sure to find and retain the best legal minds for your organization.
Here at Del.Trust, we help our clients look beyond the legal recruiting process and into the law firms’ long-term hiring and retention strategy. Reach out to us for your recruiting needs, and we can help you build that employer brand, offer mentorship programs to your legal staff, and much more!