Retention Begins at Recruitment
You're a small law firm looking to effectively hire legal talent—but are you inadvertently setting yourself up for high turnover? Too often, firms see recruitment and retention as separate processes. In reality, retention begins the moment a candidate reads your job ad.
Small law firms face stiff competition and need the most effective hiring strategies to complete their legal team. Recruitment that works is tied to creating a culture and work environment so vibrant that they are evident within the job posting itself. Your firm's values, culture, and drive to develop staff professionally should be evident. The experience of new staff is enhanced through a well-thought-out onboarding process that takes into account mentors, lines of communication, and clarity on roles within the firm. The ultimate goal is to show a new hire a workplace where they can imagine themselves finding long-term satisfaction!
The Talent Dilemma
Lawyer unemployment is currently at a historically low rate of around 1%.
It is uniquely challenging to staff specialized legal talent in areas with more acute shortages: immigration, cybersecurity, ESG law, and privacy law. Small law firms must consider and work to make themselves stand out as employers in this unusual landscape through hiring strategies that showcase their workplace culture.
1. Shifting From Salary Wars to Purpose
Compensation is no longer the sole factor attracting potential employees. It is important to emphasize your firm's core values, such as wellness initiatives, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and opportunities for meaningful work. To support this, consider sharing tangible examples, including structured mentorship programs, an inclusive workplace culture, and readily available mental health resources. In shifting their hiring strategy, smaller law firms can attract and compete for talent alongside larger firms.
2. Make Flexibility the New Normal
Today's professional worker values flexible work arrangements when choosing a firm. They are looking for combinations of remote and hybrid work, parental leave arrangements that make the return to work a graduated process. A very effective hiring strategy for smaller law firms is to communicate how your firm will serve as the place where they can balance the demands of their personal life while still maintaining a vital and enriching professional life, you will attract the talent you need. And it is more than just showing how your company functions on paper, applicants are hungry to hear about how these flexible arrangements have played out for staff within the firm.
3. Empowering Junior Talent Early
Postponing professional growth opportunities can be challenging for both employees and the organization. High-functioning mentorship programs offer a way to set up immediate options for growth. Certifications and training on emerging technology such as AI, alongside mentorship from various roles within the firm, both enhance skill sets and increase loyalty. Showing a candidate to your firm that they will be vital to your success and you will invest in their growth is a proven hiring strategy.
4. Take Action for Long-Term Retention
Effective retention begins with strategic recruitment. Consider how your firm hires, what are their long-term goals, and does their job posting and interview process reflect that? Exercise inclusive hiring strategies that elevate flexibility and foster the knowledge that professional growth of all employees is a priority starting from the initial interview.
Time Crunch?
If all this presents a time crunch, consider using a staffing firm that specializes in understanding and meeting the needs of legal firms. Specialized staffing firms deeply understand your needs and the market, often formed over years of specializing in the legal industry. We utilize that knowledge by creating unique job postings for each position we staff, combining the firm's culture and the unique factors we know applicants are looking for based on our work in the industry. We would love to show you an example of legal firms we have partnered with on hiring strategy.
