Law firms today recognize that the talent you have on your staff is the single most competitive advantage you can have over the competition. Attracting the best talent for every aspect of your business, from support staff to your team of attorneys is crucial for your success.
Acquiring great new talent in the legal industry can prove to be a challenge. Let’s be honest, nobody is complaining that there just aren’t enough law firms around. Prospective talent has options. What is the one thing that will lead them to knock on your door first?
Your reputation.
Your reputation is the secret to successful recruitment. Reputation management can attract the right talent that will help you define your firm as an authority in the business. The only question that remains is not “why” to do it, but “how”. What is prospective new talent looking for and how can you get that information to them? How does new talent view your reputation differently from potential clients? How do you build the reputation that new talent wants to be associated with?
Paint a Story with Client Satisfaction
Quality new talent looking to join your team will understand the nature of the industry. Clients often seek out your counsel during stressful and emotional times in their lives, and the results may not always be what they had hoped for. This will inevitably lead to negative of hostile client reviews.
The reputation management strategy here is to not under-play those negative experiences, but instead in your approach to addressing the under-satisfied client.
- What is your strategy for approaching and addressing negative reviews?
- How do you take these situations and transform them into growth?
- Have you been able to convert negative experiences into continued relationships?
Incoming talent is looking for a firm where they can not only gain experience, but trust and respect. Your firm’s reputation for respecting clients and genuinely wanting to build and repair relationships speaks volumes on how new talent entering your firm will be regarded by the public and other professionals.
Great Talent Is as Close as Your Competitors
Sometimes, the new talent bank runs a little dry. You need to add talented professional to your team, but no one is reaching out to you. When this happens, it is time for some talent recruitment, and your reputation can be the thing that lets tells them that moving to your team is the right move for their career development.
Here is where you want to showcase the ways that your reputation outshines the others in the industry.
Again, the aspects of your reputation that matter are more than your winning track record. Fresh talent and innovative thinkers in the legal industry are looking for a certain “experience” from the firm that they choose. We also know that word of mouth spreads quickly among law firm employees.
