Three behaviors lateral recruitment teams need to thrive in a changing hiring landscape.

The lateral attorney acquisition landscape for Am Law firms is rapidly changing across North America. Firms are looking to their Talent Acquisition leaders for answers, with leading firms seeing high churn in mid-level roles and fierce competition in the lateral hiring market. To meet hiring expectations both now and in the future, recruitment teams need to evolve their behaviors and skillsets to succeed or risk becoming obsolete.

Talent Acquisition (TA) is the evolution of traditional Recruitment skill sets and behaviors to skill sets and behaviors more relevant to the task of hiring in today’s lateral hiring landscape – turning herders into hunters.

Adopting a proactive legal TA strategy will ensure firms gain a competitive advantage against peers through their hiring strategy’s efficiency, adding to the firm’s profitability, building their reputation as an employer of choice, and positioning the team as a highly valued asset to the firm.

High-functioning legal TA teams should be responsible for identifying and acquiring new talent, future resource planning, diversification, building and nurturing talent communities, and employer branding.

Recruiting excellence is built upon operationalizing best practices. Identifying good behaviors and enabling teams to repeat them over and over again effortlessly.

These three behaviors exist in every high-functioning TA team. It will mean a total rethink on the people, resources, and strategy in TA/recruitment for some law firms. In others, it will be an evolution.

Proactive Strategy

Thinking longer-term (yes, we all have short-term targets to hit), the best TA teams in the world understand what they will be hiring for in 12-36 months and then put in place a strategy to execute upon that. Annual reviews and planning meetings are great but typically mean that at least a quarter of the year’s hiring window is lost in the planning.

Micro talent mapping to create an engaged talent community that acts as a live sourcing funnel. However, not one Am Law 200 firm even has a ‘Register your interest Button’ on their careers site. Many have done a great job creating career sites that genuinely capture the firm’s culture but only allow an attorney to apply for an open position. What about all those attorneys that aren’t quite ready to apply yet?

Encouraging every employee, no matter their function, to act as a recruiter sounds simple. However, taking a sample of individuals who do not have direct hiring responsibility in the legal industry, 7/10 replied with ‘that’s not my responsibility.’

Direct Sourcing

Having team members who have a hunter’s skillset rather than a harvester. This one skillset can change a firm’s reliance of 3rd party recruiters in months, not years.

Mature TA organizations have teams of these individuals that identify and acquire talent directly, acting as the firm’s dedicated search firm. Lateral hiring is incredibly well suited to this skillset with a limited number of peer firms and applicable talent.

Those who can build a direct sourcing function internally will stand head and shoulders above their competition in the war for attorney talent.

Better Influence Decision Makers

Changing the dial from a support-minded function to becoming a thought leader and respected opinion on all attorney hiring matters is a prerequisite of a high-functioning TA team. It should come as no surprise the most profitable companies in the world have the highest respect for their talent acquisition teams strategies and thought leadership.

This change is not easy, but by empowering and training TA team members, the dialogue between them and a hiring partner becomes two-way rather than one. With that change in communication comes influence, and the more knowledge a firm can impart on its hiring team, the better placed the TA team will be to advise partners with their hiring decisions.

Individuals in the TA team need to be able and encouraged to create their brands internally.

Conclusion

The first step on the journey is to understand the TA/Recruitment team’s current skillset and whether they can evolve or become obsolete, as a new or different skill set is now required.

No one wants to become the next Blackberry, Alta Vista, or Kodak; still, it happens. Those firms that create a high-functioning TA team with the correct behaviors and skill set will position themselves in an enviable position for the ongoing lateral attorney hiring war, positioning their firms as an employer of choice while creating vast time and cost efficiencies.

Up or Out is a direct introduction platform, bringing Am Law firms and associates wanting to make a lateral move together directly, affording both parties a more efficient hiring experience.