The impact of a turbulent market on Legal Recruitment
The following article was written by Fiona Severs of Lexington Gray and was first published in Recruitment International in January 2011 and is reproduced with kind permission (http://www.recruitment-international.co.uk)
The impact of a turbulent market on legal recruitment
Legal recruitment is undergoing a period of rapid change as Law firms adapt to turbulent market conditions. Many have seen a recent upturn in demand for their services. This, coupled with a depleted workforce owing to redundancies earlier in the recession, has left some overstretched. Concerns that the bubble may burst in the New Year have resulted in caution about recruiting permanent staff.
For law firms, the client is King and many clients expect an immediate answer to their calls. Fee-earners are target-driven both in financial terms and in terms of hours worked. This, together with fierce internal competition, fuels a macho ‘start early, finish late’ mentality.
Firms know from experience that longer working weeks (70 or 80 hours are not uncommon during peak times) are not sustainable in the long term. Research demonstrates that after eight weeks the costs of working more than 40 hours a week strongly outweigh the advantages. Not only will the employees concerned be less productive and at an increased risk of making errors which could result in a negligence claim but the employees themselves will be tired, angry and burned out.
Lexington Gray, a niche recruitment agency specialising in placing lawyers into fixed-term contract positions, has seen an increase in calls from law firms seeking to relieve the pressure on their current team by hiring lawyers on fixed-term contracts while they assess whether the recent increase in work is sustained into the new year. Firms are understandably hesitant about increasing permanent headcount while a double dip recession is still a possibility. Hiring additional support on fixed-term contracts is an intelligent way of dealing with the challenge.
In the short term, firms with a flexible recruitment strategy are more agile and better able to adapt to rapid changes in market conditions, with less of the risk and commitment associated with hiring permanent staff in an unpredictable market. Better still, firms can ‘buy-in’ skills and experience missing from their existing team. If the market recovers, the employee can be employed permanently- ready to hit the ground running having already been integrated into the business – the ultimate ‘try before you buy’ and much less risky than taking on a previously unknown employee.
Clever HR directors also employ staff on fixed-term contracts to provide cover for maternity leave, secondments, sabbaticals, holidays or sick leave.
In addition, fixed term contracts enable firms to be less rigid in the application of their usual recruitment criteria. The temporary nature of the contract allows firms to employ individuals with a different background, experience or skill set from those usually required from candidates thereby expanding the diversity and experience of the team as a whole – often with very positive results.
Creating a flexible and diverse workforce brings rewards in the longer term too. Studies repeatedly indicate that businesses that maximise flexible working amongst their employees have a competitive advantage.
Experience and vast amounts of data demonstrate that the demographics of the workforce are changing. A large proportion of ‘baby boomers’ will retire in the next few years while fewer graduates with the right critical skills are entering the market to replace them. The War for Talent has been widely discussed. For many firms attracting graduates has become an expensive, highly organised and competitive practice as they seek to attract the kind of candidate that will stay long enough to show a return on their investment.
Female flight is another difficult issue for many firms. The number of women entering the profession each year has exceeded the number of men for some time, yet the proportion of female partners is still running at less than 20%. Firms face a waste of investment in training, a loss of talent and knowledge and recruitment costs every time a lawyer leaves – in addition, there is real pressure from clients to demonstrate genuine diversity at all levels of the firm. Some clients cease to instruct firms that fail to comply.
Organisations understand that to succeed they need to compete to recruit from a diminishing pool of talent and fight to hang on to the talent already within their organisation. Many firms accept that becoming an employer of choice is critical to their success. Offering employees flexible working policies that allow staff to meet demands on their time from both work and home may be the key to success in this area.
Recent research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers indicated that 47% of UK employees rated flexible working as the most prized benefit while performance related bonuses gained only 19% of the vote and came in second.
A report produced by the Family Friendly Working Hours Taskforce (established in November 2009 by the Secretary for State for the Department for Work and Pensions) stated that flexible working had the following business benefits:
- 65% of employers said it had a positive effect on retention of staff thus saving on recruitment, induction and training costs;
- a positive effect on recruitment for 42% of employers. Other research has indicated that this is more marked when recruiting Generation Y for whom flexible work is of even greater importance – research conducted by Talentsmoothie indicated that 85 per cent of Generation Y wanted to spend 30% to 70% of their time working from home and more than half wanted a flexible working arrangement;
- 58% of SME’s reported improvements in productivity; and
- 70% of employers noted some or significant improvement in employee relations.
Additional cost savings and environmental benefits result from flexible working that allow employees to work from home. These include reductions in energy and water usage, in carbon emissions and in traffic congestion. In addition, organisations adopting such working practices may have a better guarantee of 'business as usual' during major disruptive incidents (like tube strikes or security alerts) than those dependent on an office base.
All of which explains why legal recruitment is undergoing a shift as firms seek to enhance that all important bottom line whatever the economic climate.
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