What to Consider in Your 2022 Hiring Strategy
2022 has barely begun and already law firms are finding that attracting and retaining talent is going to be challenging this year. Over the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, many lawyers began to re-evaluate their priorities and seek out a better work-life balance as various restrictions and regulations brought with them an increased demand for legal services. Many who had the ability to do so retired early, while others left jobs behind for something that better aligned with their values (and some even did so for a lower rate of pay.)
We expect that this year, the demand for the legal profession is going to remain high. And with an abundance of open positions and seemingly not enough candidates to fill them, employers are going to have to get more strategic than ever if they wish to find and hire the right people. The following are a few tactics you should consider working into your 2022 hiring strategy.
1. Develop your brand as an employer.
Let’s begin by considering what it is that you as an employer have that would actually make people want to work for you. Hint: it is something more than just a solid paycheck and employee perks.
Some of the most successful companies and firms recruit talent by sharing their vision of what their life will be like working for them. What is it like to be part of your team? What purpose or mission is your firm working toward that people would want to be a part of?
To develop your employer brand, you may need to engage the help of your marketing department, but building your brand is one of the most significant things you can do to attract top talent.
This is especially helpful in attracting passive candidates. Since these candidates are not necessarily looking to change employers immediately, you need a long-term marketing strategy to make yourself known as a great employer. Because one day, these candidates will be looking for work – and when they do, they will think of you.
2. Make data-driven decisions.
There are a lot of different strategies employers can use to recruit candidates and some strategies will work better for some employers. For this reason, it is important to track your analytics (or to work with a recruitment agency that tracks them) to see what works best for your firm or company. This will allow you to assess each strategy and continue to make better decisions when future positions open up.
Among the metrics that you should track are:
- The number of applications.
- Percentage of qualified candidates.
- Application completion rate.
- The time needed for recruitment.
- Cost of recruitment.
3. Transform your interview process.
Interviews are one of the most important stages of the hiring process because this is where you move past what a candidate looks like on paper and meet them face to face to determine how well they align with your mission and how well they will fit into your company culture.
But for many – both employers and candidates – the interview process is not always a positive one. And if the interview process doesn’t go well, it is less likely that candidates will accept an offer.
So how can you make the interview process a more positive one? Here are a few tips:
- Move initial interviews to online platforms to make them more effective and save time.
- Provide an option for in-person follow-up interviews as this can help strengthen the connection with the candidate.
- Use best practices to remove interviewer bias and boost diversity and inclusion.
- Remember that the best candidates may not always give the best interviews, especially online – make it a more positive experience by sharing some tips and some interview questions ahead of time.
Contact Life After Law today!
Hiring the right candidates in 2022 may prove more challenging than it has in other years, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. For assistance in finding the right candidates for your firm or company, contact us today.
