Articles From the Team
Why should you work with a recruiter exclusively? What are the benefits to you?
Caution: Vested interest to declare, I`m a legal recruiter!
I`m going to tell you my thought process when recruiting in different situations and so by the end of this short blog you can determine what version of, recruiter/me, you would prefer to work with.
The simple path to legal recruitment looks like this: job vacancy; get recruiters involved; interview lawyers; make offer; fill vacancy. At least that is what it would look like in a perfect world. However this is an imperfect legal market and finding the right lawyer is hard.
Situation 1: You go out and instruct 4 recruiters on the job and offer them a dreadful fee percentage. Your level of commitment from the recruiter will be determined by how busy they are, in this market they are busy spending most of their days finding good lawyers. From your perspective you probably see this as the fittest recruiter dog striving along the whole journey with every sinew straining to be Number 1; eventually the most competitive recruiter brings you the golden goose.
Recruiter view: This is not the case, in this scenario I am likely to have a burst of activity at the beginning to find the most likely person on my books, if they don’t work out for whatever reason (and they rarely do) then my interest wanes significantly and I move on to work with businesses who are offering more of a partnership in relationship terms. I'm highly likely to have only committed a small portion of time to your cause.
Situation 2: You instruct me and only me on the role. You tell me this and give me a window to operate in an exclusive environment. A couple of days later a random recruiter sends in a CV you like the look of and you decide to interview them. During the course of a conversation with me or between a lawyer and I, this information comes out.
Recruiter view: I feel so betrayed, this is like the time I was walking up my parent’s drive with a friend and the household dog ran to the friend first. I`m distraught, how could you pooch? From now on you are not even getting the leftovers from other recruitment efforts.
Situation 3: You instruct me and only me on the role. You tell me this and give me a window to operate in an exclusive environment. A random recruiter sends in a CV, you tell me about it and hand the lawyer over to me.
Recruiter view: I feel under pressure and am sweating day and night to find you the perfect lawyer, you`ve put so much faith into me that I can’t let you down now. I feel so responsible for the whole future of your business; this has become my problem alone.
Summary
Recruiting lawyers is not a game of speed; it is a game of quality and covering as many available options as possible. I`m reminded of the tale about the Old and Young Bull spotting a herd of cows from the brow of a hill…
Exclusivity allows me to do a thorough job, networks, communities, social media, friends of friends and even the old man with a dog in the park. I know no limits on my quest to find you the best lawyer, not the quickest.
Exclusivity allows me to take the time to understand what you are asking for, the better I understand, the better I recruit. I can take the time to fully drill down in to potential lawyers before sending them on to you.
This may seem like a strange one but I can improve your image by highlighting the collaborative and partnership encouraging nature of your business rather than the same lawyer being contacted by 4 different recruiters all touting the same job.
So, in short, which version of me do you prefer? The one that sleeps easy at night or the one that lays awake working through every possibility? The choice is yours.
For more information contact Mike Huggins at BCL Legal.