4 New Ways to Improve Your Odds of Hiring A+ Employees
Davina Frederick: Hi, and
welcome to the wealthy woman
lawyer podcast. This is Davina
Frederick. And I'm so glad
you're here today. And I hope
you really benefit from what I'm
going to share with you in
today's podcast. I know a lot of
you right now, if you're running
a solo practice, you are
probably trying to grow that
practice. And that includes
hiring associated attorneys and
paralegals and really a plus
performers to help you in your
business because we don't want
mediocre employees just like we
don't want mediocre clients. We
want those great clients that we
get to serve, and help and we
want those really great team
members to help us get the job
done. Because how else are we
going to free ourselves up from
working 24/7 365 days a year
unless we have a wonderful team.
So today, I'm going to share
with you three strategies for
improving your odds of hiring
those eight plus performers. I
know it's been really difficult
right now, there's been the
great resignation, the great
reshuffle the great, whatever
you want to call it, I do hope
and believe that that's actually
going to sort of shift for
employers a little bit. In the
coming months, I have my fingers
crossed for everyone that that
is going to be the case. But I
want to help you develop a new
way of thinking. So I'm going to
share with you kind of the old
way and then the new way, when
it comes to really trying to
attract those A plus performers
for and stand out from the
crowd, right. So the number one
strategy, I want to talk to you
about the old way, the old way
is making your ad so complex,
and requiring everyone to jump
through a lot of hoops just to
apply for the position. Now when
when it was an employers market,
and we were getting hundreds of
resumes, for every job posting
we put out there, requiring
people to jump through a lot of
hoops really helped eliminate a
lot of folks that we knew just
wouldn't fit in with our
culture. Because we are, you
know, law firms require very
detail oriented people who work
at a high standard, right. And
so we oftentimes you would see
ads that would have a whole lot
of hoops for people to jump
through. Now it's okay to leave
a couple of things in there. If
you require people to interact
on video a lot. through
litigation and hearings and
meeting with clients, you might
request them to submit
something, a video of
themselves, doing a certain task
or whatever. But what we we
don't want to make it so
complicated, that people are
just put off from the very
beginning. Instead, the new way
is really to use your ad to sell
the awesomeness that it is to
work for your law firm. Why do
you love what you do? Why are
you passionate about the work
that you do? Who do you get to
serve? Who do you get to help
really tap into that passion
that you have for your work? And
put that in the ad when you're
talking about the firm and why
it's so great to work here.
We tend to focus on benefits, we
think benefits are the thing
that's going to sell people, but
really what you're wanting to do
is tap into that lawyers love
for what they do as a lawyer,
they're trying to find a home
where they can do the job that
they love to do. So do they get
to go to court more if they
somebody who wants to develop
their career and interact with
clients more or go to court
work, handle their own cases and
really get to develop those case
themes and strategies. Most
associates working for large law
firms, they're not the ones that
get to take all the glory and
interact with the clients.
They're the ones in the back
room doing the groundwork,
right. And so really highlight
that if you have a small firm,
they're gonna get an opportunity
to to meet the clients work with
the clients really help
strategize, and also they're
going to enjoy mentoring from a
seasoned professional. You know,
if that's something that you do
in your firm, be sure to talk
about that. Talk about what it
is that you love doing about
this work and what you think
they'll love about it, too. And
take that opportunity to sell.
Recently, I was working with a
client on this very thing she
was trying to find people that
are were a right fit for her law
firm. And she is very passionate
about the work that she does.
She believes it makes a huge
difference. Well, when she first
put out her ad it she didn't
attract very many people and she
attracted the wrong people,
people who she really wasn't
looking for. And when I took a
look at her ad, I found that it
was very repelling that it was
actually going to repel a lot of
people from hiring and
discourage a lot of you from
hiring. Because she was she was
going on her last experience. As
with hiring, and telling people,
you know, I don't want this and
you're going to need to be this
and you're going to need to be
that work, Aaron, I'm, I don't
want this. And I know she was,
you know, she still needs to
have those needs met. But in the
way the ad was written, I told
her, I said, I wouldn't apply
for that ad because I felt it
was so sort of off putting, and
she could get this get a better
result, if she switched it
around. And instead of focus,
focusing on what you need to be
focusing on what the law firm
believes, so what our philosophy
is, we believe in working with
really great clients, and
helping them you know, with get
great, terrific results. And we
believe in, in building a strong
team, and having a positive
attitude and all that we do. So
you see, that's much different
than saying you need to not have
a bad attitude, and you need to,
you know, whatever it is, right.
So it's really about shifting
your perspective, and making it
enticing. Alright, number two,
the third strategy is I actually
have four strategies. Sorry, I
said three strategies, but
actually four strategies. The
second strategy is to narrow
down who the old way is to
narrow down who can apply based
on what you think you can
afford. So this shows up in,
okay, this is the range, the
range that I can afford to pay.
So I better only see those
attorneys with zero to two years
experience, because I really
can't afford to pay what I
think, well, you know, more
experienced attorneys will want
I recommend a new way. And the
new way is is that you don't
focus on the years of experience
or the salary range. So don't
put that in your ad, I'm looking
for X years of experience. And
here's the salary range, right,
because you're immediately going
to eliminate a lot of people.
There have been studies that
show that men, if they remotely
have any interest in a job or
feel like they can remotely be
qualified or even if they don't
feel like they can 100%
qualified, they will apply for a
job. But women will look for
reasons to eliminate themselves
from applying for certain jobs.
If women don't meet the
criteria, exactly, they will not
apply for the job. And I don't
know why a lot of women do this.
But there have been studies on
it over and over again, I have
shown this to be true. So what
you want to do is not give
people reasons to self
eliminate, open yourself up to
all kinds of attorneys in your
field applying. Because you
might be surprised how many
experienced attorneys will work
within your budget at salary
range. And but that's something
you discuss at the negotiation
table. This is an opportunity
just for you to see how they
negotiate because it's an
important skill for attorneys.
And really, you want to fit what
you pay people based on what
they bring to the table. And you
may be able to get where you
meet their needs through
bonusing on building collected
hours, right. So there are all
kinds of trade offs that you may
be able to negotiate to get the
right person with the right
experience.
I recently had a client who she
had advertised for an attorney
and really just left herself
open to the possibility of who
might walk into the door even
though she didn't have a huge
budget for it. So she wound up
attracting up a person who had
25 years experience as a
litigator way more experienced
than she even had. And she has
quite a couple decades of
experience, but not quite as
much as he had. And she was
thinking she was going to have
to hire somebody with two or
three years experience. Based on
what she felt like she could
afford. As it turned out, she
got this really terrific
litigator and they were able to
negotiate an arrangement that
worked well for them. So you
don't put yourself in other
people's pockets. Don't put
yourself in other people's heads
and try to guess what it is that
they want or don't want. Just be
open to the possibilities. Don't
close yourself off to all that
is possible by letting your own
limiting beliefs creep into your
ad. Okay, So strategy number
three, the old way is to have
them send send their resumes to
you and have you you know, you
call them to schedule an
appointment, or you might have
your secretary or administrative
assistant call them to schedule
an appointment. The new way is I
want to take as much work off of
you as possible because one of
the things that is very
intimidating about hiring is
thinking about how much work is
involved and that's because we
are still trying to do
everything ourselves. So the new
way is to sign assign another
person on your team to handle
collecting the resumes,
narrowing down the prospects
based on a pre preset criteria,
and then having them schedule
and facilitate a 10 minute pre
screening interview with those
best prospects now they can
narrow down and eliminate,
because there will be people who
will not show up for the phone
call, there will be people who
can't communicate over the
phone. And so you'll want to
eliminate them, especially if a
part of their job is to be on
the phone. And you only want to
interview the last few people
standing those people who have
been weeded out by your your
very thoughtful and intuitive
team members, right?
Get your team members feedback,
get them to tell you what they
liked and did not like about a
person, be sure to set up some
reset criteria. So they can
screen those resumes, and just
immediately eliminate some of
them. That is the fastest way to
narrow this down without you
being the one to have to do all
of this. And also provide a lot
of insight because you know, you
have may have a really wonderful
paralegal who's been with you
for a while. And you know, this
new team member is going to need
to work with this paralegal. So
you want to involve this
paralegal and helping to select
that person. Because obviously,
they're if they've been with you
for a while they're an employee
that you like. And so their
opinion will be important. This
is a new way to handle this
without making it so burdensome
on you. And if you don't have
anybody on your team yet, to
help you do this, you can also
perhaps hire someone, an HR
professional who can help you
with the screening, you might
find somebody on Upwork. If you
look for a virtual assistant who
has an HR background, you may be
able to hire them to help with
some of this pre screening work.
Alright, my fourth strategy, I
didn't say I had three, but I
actually have four is to the old
way is to go with your gut on
hiring. Well, you know, I'm just
gonna trust my gut on this. And
if you have nobody else, you
know, what do you have to go
for? I actually really dislike
the pre screening process so
much that I actually hired a
colleague to help me pre screen
and part of the reason why is
because I am one of those
relationship oriented people and
I can find something to like
about most people. And I'm drawn
to people who are a lot like me.
So even though I might need
somebody on my team who balances
out my weaknesses, I'll be drawn
to somebody who shares my
strengths. So I used a
colleague, who is an HR
professional, and he's coached
people for many years on hiring,
to help me do some pre screening
to find people who were really a
fit for what I was looking for,
as opposed to going with my gut,
because my gut is just not as
trustworthy as I would like for
it to be. But here's the new
way. The new way is also in
addition to getting your team
members opinions, and or maybe
getting somebody else to help
you screen is to test test test,
you want to bring out those
personality test those tests
that will help you really get a
good handle on the the
personality of the person and
determine if they're a good fit,
not only for the particular job
you're hiring for but also for
your firm culture, and if
they'll fit in with the other
team members. So I like Colby, K
O L D E as a test to help you
see where people fall into the
team. But my favorite tool is
Clifton Strengths. I love Chris
Clifton Strengths because it
helps you determine which of
four categories people fall into
in terms of strength, are they
strategic thinkers? Are they
relationship oriented people?
Are they executors? Are they
predominantly influencers?
Because then you can you can
take that test yourself and see
what your strengths are and what
your weaknesses are and you can
hire accordingly. It also tests
about 34 different
characteristics. My HR colleague
loves disc she's been using it
for years. So that's very
popular. And recently I learned
about Omnia and Wonderlic. Two
more out there Omnium Wonderlic,
that both have different
characteristics that might help
you. So check out, check out the
different personality profile
options that are available and
decide which one is going to
work best for you and your team
and helping you to really get
those shortlisted candidates. So
you're only going to have those
shortlisted candidates at two or
three, right at the top that
you're considering to take these
tests is well worth the nominal
investment to help you make sure
that you're making a good hire.
I have a client who uses Omnia
and they actually help her keep
track of her team members. And
so they will evaluate a
candidate in the context of her
law firm and she says in very
blame when they have gone
against the Omnia
recommendation. And they've
hired somebody anyway that Omnia
said they should not hire Omnia
has been right 100% of the time,
and they usually wound up losing
them a few months later. So
those resources can really help
you to identify who's going to
be the best fit for your team.
Alright, I
hope you've enjoyed today's
episode, where I've shared with
you some different strategies to
help you with hiring. I know
it's an issue for people right
now. So we really want to get
good at this. And the key is to
be systematic, set up a system
and get your team to help you
implement that system on hiring.
I do offer a 12 step hiring
guide, where I take you through
all the steps that I recommend
for your hiring process. If
that's something that you would
like reach out to me, you can
send me a DM on Instagram at
wealthy woman lawyer and let me
know that you would like a copy
of that I'm happy to send it to
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today. I hope you've gained a
lot from this podcast episode.
