Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / 4 New Ways to Improve Your Odds of Hiring A+ Employees

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4 New Ways to Improve Your Odds of Hiring A+ Employees · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:06
  Davina Frederick: Hi, and welcome to the wealthy woman
• 0:07
  lawyer podcast. This is Davina Frederick. And I'm so glad
• 0:11
  you're here today. And I hope you really benefit from what I'm
• 0:14
  going to share with you in today's podcast. I know a lot of
• 0:19
  you right now, if you're running a solo practice, you are
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  probably trying to grow that practice. And that includes
• 0:26
  hiring associated attorneys and paralegals and really a plus
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  performers to help you in your business because we don't want
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  mediocre employees just like we don't want mediocre clients. We
• 0:42
  want those great clients that we get to serve, and help and we
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  want those really great team members to help us get the job
• 0:48
  done. Because how else are we going to free ourselves up from
• 0:53
  working 24/7 365 days a year unless we have a wonderful team.
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  So today, I'm going to share with you three strategies for
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  improving your odds of hiring those eight plus performers. I
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  know it's been really difficult right now, there's been the
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  great resignation, the great reshuffle the great, whatever
• 1:12
  you want to call it, I do hope and believe that that's actually
• 1:16
  going to sort of shift for employers a little bit. In the
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  coming months, I have my fingers crossed for everyone that that
• 1:25
  is going to be the case. But I want to help you develop a new
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  way of thinking. So I'm going to share with you kind of the old
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  way and then the new way, when it comes to really trying to
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  attract those A plus performers for and stand out from the
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  crowd, right. So the number one strategy, I want to talk to you
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  about the old way, the old way is making your ad so complex,
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  and requiring everyone to jump through a lot of hoops just to
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  apply for the position. Now when when it was an employers market,
• 1:59
  and we were getting hundreds of resumes, for every job posting
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  we put out there, requiring people to jump through a lot of
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  hoops really helped eliminate a lot of folks that we knew just
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  wouldn't fit in with our culture. Because we are, you
• 2:14
  know, law firms require very detail oriented people who work
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  at a high standard, right. And so we oftentimes you would see
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  ads that would have a whole lot of hoops for people to jump
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  through. Now it's okay to leave a couple of things in there. If
• 2:27
  you require people to interact on video a lot. through
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  litigation and hearings and meeting with clients, you might
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  request them to submit something, a video of
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  themselves, doing a certain task or whatever. But what we we
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  don't want to make it so complicated, that people are
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  just put off from the very beginning. Instead, the new way
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  is really to use your ad to sell the awesomeness that it is to
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  work for your law firm. Why do you love what you do? Why are
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  you passionate about the work that you do? Who do you get to
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  serve? Who do you get to help really tap into that passion
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  that you have for your work? And put that in the ad when you're
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  talking about the firm and why it's so great to work here.
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  We tend to focus on benefits, we think benefits are the thing
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  that's going to sell people, but really what you're wanting to do
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  is tap into that lawyers love for what they do as a lawyer,
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  they're trying to find a home where they can do the job that
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  they love to do. So do they get to go to court more if they
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  somebody who wants to develop their career and interact with
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  clients more or go to court work, handle their own cases and
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  really get to develop those case themes and strategies. Most
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  associates working for large law firms, they're not the ones that
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  get to take all the glory and interact with the clients.
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  They're the ones in the back room doing the groundwork,
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  right. And so really highlight that if you have a small firm,
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  they're gonna get an opportunity to to meet the clients work with
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  the clients really help strategize, and also they're
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  going to enjoy mentoring from a seasoned professional. You know,
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  if that's something that you do in your firm, be sure to talk
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  about that. Talk about what it is that you love doing about
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  this work and what you think they'll love about it, too. And
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  take that opportunity to sell. Recently, I was working with a
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  client on this very thing she was trying to find people that
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  are were a right fit for her law firm. And she is very passionate
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  about the work that she does. She believes it makes a huge
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  difference. Well, when she first put out her ad it she didn't
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  attract very many people and she attracted the wrong people,
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  people who she really wasn't looking for. And when I took a
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  look at her ad, I found that it was very repelling that it was
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  actually going to repel a lot of people from hiring and
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  discourage a lot of you from hiring. Because she was she was
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  going on her last experience. As with hiring, and telling people,
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  you know, I don't want this and you're going to need to be this
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  and you're going to need to be that work, Aaron, I'm, I don't
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  want this. And I know she was, you know, she still needs to
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  have those needs met. But in the way the ad was written, I told
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  her, I said, I wouldn't apply for that ad because I felt it
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  was so sort of off putting, and she could get this get a better
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  result, if she switched it around. And instead of focus,
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  focusing on what you need to be focusing on what the law firm
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  believes, so what our philosophy is, we believe in working with
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  really great clients, and helping them you know, with get
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  great, terrific results. And we believe in, in building a strong
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  team, and having a positive attitude and all that we do. So
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  you see, that's much different than saying you need to not have
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  a bad attitude, and you need to, you know, whatever it is, right.
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  So it's really about shifting your perspective, and making it
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  enticing. Alright, number two, the third strategy is I actually
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  have four strategies. Sorry, I said three strategies, but
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  actually four strategies. The second strategy is to narrow
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  down who the old way is to narrow down who can apply based
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  on what you think you can afford. So this shows up in,
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  okay, this is the range, the range that I can afford to pay.
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  So I better only see those attorneys with zero to two years
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  experience, because I really can't afford to pay what I
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  think, well, you know, more experienced attorneys will want
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  I recommend a new way. And the new way is is that you don't
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  focus on the years of experience or the salary range. So don't
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  put that in your ad, I'm looking for X years of experience. And
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  here's the salary range, right, because you're immediately going
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  to eliminate a lot of people. There have been studies that
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  show that men, if they remotely have any interest in a job or
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  feel like they can remotely be qualified or even if they don't
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  feel like they can 100% qualified, they will apply for a
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  job. But women will look for reasons to eliminate themselves
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  from applying for certain jobs. If women don't meet the
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  criteria, exactly, they will not apply for the job. And I don't
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  know why a lot of women do this. But there have been studies on
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  it over and over again, I have shown this to be true. So what
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  you want to do is not give people reasons to self
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  eliminate, open yourself up to all kinds of attorneys in your
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  field applying. Because you might be surprised how many
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  experienced attorneys will work within your budget at salary
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  range. And but that's something you discuss at the negotiation
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  table. This is an opportunity just for you to see how they
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  negotiate because it's an important skill for attorneys.
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  And really, you want to fit what you pay people based on what
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  they bring to the table. And you may be able to get where you
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  meet their needs through bonusing on building collected
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  hours, right. So there are all kinds of trade offs that you may
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  be able to negotiate to get the right person with the right
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  experience.
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  I recently had a client who she had advertised for an attorney
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  and really just left herself open to the possibility of who
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  might walk into the door even though she didn't have a huge
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  budget for it. So she wound up attracting up a person who had
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  25 years experience as a litigator way more experienced
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  than she even had. And she has quite a couple decades of
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  experience, but not quite as much as he had. And she was
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  thinking she was going to have to hire somebody with two or
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  three years experience. Based on what she felt like she could
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  afford. As it turned out, she got this really terrific
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  litigator and they were able to negotiate an arrangement that
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  worked well for them. So you don't put yourself in other
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  people's pockets. Don't put yourself in other people's heads
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  and try to guess what it is that they want or don't want. Just be
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  open to the possibilities. Don't close yourself off to all that
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  is possible by letting your own limiting beliefs creep into your
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  ad. Okay, So strategy number three, the old way is to have
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  them send send their resumes to you and have you you know, you
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  call them to schedule an appointment, or you might have
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  your secretary or administrative assistant call them to schedule
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  an appointment. The new way is I want to take as much work off of
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  you as possible because one of the things that is very
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  intimidating about hiring is thinking about how much work is
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  involved and that's because we are still trying to do
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  everything ourselves. So the new way is to sign assign another
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  person on your team to handle collecting the resumes,
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  narrowing down the prospects based on a pre preset criteria,
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  and then having them schedule and facilitate a 10 minute pre
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  screening interview with those best prospects now they can
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  narrow down and eliminate, because there will be people who
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  will not show up for the phone call, there will be people who
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  can't communicate over the phone. And so you'll want to
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  eliminate them, especially if a part of their job is to be on
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  the phone. And you only want to interview the last few people
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  standing those people who have been weeded out by your your
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  very thoughtful and intuitive team members, right?
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  Get your team members feedback, get them to tell you what they
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  liked and did not like about a person, be sure to set up some
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  reset criteria. So they can screen those resumes, and just
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  immediately eliminate some of them. That is the fastest way to
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  narrow this down without you being the one to have to do all
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  of this. And also provide a lot of insight because you know, you
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  have may have a really wonderful paralegal who's been with you
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  for a while. And you know, this new team member is going to need
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  to work with this paralegal. So you want to involve this
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  paralegal and helping to select that person. Because obviously,
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  they're if they've been with you for a while they're an employee
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  that you like. And so their opinion will be important. This
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  is a new way to handle this without making it so burdensome
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  on you. And if you don't have anybody on your team yet, to
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  help you do this, you can also perhaps hire someone, an HR
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  professional who can help you with the screening, you might
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  find somebody on Upwork. If you look for a virtual assistant who
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  has an HR background, you may be able to hire them to help with
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  some of this pre screening work. Alright, my fourth strategy, I
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  didn't say I had three, but I actually have four is to the old
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  way is to go with your gut on hiring. Well, you know, I'm just
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  gonna trust my gut on this. And if you have nobody else, you
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  know, what do you have to go for? I actually really dislike
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  the pre screening process so much that I actually hired a
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  colleague to help me pre screen and part of the reason why is
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  because I am one of those relationship oriented people and
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  I can find something to like about most people. And I'm drawn
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  to people who are a lot like me. So even though I might need
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  somebody on my team who balances out my weaknesses, I'll be drawn
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  to somebody who shares my strengths. So I used a
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  colleague, who is an HR professional, and he's coached
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  people for many years on hiring, to help me do some pre screening
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  to find people who were really a fit for what I was looking for,
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  as opposed to going with my gut, because my gut is just not as
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  trustworthy as I would like for it to be. But here's the new
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  way. The new way is also in addition to getting your team
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  members opinions, and or maybe getting somebody else to help
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  you screen is to test test test, you want to bring out those
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  personality test those tests that will help you really get a
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  good handle on the the personality of the person and
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  determine if they're a good fit, not only for the particular job
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  you're hiring for but also for your firm culture, and if
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  they'll fit in with the other team members. So I like Colby, K
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  O L D E as a test to help you see where people fall into the
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  team. But my favorite tool is Clifton Strengths. I love Chris
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  Clifton Strengths because it helps you determine which of
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  four categories people fall into in terms of strength, are they
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  strategic thinkers? Are they relationship oriented people?
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  Are they executors? Are they predominantly influencers?
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  Because then you can you can take that test yourself and see
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  what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are and you can
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  hire accordingly. It also tests about 34 different
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  characteristics. My HR colleague loves disc she's been using it
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  for years. So that's very popular. And recently I learned
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  about Omnia and Wonderlic. Two more out there Omnium Wonderlic,
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  that both have different characteristics that might help
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  you. So check out, check out the different personality profile
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  options that are available and decide which one is going to
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  work best for you and your team and helping you to really get
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  those shortlisted candidates. So you're only going to have those
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  shortlisted candidates at two or three, right at the top that
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  you're considering to take these tests is well worth the nominal
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  investment to help you make sure that you're making a good hire.
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  I have a client who uses Omnia and they actually help her keep
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  track of her team members. And so they will evaluate a
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  candidate in the context of her law firm and she says in very
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  blame when they have gone against the Omnia
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  recommendation. And they've hired somebody anyway that Omnia
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  said they should not hire Omnia has been right 100% of the time,
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  and they usually wound up losing them a few months later. So
• 15:12
  those resources can really help you to identify who's going to
• 15:17
  be the best fit for your team. Alright, I
• 15:20
  hope you've enjoyed today's episode, where I've shared with
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  you some different strategies to help you with hiring. I know
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  it's an issue for people right now. So we really want to get
• 15:29
  good at this. And the key is to be systematic, set up a system
• 15:35
  and get your team to help you implement that system on hiring.
• 15:39
  I do offer a 12 step hiring guide, where I take you through
• 15:44
  all the steps that I recommend for your hiring process. If
• 15:48
  that's something that you would like reach out to me, you can
• 15:53
  send me a DM on Instagram at wealthy woman lawyer and let me
• 15:57
  know that you would like a copy of that I'm happy to send it to
• 16:00
  you. Also check out the wealthy woman lawyer league that is one
• 16:04
  of the bonuses in the league. If you join us in the league,
• 16:06
  you're gonna get help not only with hiring, but with training
• 16:09
  systems with firing systems. With setting up systems in your
• 16:15
  business. All of that is we takes place in the wealthy woman
• 16:20
  lawyer League, where we not only provide you with all you know
• 16:25
  hundreds of sheets, see cheat sheets and resources and guide,
• 16:28
  but also we meet weekly as a group for a weekly mastermind to
• 16:33
  help you really laser coach you on solving your particular
• 16:37
  problems. So go check out the league at WWW dot wealthy woman
• 16:41
  lawyer.com/league And be sure to give us a like or a thumbs up if
• 16:49
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• 16:51
  Instagram. Be sure to let us know in the comments. Thank you
• 16:56
  so much for being here with me today. I hope you've gained a
• 17:00
  lot from this podcast episode.