It’s no secret that the competition for well-trained, qualified, professional staff has gotten increasingly fierce. Those of us responsible for hiring know that the market for good, qualified legal secretaries and paralegals/legal assistants is very tight right now and it is often difficult to find the right person for your firm. Retaining good employees may be even more difficult than finding them in the first place. All of us have experienced that sinking feeling when we receive a resignation from one of our staff. That feeling intensifies when we find out that the staff member is joining a law firm down the street because that firm can pay more and provides better benefits.

The initial thoughts going through your head after you receive that resignation include . . .

Not only are we currently dealing with a low unemployment rate in the legal industry that makes hiring qualified staff particularly difficult, we’re dealing with a recruiting game that has changed. The old days of generating a good batch of resumes from an ad in the paper have been replaced by high-tech methods such as resumes that are sent via e-mail, cyber-search firms, Internet recruiting and through employee referrals.

If you are serious about getting the best candidates for the positions in your offices, several different and creative approaches should be taken. First, the Legal Placement Service with the Knoxville Bar Association can be your first point of contact. With a service that is different from the traditional agency, Lisa Barnes at the KBA has worked hard over the years with a number of legal administrators to understand the qualities needed to be a successful professional in a law firm and has assisted in helping many of us hire quality staff. Second, whether you work with Lisa at the KBA, other recruiters or directly with applicants, make sure that they all understand the culture of your law firm and what makes it unique from others so that applicants will want to choose to come work at your firm. Third, current employees can be a great source of hiring leads. National research seems to show that there is a positive correlation to retention of current employees if those employees see themselves as part of the "sales team." Many firms now provide finders fees as a benefit/reward for firm employees who refer an applicant. Not only have the finders fees increased in dollar amounts (in some cases - thousands of dollars) over the years, some firms have gone to the lengths of offering benefits such as airline tickets or Caribbean vacations as rewards for referring qualified applicants who get hired. Additionally, many firms are now offering signing bonuses to applicants as an incentive to lure them to their firms.

From the applicant’s point of view, compensation and benefit expectations of today’s professionals are very different today than in the past. Since the best candidates may only leave their current job and move over to your firm if they know your benefits package exceeds the package at their current firm, it is important to be able to identify not only what each applicant is looking for in a benefits package, but also what tangible and intangible benefits are offered by your firm. Although "money talks" and compensation and standard benefits such as health insurance and a 401(k) are very important to most employees, other more intangible and "quality of life" benefits, such as:

are now often more important considerations when an applicant is making an employment decision.

We are now in an era where it has become critical to become proactive in our hiring and retention methods. We all need to think about what our firm has to offer the next time a resignation comes across our desk. These days, a competitive salary and creative benefits package goes a long way in increasing the odds of hiring a good employee and keeping them!

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