Could your law firm’s online presence be making recruitment harder?
For many law firms, attracting new clients isn’t necessarily the biggest challenge.
The work is there. The clients are there. The bigger challenge can be finding and keeping the right people to deliver it.
Recruitment and retention have become significant issues across the legal profession. Recent Law Society research found that 35% of mid-sized firms said hiring had become more challenging than in previous years, while recruitment and retention pressures continue to feature prominently among the concerns facing practices.
So, if finding the right solicitor, paralegal, legal secretary or trainee is proving difficult, perhaps it’s time to look beyond the traditional recruitment advert.
Because before your next employee applies to work for you, there’s a good chance they’ll look you up online.
And what they find matters.
Put yourself in the candidate’s position
Imagine you’re an experienced solicitor considering your next career move.
You’ve seen vacancies at three different firms offering broadly comparable positions and salaries.
Before deciding where to apply, you do what most of us now do when making an important decision: you start researching online.
You visit each firm’s website.
You look at LinkedIn.
You might check Facebook or Instagram.
One firm’s website tells you plenty about conveyancing, family law and wills but almost nothing about its people or what it’s like to work there.
Its LinkedIn page was last updated several weeks ago and consists mainly of links to legal articles.
Another firm’s social media is updated regularly, but every post is aimed at winning new clients.
Then you find the third firm.
You meet the team through their social content. You see people being promoted and trainees qualifying. There are photographs and short videos from the office. Employees talk about their careers. The firm celebrates achievements, community involvement and team events.
You can see that they offer flexible working. You understand their approach to career development and mentoring.
Most importantly, you begin to get a feel for the people and culture behind the name above the door.
Which firm would you be most interested in talking to?
What does your online presence say about you as an employer?
Traditionally, law firm marketing has focused on attracting clients. That’s still important, but potential employees are another audience that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Candidates increasingly look beyond salary when considering an employer. Flexibility, wellbeing, workplace culture, learning opportunities and clear career progression can all influence someone’s decision.
The challenge is that many firms offer exactly these things but do very little to communicate them.
That’s where your online presence can make a difference.
Take a look through your last ten social media posts. How much would a potential employee actually learn about your firm?
Would they meet your people, see employees progressing in their careers or get a sense of your culture? Would they see promotions, qualifications and achievements being celebrated?
Most importantly, would your content give them a reason to think: “I’d like to work there”?
If not, your social media may be doing a good job of speaking to potential clients while overlooking potential employees.
Don’t wait until you have a vacancy
One of the biggest mistakes businesses can make is only talking about recruitment when they desperately need someone.
A vacancy appears on the website.
A graphic goes onto LinkedIn.
“We’re hiring!”
Then everyone waits for applications.
But your reputation as an employer shouldn’t begin the day the vacancy goes live. It should already exist.
Regular social content can gradually tell the story of what it’s like to work at your firm. That could mean introducing your team, celebrating promotions and qualifications, following the journeys of trainees and newly qualified solicitors or talking about mentoring and career progression.
It could also mean showcasing your community involvement, recognising long service, sharing appropriate behind-the-scenes content or giving employees the opportunity to talk about their experiences with the firm.
This doesn’t mean turning a professional legal practice into an entertainment channel.
Quite the opposite.
The objective is to maintain the credibility and professionalism expected of a law firm while allowing potential employees to see some of the personality, people and culture behind it.
Organic social is only the beginning
Consistent social media content can help establish your employer brand over time. But when there’s a specific position to fill, you can take things further.
Instead of simply advertising a vacancy, think about creating a recruitment marketing campaign.
Imagine, for example, that you’re looking for a Private Client Solicitor.
Your organic social content could introduce the Private Client team, show the office and working environment, explain what makes the department successful and give existing employees an opportunity to talk about their experience with the firm.
You could highlight career progression, flexibility, mentoring and benefits, giving potential candidates a much better understanding of the opportunity than a standard vacancy graphic ever could.
Paid social advertising can then extend that message beyond the people who already follow your firm.
A targeted campaign can put the opportunity in front of a wider relevant audience, including professionals who aren’t actively searching job boards but might consider the right opportunity if it appeared in front of them.
Then consider where those people go next.
A two-line vacancy hidden somewhere on your website isn’t much of a sales pitch for someone’s next career move.
A strong recruitment page should give candidates a clear picture of the role, the team they’ll be joining, your culture, opportunities for progression, flexible working arrangements and the benefits you offer. It should also make the application process simple and obvious.
Your social content generates interest.
Paid advertising extends your reach.
Your website turns that interest into an application.
The three should work together.
Recruitment marketing can support retention too
There’s another side to this.
The same activity that helps attract potential employees can reinforce your relationship with the people already working for you.
Recognition matters.
When someone qualifies, gets promoted, reaches a milestone or achieves something professionally, recognising that success publicly demonstrates that the firm values its people.
It also provides visible evidence of something candidates are increasingly looking for: real career progression.
Rather than simply claiming on a recruitment page that “we invest in our people”, your content can demonstrate it.
Over time, that helps create a visible employer brand both externally and internally.
Perhaps it’s time to look at marketing differently
If your law firm has plenty of clients, it’s understandable that investing in marketing to generate even more enquiries might not be high on the agenda.
But marketing doesn’t only have to be about winning clients.
It can be about winning talent.
At Crunchy Carrots, we work with businesses across social media, content creation, paid advertising, photography, video and web development.
Bringing these services together allows us to approach recruitment differently, helping businesses communicate why someone should want to work for them, getting that message in front of the right audience and making sure their website and social channels support that message consistently.
So here’s a question worth asking:
If a talented solicitor was considering joining your firm today and spent ten minutes looking at your website and social media, would what they found make them want to apply?
If you’re not sure, perhaps that’s where the conversation should start.
Crunchy Carrots can review your website and current social media presence from the perspective of a potential recruit and identify where your employer brand could be strengthened.
It doesn’t have to start with a large campaign.
Sometimes it starts with understanding what a potential employee sees when they search for your firm.
Speak to the Crunchy Carrots team about a recruitment marketing review.