It’s always a major consideration to bring other people or companies into your recruitment process, especially if you haven’t worked with them before. However, if you find yourself short on time, resources, or even the quality of candidates, deciding to work with a legal recruiter or headhunter might just be your best option.
Specialist dedicated legal recruitment agencies, such as ours, have a wealth of potential candidates at their fingertips and spend time scouring the market to find you the top available candidates who suit the role. They also have the ability to find passive candidates who might not have considered moving, but who match the brief.
Law recruitment is also renowned for those specialist yet awkward roles that can be hard to fill, for example, Partners operating in a niche practice area or those moving in-house, which lends itself to involving a third party to help find the perfect hire.
With our thorough process, you can be assured that we consult and communicate with you every step of the way, and use our knowledge to source top candidates each time.
So how do we do it?
Pre-search phase
- Before we even begin the search process, we will meet with you and the necessary team to discuss the brief and explore your requirements and objectives. We will explore the nature of the role, its level of urgency and your budget.
- It is crucial that we are provided with a full picture of the role: the experience required, general responsibilities, company culture, remuneration and any benefits, progression opportunities and anything else relevant to the position.
- We then provisionally advise you on the current state of the market before refining the brief accordingly.
- Together, we then decide which search process would be best and which consultant would be best matched to the brief.
Search phase – 2-3 weeks
- Once we have agreed on exactly your requirements, our research team will search our existing database as well as search for new, viable candidates. At the end of this process, we will produce a long list of potential targets.
- If appropriate, we will also advertise the role on our LinkedIn page and other identified channels to build interest.
- In conjunction with you, our client, we will review this list and agree on a shorter and highly targeted list of people to call.
Deliver phase – 4-12 weeks
- We call every target and/or applicant on the shortlist and arrange to meet them personally. This is an important part of the process as it allows us to screen the candidates to ensure that they are the right fit for the role. We will find out their experience and relevant background, why they are looking to make a move, salary and benefits expectations, their notice period and anything else relevant to their job search.
- At this stage, we can also guarantee that the candidate is expertly briefed on the organisation and the opportunities and benefits the role offers.
- If the candidate(s) identified like the sound of the role, and you like the profile of the candidate(s), we will then arrange an appropriate time for a first interview.
- We also work closely with you and the shortlisted candidate(s) to manage needs and expectations ensuring any interview is as productive as possible. Of course, a successful interview relies on chemistry, and we carefully prepare each candidate for the meeting, but it’s surprising how many fall apart because of poor planning or miscommunication of information before the event itself.
- Following the interview, we speak to you and the candidate(s) to find out how it went and receive feedback. If it went well, we work together with you both to progress to the next step.
- In the closing stages of the search, before you are ready to make an offer, we are here to be as proactive or invisible as required. We can assist with advice on compensation, market rates, and how to best distinguish the opportunity from any competition.
- Should the next and final stages go well, and you are ready to make an offer to a candidate, we will share all the relevant information to enable to the candidate to make a fully informed decision.
- With any luck, both sides are satisfied with the offer and agreement. Where necessary, we can help to facilitate any negotiation to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
