Articles From the Team

For recruitment to work, recruiting client and recruiter need to work in partnership

BCL Legal has just been dis-instructed on a role. Why? Read on...

After trying to recruit directly the organisation accepted our offer of assistance – on a ‘no placement, no fee’ basis.

We got to work immediately with a time line that looked like this:

March

• 1^st: First discussions of the role with the client, search of appropriate lawyers starts immediately
• 2^nd: Example CVs sent to client to try to identify budget/experience required
• 7^th: Particularly appropriate lawyer identified and spoken to about the role
• 9^th: CV sent to client for review
• 12-15^th: Feedback on CV chased
• 16^th: Confirmation that they would like to interview the lawyer that we sent to them
• 26^th: Interview held with the lawyer. (The lawyer had been in another process and had received an offer that day – client informed about this and need for speed).
• 27^th: Positive feedback received from the client with next stage suggested...
• 28^th: Client is chased for 2^nd stage interview time/date.
• 29^th: With no update on the next stage, lawyer accepts the other offer and pulls out of this clients process

In addition, the client didn’t want to agree on seeing any other applicants until the process had run with this individual even though we highlighted the risk of being back to square one if this lawyer didn’t work out.

In letting the client know that the lawyer had pulled out of their process we highlighted the problems that time delays are having.

The client was NOT happy. In no uncertain terms we were told that they are the client and they will not be told by a supplier how to run their process.

At this point it is worth remembering that we are in essence offering our professional experience and time for free. Only if we ALL work together and bring in the right hire will we be paid for our time and effort. So if a process is not working it is surely only right that we highlight the problem and TOGETHER look for a solution. The current set up is not working and at the end of the day we all want the same thing – to bring in a new hire.

I wrote the following to the client: “From our side we can bring clients the right lawyers but if a process doesn't work for the market (it is not about us - it is about the lawyers we are trying to help our clients bring on board) then recruitment becomes nigh on impossible.

We did not write that email to make you not want to work with us - it was actually to help you see the reality of the situation that we are facing. A read of some recent blogs all conveys that the recruitment process is the main factor in success or defeat”.

https://www.bcllegal.com/knowledge-base/from-the-team/month-turned-job-offers https://www.bcllegal.com/knowledge-base/from-the-team/offer-declined-another-warning-slow-recruitment-processes https://www.bcllegal.com/knowledge-base/from-the-team/top-reasons-lawyers-dont-accept-job-offers-no-particular-order https://www.bcllegal.com/knowledge-base/from-the-team/2-updates-linked-highlight-problem-recruiters-recruiting-clients-face-right-now https://www.bcllegal.com/knowledge-base/from-the-team/win-recruitment-war-2

The bottom line is that with everything in life – sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth – especially from a “supplier”!

For more information please contact Mark Levine at BCL Legal.