Articles From the Team
The Use of Personality Profiling in Building a Successful Legal Team
The presence of personality profiling has become prevalent in the recruitment process in recent years. This is due to the realisation that, over and above the functional requirements of a role, e.g. a good billing history and being a competent litigator, personality can impact on the success of an individual, team and in some cases the firm as a whole.
What does this mean for you and your team?
Personality profiling is playing an ever more present role in managing legal careers and teams and is not as daunting as it initially sounds. Personality profiling tools such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) are now commonly used in large organisations and are useful in understanding your individual work preferences and also understanding how others in your team interact, thus enabling maximised performance. In terms of the recruitment process, understanding what type of individual will compliment your pre-existing team can be fundamental to future success… getting the “right” recruit on board can save further recruitment costs, training costs, loss of competitive advantage, damage to image reputation and quite importantly the motivational impact on your pre-existing team.
What do you need to consider when administering personality profiling assessments?
In order to get the most from personality profiling throughout the recruitment process it is important to understand what additional personality preferences would be attached to the role that you are recruiting for. For example, when recruiting for an associate in commercial contracts it would be desirable to source a candidate who is detail focussed and can spend long periods of time alone, focussing on one task. In contrast, when recruiting for a family laywer, a candidate that enjoys spending time with numerous clients and enjoys being around people and dealing with a variety of different issues would be preferable.
Who is qualified to administer psychometric and skills tests and what do the results mean?
Not just anyone can administer and interpret the results of personality assessment tools such as the MBTI. You must be obtain certification of competence and qualifications such as the British Psychological Society Level ‘A’ and Level ‘B’ and should also have completed the individual assessment that each psychometric provider issues. Most large organisations now have an accredited practitioner as part of their human resources or recruitment team, failing that there are a large number of individual practitioners that are able to offer this service on a consultancy basis.
Overall, the use of personality profiling can be crucial in building a successful legal team and gaining an understanding in how to manage individuals, teams and your firm as a whole. We understand that you’re looking for a specialist legal recruiter who understands your location and requirements thoroughly. We also understand that finding the right job for a paralegal is very different to that of an equity partner. Whatever sort of legal job or lawyer you’re looking for though, one thing will never change: the way BCL delivers.
For more information please visit our website BCL Legal.