Focus upon employee branding or lose your place in the new legal market

We all know that the UK legal market is undergoing a period of immense structural change. The arrival of the suitably vaguely-named alternative business structures (ABSs), coupled with the game changers that are external investment (via venture capital or canny cash-rich entrepreneurs), as well as the continuing entry of established businesses (whether retailers, financial institutions or others) will change the way the profession operates.

Exactly how will it change? Well, your guess is as good as mine at this point, and it will take some time for the new world order to sort itself out. One thing that is for sure, however, is that the new world will have efficient processes, be based upon pricing certainty and require fewer senior people.

Law firms, after all, are not much different to any other knowledge-based business in the service industry – and we have seen what has happened to the accountants and consultants. It is not beyond reasonable doubt that a similar future awaits law firms.

I’ll take a moment and stop future gazing. Change is good, after all, and brings with it new ideas and ways of doing things. All industries evolve and the law firms that understand this and focus upon and succeed in attracting and retaining the best people (define them how you will) will be the ones that will be around in ten or twenty years’ time.

This means that one of the absolute priorities for law firm managing partners, CEOs and COOs must be getting their people strategies right.

Unfortunately, few law firms have employee branding strategies in place. By this, I mean a well thought through plan that focuses on shaping and presenting an image that enables an organisation to attract and retain the right or, better still, ideal talent in the long term.

How do I know this? Well, based on how law firms use – or, more importantly, don’t use branding (and please don’t talk to me about logos, newsletters, events, bland/samey key account programmes or indeed graduate recruitment fairs, adverts, websites and other materials that are produced), I think that the picture can be seen pretty quickly.

The fact is that law firms struggle with making themselves stand out from their competitors. Think about it – exactly how do you tell one law firm from another – how do law firms really compete? Many people who have been in and around law firms much longer than I have will struggle to answer this one.

Now, look at it from a recruitment and retention perspective. Making a law firm stand out to future and current employees – especially with the arrival of a raft of new business models and employment options – is a whole new game. It takes law firms back to a place where many are extremely uncomfortable – being different and, more importantly, letting people know exactly how they are different.

Watch out law firms, because the wind is whipping up.