21 Feb Find the Best Human Resources Match for Your Law Firm

When starting a law firm, you are tasked with a cornucopia of decisions that affect your sustainability moving forward. You have to choose the name of your firm, the area of law that you wish to practice, and even a location for your office that offers easy access for the attorneys and staff that you hire.

You also have to find the right attorneys and the right legal staff for your law firm. That starts with corporate services like human resources and recruiting.

Don’t do it yourself

Many attempt to do these functions themselves. They post jobs on employment websites and attempt to piecemeal the benefits packages necessary to entice attorneys and legal staffs to their firm.

While some may do a satisfactory job in that regard, this is a method prone to costly mistakes. You need to match with those that specialize in human resources and recruiting to satisfy your needs. You need to be able to utilize your practice management style and service your clients without doing the extra work necessary to maintain competitive benefits packages and recruit attorneys and legal staff.

Match with industry experience

You need to be able to match with a human resources and recruiting department that has deep expertise in the legal industry. With the diversity of legal practice areas, it is necessary that you access a solid pipeline of talent within that practice area, as well as within the region. With the assistance of an experienced human resources and recruiting department from a holistic solutions partner, you will be liberated, as an attorney, to do what you do best.

When examining potential matches for human resources and recruiting, it is imperative that any service you choose understands the strengths and challenges associated with finding specialized talent in your market. Your firm needs them to take a customized approached based on your needs.

Examine your needs

This requires you to examine the needs of your law firm. You have to be able to ask yourselves questions like:

• Do you want a small firm, a medium-sized firm, or a large firm?
• What are the budgetary restrictions of your wants?
• How will the human resources and recruiting services provider that you choose handle employee relations?
• Will the human resources and recruiting services provider that you choose handle benefits administration? Will they provide training for those benefits?
• What are the performance expectations of the firm, and how will your choice handle performance management?
• Will your choice handle paid time off (PTO)?
• Will your choice emphasize the wellness of attorneys and legal staff?
• How will your choice handle conflict or poor performance at your firm?

When deciding on which holistic partner you wish to match with for your human resources and recruiting services, it is imperative to ask those questions and answer honestly. From there, you can do a better job of judging your options, before making your decision.

Navigating human resources features

Judging possible human resources and recruiting matches on their merits requires detail. There are potential partners out there that offer free health care with 100 percent of it being employer-paid. There are options out there that offer corresponding health reimbursement arrangements (HRA) and health savings accounts (HAS), that are company-funded, if specific wellness goals are reached.

Diving into all of the features that all of the human resources and recruiting options offer will take time, but it is important to examine each potential match before making the right selection for your law firm.

Your law firm’s needs dictate how any human resources and recruiting partner approaches their services. While the fit is necessary, holistic partners do exist that tailor their approach to the unique needs of your firm, making them a more attractive choice.

While you may not want another vendor or another service listed in your expense reports at the end of every month or every year, understand that every second that you attempt to do human resources and recruiting functions yourself, is another second that you could be servicing your clients and growing your law firm to the best of your abilities.