If you think about what makes up your law firm, a few things might come to mind. Your history. Your values. Your mission. But nothing defines your organization as much as the people who comprise it. There’s no denying it; a law firm is only as good as the professionals practicing in it. A strong team means winning cases, building a good reputation, growing as a company, and overall success.
So how do you make sure that you hire the best of the best?
Though it may come as a surprise, your branding plays as much, if not more, of a role in recruitment as more obvious factors such as your compensation and your benefits package. Because your brand’s audience extends beyond potential customers, branding and marketing can also affect your recruiting. A law firm with a unique and robust brand will have a competitive advantage when recruiting.
To that end, here are some law firm branding strategies you can implement that will help you attract the best talent.
Consider Your Company Culture
Your company’s culture and brand go hand in hand. You can think of your brand as an external-facing manifestation of your company culture. Think of what differentiates your company culture and makes it appealing to employees. If your law firm is friendly and warm, that can (and should) be reflected in your branding. If you have a long history and significant experience, you should showcase it in your marketing. These are not only things that will attract potential customers, but they will also serve as a draw to talent.
Because talented people don’t necessarily choose the company that pays most. A major consideration for smart staff is in which workplace and what people they would rather spend their valuable time with. These are both matters of company culture.
Beyond that, it will also serve your law firm to broadcast an accurate (albeit flattering) image of your company culture in your marketing. Doing so will increase your likelihood of finding employees who are a good fit for your organization, smoothly and easily slotting in with existing staff.
Put Your Values Forward
A company must be more than economically successful in our current climate to earn a good reputation with both clients and talent. Millennials and Gen Z are putting an ever greater weight on a company’s ethics and values, wanting to work for an organization that proves that they care about something and have a positive impact on the world. Giving your employees a feeling of pride in what they do and how they are contributing to society is a significant boon for recruiting.
And one of the best ways to communicate your positive impact and values to the world is through your brand. Do you want to be known as compassionate and altruistic? Can you showcase ways in which you’ve contributed to your community or made an effort to be eco-friendly? Whatever it may be, communicating a commitment to a specific set of unique values to your organization will let you attract passionate, qualified candidates who want to work for a company that cares about something outside of themselves.
Tell Your Story
As humans, we connect to people, emotions, and stories. And perhaps the only group of people who will be more interested in hearing your law firm’s story than your clients is your candidates for employment. From the history of your firm’s founding, to the story of how it grew to be where it is today, to your plans and goals for the future, the narrative of your organization is crucial to your company’s DNA and marketing. Using it as material for your marketing can potentially play a big role in helping to attract talent.
While you’re at it, you’ll also want to make sure you’re putting a sufficient emphasis on the people who make up your law firm in your marketing, especially when it’s targeted toward talent. If you are able to make that human connection by telling personal stories of key people in your organization, it will be more powerful than any statistics or buzzwords or trending hashtags can ever be.
Ultimately, if you can tell your story in a way that is relatable, inspiring, and connects with people’s emotions, you can make potential employees care about you, want to join you, and become a part of writing the story’s future.