Subject: Law firm specializing in tax advice to affluent private clients. Location: Georgia, US.
The Challenge
This 120-person law firm suffered a costly bill for the amount of management time wasted on a bad recruitment process. Despite rigorous interviews and assessments their hit rate for retaining new staff for the long term was only 50%. As a result, continuity with clients was poor and administration was not always meticulous. But worst of all, the CEO and senior management team were forced to spend much of their time on unprofitable recruitment processes instead of servicing clients. The CEO alone was devoting more than 25% of his working weeks to candidate interviews and related discussions with HR and other managers. But it wasn’t only constant recruitment that was costing the firm money. There was also the repeated expense of recruitment consultants’ fees over several years as well as a continuous churn of industry training courses for new recruits.
The Solution
The firm began to gather Method Teaming© Profiles of short-listed candidates. The management team noticed a specific pattern that occurred frequently in candidates who subsequently blended well and stayed a long time with the firm. They searched for this pattern in every interviewee and, if they didn’t find it, would decline to hire.
The Result
Costs associated with lost management time and external expenses have plummeted. The firm’s hit rate for hiring candidates who subsequently remain employed long term has risen from 50% to over 90%. Recruitment has dropped to a trickle as the firm continues to grow. But it is only adding new people. There is no longer a need to replace those who have left since retention is so strong.
- The firm has saved thousands of hours of expensive management time a year
- Recruitment and training costs are negligible
- Many employees enjoy a long tenure and move into the 5-10 year ‘sweet spot’ becoming low cost, high value contributors to the firm’s success
- The CEO spends most of his time profitably advising wealthy clients
- The senior management team are able to re-focus on building the firm’s value
