Monthly News

How to Employ Staff without any Risk – 5 Top Tips

 
We are often asked this question when giving advice to law firms, and there are a few very simple pointers:
 
1. Interview using Competency Based Interviewing Techniques.
For a list of over 150 of these, please email us at cv@ten-percent.co.uk with the Subject: Competency Based Interview Questions.
 
2. Get a Guarantee of 12 months rebate from your Recruitment Agency
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment offer a unique guarantee with any introduction – pay monthly – if a candidate leaves your obligation to pay finishes at that point.
 
3. Always offer a Probationary Period
Make sure your probationary period includes the option for either side to give 1 weeks notice.
 
4. Google the potential employee’s name and take up references
We know of a company who did this and discovered that the perfect candidate for a job had been arrested for a stalking offence a few months beforehand. Make sure the reference is from the most recent employer.
 
5. Do what you promised for the new employee
Hold regular meetings, find out how they are doing, give them everything you promised, keep a check on them daily or weekly. Ask other staff members how they are doing.
Monthly News

Wednesday 16th June – Legal Career Guidance – £3 per minute – Central London

 
Ever thought about speaking to an impartial legal career coach? Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, Solicitor (non-practising) and Recruitment Consultant, will be at the St Pancras Novotel on Wednesday 16th June.
 
You can come and see him with any queries regarding your CV, your career, future plans, leaving the profession, changing fields of law, getting into the profession, forthcoming interviews etc.. The maximum time for a session on this day is 1 hour.
 
You will get copies of our CV Guide and Interview Guide, a free CV review and 20% off any of our careers services.
 
To register an interest and book a slot, please email us: cv@ten-percent.co.uk with the subject heading “16th June” and we will email you back with available slots.
Monthly News

Unlimited Legal Recruitment?

Ten Percent Legal Recruitment has been at the forefront of online recruitment since 2000, introducing the UK’s first online candidate database for law firms to view directly and  request CVs from.  We have decided for 2010 to introduce a new way of working which will suit small to medium firms who may be looking to recruit more than once within a 12 month period.  For a one-off fee we will allow you to contact as many candidates as you want to through our database, whether by letter, e-mail or telephone, and to recruit without any further charge. 

You can view anonymous but detailed CV’s for each candidate as well as a brief description outlining their skills and experience. You can also communicate with the candidate without them knowing who you are and vice versa. Our database covers solicitors, legal executives, licensed conveyancers and experienced fee earners. We also have details of secretaries and paralegals available as well. For further details and to request a quote please visit http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/low-cost-legal-recruitment.html

Monthly News

A Career Away from Law

Moving away from the legal profession is a very big decision for a lot of lawyers, and one not to be taken lightly. It is something that comes up time and time again during our private career coaching sessions with clients, usually when lawyers get to about 3-6 years PQE or more.
 
If you are considering your options, think about the following:
 
1. Is it your job or your profession that is making you consider your options? Decide very carefully indeed…
2. Have you had thoughts about something you would like to do? If not, think. It is no good leaving the legal profession without any thought as to what you can do instead.
3. Have you got your financial commitments covered for a period of time?
4. Have you been to get experience in the profession you are thinking about going into?
5. Have you sat down and thought through all the factors affecting your decision making?
 
More to Law is a good starting website, together with Alec for free careers tests online. Our career coaching service is available at www.ten-percent.co.uk/career.htm
Monthly News

Duty Solicitors – the mad rush

In the last 3 weeks we have seen an unprecedented number of duty solicitor vacancies posted by firms looking to get their CDS 12 submissions into the LSC and desperate to recruit a duty solicitor to enable them to do this. Lots of smaller start up firms as well as older established ones, together with firms where duty solicitors have given notice of their impending departure.
 
This has proved an impossible task for a number of firms. A large majority of duty solicitors have elected to stay put and not move, whilst others have opted to go freelance and put their slots with one firm. Most appear to have got themselves sorted out very early on, and although we were able to assist 2 firms with placements that occurred on the deadline date, we could not help a larger number at such short notice.
 
These are our tips for avoiding this next time (ie in 6 months time).
 
1. Plan ahead. At least one of our clients recruited a duty solicitor provisionally back in February, knowing that they needed someone for July. This was a new entrant firm.  
2. Do not call round recruitment agencies 2 weeks beforehand, and if you have to, do not call more than 2 or 3. A few times we found some of our candidates who were actively looking were put off firms whom they thought were desperate because they had been contacted about their vacancy at least 5 times.
3. If you are within 2 weeks of the deadline, do not under any circumstances play hardball with candidates. It does not work – most candidates this time round got about 3-5 firms following them at any one time.
4. Do not make very low offers and expect to negotiate upwards. This happened with a couple of firms this time and the firms got nowhere.
5. If all else fails, consider freelancers with slots to offer. Be prepared to pay well, but bear in mind if you plan ahead next time you may be able to get someone on a permanent basis (or persuade the freelancer to stay longer term).
 
Please email us details of any vacancies to cv@ten-percent.co.uk or register the vacancy online by clicking this link – http://www.ten-percent.co.uk/registerer.htm