Professional services

Recruiting for Professional Services

The Professional Services sector has faced significant challenges in recent years. Royal commissions, changes in legislation, cyber security, changes in technology, the move to fixed fee, and the demand for more flexibility and work-life balance have had a significant effect on Law and most professional services firms. This has all been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, particularly in the legal and financial sectors, we are seeing organisations taking a range of approaches to battle this rapidly changing environment and the balance of power shifting between different tiers and across firms. Despite this period of change, uncertainty and risk, there are many opportunities in the market. The need for dynamic teams and passionate and resilient leaders who align with company culture, values and vision is at an all-time high.

The skills to deliver success

This sector is built on the strength of relationships and trust and it is crucial to have staff with the right skills, values, ethics, and culture. Our culture-fit surveys have revealed leaders across industries typically face the following challenges when looking for or managing staff:

• The organisation’s brand and reputation in the market
• Competition with other firms in a candidate-short market
• Candidate experience, level of autonomy and ability to engage in business development in their chosen practice area
• Uncertainty in the minds of potential candidates about what the future holds including lack of leave redundancy, stand downs and terminations in an uncertain economic environment
• Embracing technology and the new virtual landscape including remote work, cyber security, data protection and work flow
• Legislative changes brought about by the changing economic climate, COVID-19, Royal Commissions, environmental crises or the setting of new precedent
• Employee expectations relating to mental health support, work-life balance, flexibility, maternity/paternity leave, job satisfaction, job security and company culture.

The right candidate can increase value for your firm by building strong and trusted relationships with potential and existing clients while identifying areas of potential risk or opportunity. They can be instrumental in dispute resolution and mediation, identifying potential issues in a matter, contribute new skills and experience to the business and team, train and mentor staff and help you build robust external networks with other industry professionals.

Carroll Consulting has operated in the Professional Services arena for more than 20 years delivering high-end value to our clients. We offer a variety of services including recruitment, training for HR or hiring staff, performance management, coaching, psychometric testing and team mapping highlighting behaviours in the workplace, values and motivations. Our role is to give organisations the tools to attract talent that aligns with the business vision and culture.

For more information or a culture-fit assessment to support future recruitment training or team assessment and coaching, please contact our team today.