SURVEY: one-third of practices do not have talent strategy


Law firms without talent management policies risk losing out in the battle to recruit, motivate and retain high-calibre staff, a survey of the UK's top 100 law firms has suggested.



The survey, carried out by business advisory firm Deloitte, showed that, despite fierce competition from investment banks, US firms and others, a third of respondents did not have a formal strategy in place to attract the best staff.



Instead, the overwhelming emphasis remained on financial reward, rather than 'intrinsic rewards' such as quality of client work, career opportunities, culture and work-life balance.



Bill Cohen, partner and remuneration specialist at Deloitte, warned that the 'legal sector is experiencing the same demographic squeeze as other intellectual capital sectors'. The survey results suggested law firms are only just beginning to recognise the need to offer non-monetary reward packages to retain staff.



John Clark, director of the strategic employee reward team at Deloitte, said firms outside the top 20 could not compete with larger firms on pay and needed to differentiate themselves in other areas to attract talent.



He said reliance on financial rewards was short-termist and suggested firms look to providing leadership and management training, mentoring, creating new routes to partnership and revised appraisal processes.



Of the UK top 100 firms contacted by Deloitte researchers during October and November last year, 25 participated in the survey. Respondents were evenly split across the top 25, 25-50, 50-75 and 75-100 groups.



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Jonathan Rayner