Q. Many professional services firms are talking about the challenges in recruiting BD and marketing people, especially to junior or entry level positions. Do you put this down to anything in particular?

Matching the supply of candidates with demand for talent is not a new challenge but it does feel like there are a lot of different factors converging at the same time, all of which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. But I'm not complaining; it's great to be in a position to be recruiting and growing.

The competition for talent is encouraging us to review our recruitment processes and think more creatively which is a good thing. One of the most important goals is to paint a picture of life in a law firm or accountancy firm that attracts talent who may not otherwise have considered a career in professional services. Professional services businesses require a lot of different skill sets and it means we need to attract a diverse range of people.

The exciting parts of my job are the creative and collaborative elements of what I do, and I don't think many would associate that type of activity with working in a professional services business.

We encourage everybody to bring new ideas to the table and it's everyone's job to get under the skin of our clients' businesses and the sectors in which they operate to see what's changing, where the opportunities are and how we can help them to thrive. We have already changed a lot and continue to adapt how we attract and nurture our talent which we hope will put us in a strong position for the future.

Q. Has a “work from home” culture - clearly unavoidable with a global pandemic - presented any obstacles for firms that are proving difficult to return from?

Early on in the pandemic we surveyed our staff to gather their thoughts and opinions on how to develop our new hybrid working strategy. Thankfully both remote and agile ways of working have been successful, but like many businesses we are still learning about what this means for our culture because so many of the decisions people are making at the moment are influenced by the pandemic.

There has been so much change over the last two years and so much uncertainty remains that we need more time to establish how we are going to operate in the long term. Agile working is here to stay and that comes with many benefits to both for the business and for individuals. Creative thinking and developing new ideas are often generated by collaborative working, so the challenge for the future is how we bring people together, whether physically or virtually, for them to achieve their potential.

Q. And, similarly, has that created a gap between candidate expectation and reality?

Every candidate I have interviewed over the last year and a half expects some level of flexibility and I don't think that will change. That said there are very few who have indicated that they want to look at fully remote roles so there is an understanding and indeed expectation on both sides that we all benefit from seeing each other in person and crucially meeting colleagues from other teams, not just those you work most closely with. Again, we're not operating under normal circumstances yet so it will be interesting to see how the situation evolves. Many candidates want to come into the office as they want to build strong relationships with their colleagues and that can be more difficult in a completely virtual working environment.

Q. With the hybrid way of working how do you continually keep staff engaged, trained and noticed, especially for promotion purposes? How has the firm gone about creating a virtual “buzz” and those “water cooler moment and, ultimately, ensuring relationships are nurtured?

Everyone in the business has put an enormous effort into working with each other. We have all been more deliberate in our actions as you can't rely upon people bumping into each other. Technology has played a large role, but I can't help but feel we are only at the beginning of what it could help us to achieve.

We have forums of all sorts and sizes from town hall briefings to one-to-one catch ups and everything in between. It does mean that on certain days diaries can be dominated by video meetings but bit by bit I feel we are shifting to smaller and more focused gatherings where everyone is clear about the outcome.

In some ways many of these are probably more effective than the physical meetings they replaced as everyone is on a level playing field and you’ve got to be more organised. It’s important to leave time for people to just talk a bit too as that's where the creative process starts to work. It has also proven beneficial on an international scale, where people are now more used to having virtual meetings reducing the need to travel and enabling us to mix people in a way that was harder before.

Q. So, given these seismic changes, what do candidates need to do to ensure they are best placed for the opportunities for which they apply?

The market place and working methods have changed significantly over the past few years. This has opened up different opportunities for people, and both employees and recruiters are more flexible and open to a wider range of talent and different skill sets.

For example, just because people don't have a professional services background doesn't mean that they are not a good fit for the role or indeed bring a valuable perspective on industry norms. It's important people focus on what they want from the roles they apply for and assess what is going to motivate them. Choosing the right sector is important, but there are more significant elements that come into play to capitalise on the right opportunities, such as culture, potential for career development and ability to implement ideas.

Q. And what about firms? Professional Services might not be instantly seen as the “sexiest” area of marketing and yet these firms are often pioneering when it comes to BD techniques and practices. How do we ensure the sector is more appealing?

Most of my conversations are about business, what is happening in the sectors in which our clients operate as well as the macro global changes that will affect them; it's about having strategic conversations around growth and transformation, and sometimes even about playing a part in creating the laws that shape business and society.

Although I may play a very small part in it, I find it immensely rewarding because there's always something new on the horizon to think about that will change how people live and work and how society and communities operate. I think more people would be attracted if they understood professional services are about helping businesses and sectors thrive. From a BD, marketing and PR perspective, our output in the market is often less about the technicalities of the law and more about the influential factors for business, people, and society.

Q. The PSMG partners with Cambridge Marketing College to run an apprenticeship scheme that’s open to all and we’ve had some great successes. How important is it for firms like yours to look beyond the business for ways of developing skills and retaining talent?

Professional Services experience can be an advantage but by no means do we limit ourselves to candidates with that experience. We recently recruited someone from a health sector membership organisation where we saw it as an advantage that they would bring something different to the team.

We have four apprentice roles within the team and since we started with our first apprentice probably five years ago now, it's become an important way by which we recruit and train at a junior level. I have always supported team members to pursue their CIM qualifications through the professional training route as well.

It's not always possible for us to retain everyone particularly earlier on in people's career when they want a diversity of experience but sometimes people move into other roles within the team - and we keep in touch with those who leave and can happily say that we've been able to attract some back. We are looking forward to seeing a number of those who have left at our next alumni event, when we are able to organise one.

Q. You’ve had a senior partner (Sara Bailey) nominated in the Future of London Mentor Award so clearly you attach enormous importance to sharing experience and cultivating talent?

Sara is passionate about creating an open and inclusive culture where people feel comfortable contributing their ideas and can be themselves at work. Encouraging people to be authentic can be a great way of incorporating people's personal skills and passions to bring a different perspective in the workplace. We are fully focused on refining our ESG principles, with a huge emphasis on the 's', which incorporates social mobility and enhances how our people can progress within the firm.

We have an internal mentoring programme for all our staff which allows more senior people to share their wisdom, insights, and experiences with more junior staff. We have over 300 people mentoring others within the firm.

Our internal training programme has picked up numerous external awards in the last few years and many of our lawyers and other staff will share their knowledge through workshops, know-how meetings and other training initiatives.

Q. You’ve also taken part in the Early Career Immersion Week for the past two years. This is targeted at students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Tell us how important being seen forefront at such initiatives is for you?

The legal sector continues to evolve and we want to be seen at the forefront of opening up avenues into the profession and into the diverse roles that exist in a large professional services business. This is part of the firm's DNA and is something Senior Partner Sara Bailey is passionate about.

We are involved with external organisations and initiatives that allow us to access talent and widen the scope of opportunity that drives a diverse workforce.

We do this in a number of ways, for example we are an affiliate partner of Aspiring Solicitors (AS), an organisation whose primary aim is to increase diversity in the legal profession by helping its members to secure vacation schemes and training contracts in law firms. In 2020, 24 of the 36 trainees recruited were AS members (67%).

We're also part of City Solicitors Horizons, a social mobility programme, which aims to improve access to the legal profession for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Each year, a number of students are identified at university and selected to take part in the three year programme alongside their undergraduate degrees. It has been initiated by the City of London Solicitors Company, City Solicitors Educational Trust and the Legal Education Foundation, with support of the City of London Law Society and leading law firms.

We also give 6th form students a taster of life in a law firm with our Prime initiative which runs a one week programme for students from a local comprehensive school to give them an idea of what life in a commercial law firm would be like.

Q. Last autumn you retained eight of your qualifying trainees? You’ve had successes in the People in Law Awards. And last year you appointed partner Sharron Webster as the firm’s head of diversity and inclusion. How are initiative such as these viewed across the firm when it comes to recruitment and, crucially, retaining and developing the best talent?

I can't remember the last time I interviewed a candidate where they didn't ask about the firm's culture. Businesses and employees are becoming more aware of who they are working with or working for. Remaining attractive to our clients and to the talent we rely on is a priority for any law firm and so creating an environment that retains talent and that clients are happy to interact with is important.

The belief in the importance and power of inclusivity and diversity is driven at a Strategic Board level but is also part of everyday life in the business. For example TrowersIncludes, our diversity and inclusion programme, was created and is driven by the commitment of individuals across the organisation who devote time and energy to keeping it relevant and alive. It underpins our strategy and allows people across our networks including; ethnicity, gender, work and family, LGBTQ+, social mobility, religion to interact, connect, share and learn.

Q. There’s a leading London PR firm that always used to sit new recruits down on day one and talk to them about “PR-ing themselves” and building their personal brand. That seems to be more pertinent than ever?

Absolutely, I talk about this in the induction session that I run for new joiners. It's not about creating an image, rather it's about making sure that those you work with understand what you are, what is important to you and what you are passionate about.

As with all good PR, the most powerful and effective messages are where it is a genuine reflection of the individual, their behaviours and ideas. Social media and generally remote ways of working mean we have to be more deliberate in our actions as there's less face-to-face human interaction to add context and depth. It's easy for messages to be misunderstood so you can't rely on everyone understanding what you are trying to get across.

Q. And finally, a theme of this issue is environmental, social and corporate governance; it’s also the theme of our annual conference in April. It’s clear Trowers & Hamlins are doing terrific work in these areas. How do you ensure that’s firm-wide? And what are some of your initiatives in the area of ESG that involve staff?

In many ways ESG is an evolution of a number of areas that Trowers has been involved in over the years. For example, our public sector and housing practices have often led the field where we've been involved from the ground up. Trowers has a long history of advising clients of the benefits of embedding social value into communities and large-scale development schemes. We work with many innovative and committed businesses, helping them to establish enduring and positive change in their developments and portfolios. We are now working with a wide range of clients and sectors on how they can embed social value into their organisations.

The concept of responsible business is embedded in our governance and is brought to life by senior leaders, internal networks and stakeholders. We believe in the importance of having buy-in at all levels and recognise that we need to act collectively to achieve change. We want to grow our business in a way that is responsible and sustainable and has the principles of ESG at its core, guiding the way we operate firmwide.

Our approach is multi-faceted which means that everybody can contribute bringing their experience inside and outside the firm to the table. One of the key areas of focus is how we can help our clients to change their organisations and operations. We have set up working groups to align our offering with how our clients are looking at ESG. We are at the beginning of the journey and it's an iterative process where we evolve with our clients.

We have produced award-winning thought leadership around the drivers behind social or societal value and prosperity engaging with clients and other stakeholders along the way. For example, our Highly Valued, Hard to Value report explores the relationship between the built environment and social value in its broadest sense. The subsequent report sets out a methodology for financial valuation of the societal impact of development and presents recommendations to enhance existing methods of valuation.

More recently, in recognition of the wider focus on ESG, we ran an initiative exploring the perception and drivers of prosperity in cities. We looked at how we create the towns and cities of the future as well as examine real estate’s role in providing the platform for society to thrive. The most inspiring aspect of this work has been the enthusiasm amongst clients and a wide range of other stakeholders to devote their time to engage with us on these topics.

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