Addressing the “war for talent”
The ‘war for talent’ within the legal sector appears never-ending. PSMG managing partner Gail Jaffa talks to Julie Stott, chief marketing officer at Travers Smith, and some of her colleagues about a first-in-market graduate training scheme.
Addressing the “war for talent”
The ‘war for talent’ within the legal sector appears never-ending. PSMG managing partner Gail Jaffa talks to Julie Stott, chief marketing officer at Travers Smith, and some of her colleagues about a first-in-market graduate training scheme.
Seemingly the “war for talent” within the legal sector is never ending. Each year the headlines heralding rising salaries and a shortage of talent highlight the continual revolving doors between firms – for both legal and business services personnel.
Speak to any M&BD leader and they will tell you that over the last 10 years, the frequency with which junior team members move to new roles and new firms has accelerated.
In the summer of 2018 the churn was particularly acute for Travers Smith's BD and marketing team within the junior ranks and the question was what, if anything, could be done about it?
After much deliberation, business case costings and discussion with partners, the senior management team landed on a solution whereby a talented group of graduates would become the cornerstone of the team. The BD & Marketing Graduate Training Scheme was launched in September 2018, a first in the market, which has since inspired similar schemes implemented by other firms.
Charlie Rogers, now senior client strategy and relationship advisor at the firm, joined the first cohort in September 2018. He says: "Having been considering a career in law, but not necessarily wanting to be a lawyer, this opportunity jumped out to me. A two-year training contract, promising to provide a variety of experiences and the opportunity to build up a versatile skill set was hugely compelling."
Georgie Mcardle, a current 2021 graduate trainee, agrees: "The scheme appealed on several levels: joining a firm with a cohort of graduates; receiving thorough and robust training and mentoring; and being given the opportunity to try many disciplines before deciding on what might be right for a future career".
The scheme, now in its fifth year, provides graduates with an entry into the marketing and BD profession via four six month 'seats'. These seats are flexible to the business needs but can include pitch and proposals, PR and communications, digital marketing, practice BD, client relationships and international relationships. In each, the training is both formal – via internal and external training courses and programmes – and informal, through peer mentoring, coaching from senior team members and a regular series of “lunch and learn" sessions.
Formal training includes enrolling the graduates on skills-based training courses, such as technical training on the Adobe Creative Suite and presentation skills training. The graduates also benefit from ongoing 'learning weeks', where they combine with other M&BD team members to attend sessions on topics as diverse as 'building your personal brand' and 'visibility and impact in a hybrid world' to 'writing compelling award submissions' and 'analysing client profitability'.
“The newest members of our team were born after the turn of the millennium. Their methods of communication, the speed of technology uptake, willingness and ability to adapt quickly to any situation is very different to how we experienced the start of our careers.”
This combination of formal and informal learning is something that has proved so successful that it's been rolled out beyond the graduate training scheme to all members of the Travers Smith BD and marketing team – with some interesting and unexpected results.
"Mutual mentoring wasn't a term that I was familiar with," says David Lovell, head of BD – transactional practices. ”But combining learning and development initiatives across generational cohorts has proven to be hugely beneficial to us all, helping to bring fresh ideas and thinking to how we all perform our roles."
Claire Watts, senior PR and communications manager, couldn't agree more. "The newest members of our team were born after the turn of the millennium. Their methods of communication, the speed of technology uptake, willingness and ability to adapt quickly to any situation is very different to how we experienced the start of our careers. As senior leaders in the team, we can learn from them too, and that is really impactful for team morale and collaboration."
Collaboration between all team members has seen a dramatic improvement since the programme was implemented, a sure sign that investing in people at the very beginning of their careers reaps significant benefits further down the line.
So what's next on the journey of lifelong learning?
Julie Stott, chief marketing officer, and the creator of this BD and marketing graduate training programme, believes that the skills, knowledge and experience gained on this programme brings huge benefits to the firm.
“Team members are more versatile, understand each other's work and workloads far more, and are more willing to step in and help others when the need arises. The continuous cycle of learning from one another is one great unintended consequence of launching such a programme and I am very open to sharing the mechanics of this scheme more widely and have already done so with some peers in UK, US and European firms."
Rarely does someone stay in one firm for their whole career and any programme that attracts, trains and develops new talent is great for the initial firm and ultimately for many other firms as people move through their careers.
Julie continues, "As someone who has been fortunate enough to have had a very long and varied career over the last 30+ years, and in that time to have learned from so many inspirational people, I wanted to feel like I was giving something back too – not just to Travers Smith – but to the next generation of M&BD professionals."
When recruiting the third cohort of graduate trainees in the summer of 2021, Julie spoke with some of the trainees – find out more by listening to the podcast.