The Lawyers Weekly - January 15, 2010

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
January 15, 2010 | 23

BUSINESS
CAREERS

TALENT MATTERS

SARA
ARNSTEIN

&RICHARD
LEE

“[E]mployees are looking beyond the traditional benefits of working with top firms to find a place that is right for them...

There was a time when the prestige or reputation associated with a law firm was enough to attract the best and the brightest candidates. Once someone accepted an offer they spent most, if not all, of their career with that firm. But that’s not the case today. Now, it is an anomaly for an employee to spend his or her entire career with one firm.

The issue is not prestige, nor compensation, although salary incentives and career development opportunities continue to be top of mind. Instead, employees are looking beyond the traditional benefits of working with top firms to find a place that is right for them — a place to do good work and where the values of the firm are consistent with their own.

With the economy on the
rebound, the competition for the
brightest talent has once again
become fierce. Candidates have a
number of choices when selecting
their employers, and have now
shifted from focusing only on sell-
ing themselves, to placing their
potential employer under the
microscope. Candidates demand
more than just financial incen-
tives to accept an offer of employ-
ment — and if they accept, they
demand more to stay. They will
interview you as much as you
interview them — they are mov-
ing to those firms that offer, at the
very least, reward, recognition,
flexibility and work-life balance.

Research suggests that 60 percent of Canadian employees do not feel loyal to their organizations. Moreover, results from a Deloitte study indicate that this number could increase, as a university graduate today will have 10 to 14 jobs by the age of 38.

Organizations need more than piecemeal strategies to address these challenges. An essential starting point is an overarching brand or employee value proposition (EVP) that communicates the values and benefits of the firm to its current and future employees. This EVP needs to appeal to employees regardless of the demographic to which they belong. The reality is that different demographics demand different things from their employers. But, most employees want to work for a firm that provides a sense of belonging and community.

The Employer Brand by Tim
Ambler and Simon Barrow
defines the EVP as “the package
of functional, economic, and
psychological benefits provided
by employment and identified
with the employing company”.
According to Ambler and
Barrow, functional benefits
include “development and/or
useful job-related activities”;
economic benefits consist of
“material or monetary reward”;
and psychological benefits award
employees with “feelings of pur-
pose, belonging or recognition”.

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