FINDING MORE HOURS
IN YOUR DAY
Re-Think The Way You Hire
By Kevin Chern
Managing Partner, UpRight Law / Allen Chern Law
www.UpRightLaw.com
T
o many attorneys, work-life
balance sounds like an unrealistic
ideal. It’s easy to say that we’re
going to take time out for ourselves and
our families. We know that we’re more
effective and more efficient when we’re
clear-headed and stress-free, but that
knowledge doesn’t reduce the quantity
or urgency of work to be done.
possible use of his or her time, but also
because hiring the wrong person is
expensive.
The High Cost of Hiring the
Wrong Person
One of the quickest and surest ways
to free up time is to delegate the work
that doesn’t require our personal
attention, but that’s tough for many
attorneys. Delegating responsibility
is tough because it goes against our
natures. The ability to simultaneously
free up your time and grow your
business depends upon having the
right people in the right positions with
the right responsibilities. Unfortunately
most professionals don’t know how to
recruit, identify and retain those people,
and many aren’t even aware that their
hiring processes are lacking.
Invest the Time and Effort to Make Solid
Hiring Decisions. If you’re hiring, you
likely have more work on your hands
than you and your current staff can
handle comfortably, and that means
that time is tight. The inclination is
to squeeze interviews in between the
“real business” of seeing clients and
court appearances, often resulting in
short-changing the process. After all,
you can’t lighten your workload or start
working on a new client matter until
there’s someone in place to take on the
extra work. The problem is that simply
filling the empty slot doesn’t guarantee
that the demands on your time will ease
up. If you hire the wrong person, those
demands may increase as you spend
more and more time “managing” your
new employee.
Take a moment and think honestly
about the last person you hired: how
much time did you invest in making sure
that you had the right person? What
kind of front-work did you do to identify
the characteristics of the employee you
were seeking? How much time did you
spend with the candidate before you
made a decision? How many people
in your office met the new employee
at the interviewing stage? For most
attorneys, the answer to each of those
questions is “not enough”.
That’s
unfortunate, because not only does the
attorney with the right people in place
have more flexibility to make the best
So, invest the time in selecting the right
employee. Review resumes to find
some good-looking candidates, but
remember that a resume is a balance
sheet without liabilities. The resume
is really just a brief introduction to help
you pick out some decent prospects.
After selecting a few candidates, start
with 15-minute phone screens so you
can expose yourself to a broad range of
prospects. Talking to a lot of candidates
will also help you formulate an idea
of what characteristics are important
to you. Next, block out an afternoon
dedicated to on site interviews. Doing
them back-to-back helps you compare
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CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
Spring 2015
one candidate to the next and will
free you from other distractions. Time
invested in identifying the person who
is uniquely suited to your needs is time
well spent and will save you a lot of
time, money and aggravation in the
long-term.
Know What You’re Looking For
For most employers, “talent search”
is a misnomer. Nearly everyone hires
on the basis of a job description, and
the job requirements relate primarily
to education and experience. Think
for a moment though about the best
employees in your office, and what
makes them stand out. You didn’t just
think, “My secretary, Bev, is really
proficient in Microsoft Office!” or “My
new associate graduated in the top ten
percent of his law school class!” More
likely, the traits that make someone a
superstar employee involve judgment
and motivation. And, although there
are specific characteristics that may
be important for a particular role, you
may find t