Is this your first legal ops recruitment? You don't have a sample job description? Are you suffering from the "blank sheet of paper" syndrome in front of your to-do list? No standard legal ops job description, no predecessor and no existing elements to support you...
The expectations of your legal team are high, this recruitment is urgent and awaited like the messiah by your colleagues, aware of the difficulty of finding THE perfect legal ops profile.
We know what it's like and many of us have been in this situation for a few months.
Creating a position and writing the associated job description for the first time is a real challenge. Especially when it comes to finding the five-legged sheep with more than five years of experience already in place and valued within a large group that he or she does not intend to leave.
Stay positive and let's face this challenge together. Here are a few keys that will help you manage this situation to find the legal ops that will contribute to make your Legal Department shine.
Master my subject, know my business, listen and give a vision!
To be able to write a legal ops job description adapted to the needs of the legal team and the company in general, you must be able to master three things:
- The company's current and future strategy and challenges
- The needs, issues and organization of the legal team
- The expectations and mindset of legal ops
There is no miracle recipe or "secret sauce" to master your subject. You simply have to get informed, read, listen, and get involved.
This exploration phase is essential, whether you are a legal operations expert or an HR/Talent Acquisition Manager attached to this recruitment.
To do this, you just need to take your virtual blank sheet and structure it according to the 3 points mentioned above. The company, the legal department, the candidate. 3 stakeholders that you will have to satisfy through this recruitment.
Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself that will help you structure your legal ops job description.
🚩 The company's current and future strategy and issues.
- What are the company's current and future priorities?
- What are the legal challenges that the company has encountered or will encounter in the years to come?
- What types of profiles fit the company's culture?
🚩 The needs, issues and organization of the legal team.
- What is the Mission Statement of the Legal Department?
- How is the Legal Department organized?
- What are the needs that lead the legal team to want to recruit a legal ops?
- To whom will the recruited legal ops be attached?
- What will be the 3 priorities, the objectives of the legal ops for the year following his or her entry into the position?
- What resources will be made available to the recruited legal ops?
- What types of profiles fit the culture of the company and the legal department?
- If you had to think of one person who would be the ideal candidate?
🚩 The expectations and mindset of legal ops.
- What are legal operations?
- What will be the legal operations in your company?
- What is the mindset of legal ops in general?
- What are the current topics in legal operations?
- What is the state of the labor market for this type of profile?
- What is the salary of the legal ops?
- Where, when, what topics bring the Legal Ops community together?
Explore, listen and read the resources available to you on the subject
Whether you're a fan or not, you've probably all watched an episode of House or Cold Case.
Take any of these two series. A case, a patient is submitted to the teams since no one manages or has managed to find the solution.
Teams led by Lily Rush (Cold Case) and Gregory House (Dr. House) gather in front of a whiteboard and explore the leads that led to this crime or that disease. They explore. Background, habits, records, entourage, problems etc, etc...
It is this exploration phase that allows them to structure their work and find the solution to the problem: the type of disease to better treat the patient, a series of leads to find the criminal and solve the case.
Gregory House, Lily Rush, you, us, designers, marketers, scientists, sales people: we all start by exploring instead of rushing headlong into the last step.
Exit the machete, the whip, the compass, here are some resources which will be able to help you to lead this exploration.
Andbecause we're in a collaborative mode, feel free to suggest missing resources to share with the rest of the Legal Ops community
📄 Articles:
📄 Guides and white papers:
- What isLegal Operations -CLOC
- The complete guide to improving the performance of your legal department - E Book - Leeway
- VAC - Legal Operations Resources
🎙️ Podcast - Interviews - Videos :
- 🥪 Legal Club Sandwich - Legal Ops, where to start? -Emilie Letocart-Calame @Calame - The Legal OpsCompany
- Theperformance of Legal Departments - The deployment of Legal Operations - Round Table (H.Guillot, C.Roquilly, A. Déléris)
🏤 Organizations / Associations:
Giving, inspiring meaning: work no longer has the same meaning
What will my assignments be? This is the first question your candidates will ask themselves.
For a long time synonymous with "making a living" and necessity, for some of your employees and future recruits, work no longer has the same meaning. We no longer work only to generate an income that will allow us to live our second life, our personal life. This notion of a double life is progressively evaporating to make way for the quest for meaning at work, for the fusion of professional and personal fulfillment.
🔍 A few figures to back up what we're saying: Employees' concerns have particularly evolved over the last ten years. 87% of employees attach importance to meaning at work according to a Deloitte and Viadeo study conducted in 2017.
Why are we bringing up this topic now, right now, when we are simply talking about the main missions of a legal ops job description? Quite simply because work has become a true expression of oneself, and this includes finding oneself in what occupies us all day. And that's where the main tasks play a crucial role.
So beyond these examples of main missions listed, it will be up to you to put relief, meaning and context in this series of missions. What is the mission of your company? Talk about your team! Highlight feedback from current and former employees, in short, don't limit yourself to the main missions.
Your legal ops job description is a product in its own right
Your legal ops job description is a product, a piece of content in its own right. Once it has been thought out, designed and produced, it must be distributed.
3 commandments to follow, in our opinion:
- Social proof is key
- What's in it for them ?
- 20% of creation. 80% distribution.
🚩Social proof is key!
As a recruiter, as an employer, we ask our future recruits to provide us with references. Why not do the same as a company?
We are not, or no longer, in a power struggle in which the employer is the strong party. As we said earlier, we no longer work only to generate an income that will allow us to live our second life, our personal life. This notion of a double life is progressively evaporating to give way to the quest for meaning at work, to the fusion of professional and personal fulfillment.
Of course, with that said, your future recruits will want to make sure that you are the right company for them.
As you know, in marketing, the best argument is not the sales pitch but the speech your client makes when talking about you and what you bring to the table. The same is true when it comes to employer branding. Your current employees will be your best allies. Even your alumni who have moved on to new professional adventures. You will not be blamed for the legal subordination link that biases the testimony.
Here are the forms that your testimonies can take:
💬 Verbatims:
A photo is always recommended and helps to humanize the testimony (subject to the authorization of the employee/collaborator)
🎥 Videos:
Welcome to the Jungle formatCorporate video formatKonbini I Fast and Curious formatAny format is fine as long as it fits the corporate tone(subject to employee/collaborator approval)
📄 Articles / Podcasts:
Welcome to the Jungle formatCorporate video formatKonbini I Fast and Curious formatAny format is fine as long as it fits the corporate tone(subject to employee/collaborator approval)
👥 References: By simply mentioning the names of employees available and open to being contacted by candidates they would like to on LinkedIn or another channel.Video ask can be particularly useful for this type of exchange. Don't hesitate to ask your team if they already use it or to use the free version.
🚩 What's in it for them?
What makes you stay in your company? What makes you decide to leave that same company for another? There are several criteria, some of which are unique to us and others that we share. But in the end, we all ask ourselves the same question: What's in it for me?
Very few job postings and job descriptions think to answer this question. And for good reason, answering a question for which there may be multiple answers is quite complicated.
But finally, if we go back to this study conducted by Deloitte and Viadeo (and all those afterwork conversations we share with our colleagues), 87% of working people attach importance to meaning at work.
The meaning can be deconstructed in several ways.
- Beyond profit, what is the company's mission? Am I interested in it? How will I be able to contribute to it through my action?
- Will I be able to learn and continue to grow through assignments, a team, trainings or a mentor within the company that will help me reach a higher level that I want to achieve
- Will I perform daily duties that excite me, interest me, and push me to do my best
- Will I be fully involved in the company or will I be a mere pawn in an organization with thousands of people?
- Etc.
This involves mobilizing skills that are often put on the back burner or associated with the "useless" category, such as empathy or emotional intelligence. The objective? To bring out the best in everyone by creating a climate of trust that will free your future recruit.
This is Polanyi's paradox, according to which we would all be able to know and do much more than we can express.
Some thoughts that will allow you in a few sentences to answer the question "What's in it for them", well beyond the mutual insurance, which is in fact mainly an employee right.
🚩 20% of creation. 80% distribution.
On another note, the creation/distribution ratio. If you are a perfectionist, you may spend more time producing than distributing your work.
You are right! You should leave no stone unturned when writing your legal ops job description. On the other hand, you will need to spend 4x as much time on distribution.
It's a saying in the content world. When you produce content, 20% should be dedicated to creation and 80% to distribution.
Your legal ops job description is content. A passive resource when you create and publish it. It becomes active when you confront it and put it in contact with others, and there are many ways to do that, we're not teaching you anything.
Example of distribution channels:
- Your company's recruitment page
- LinkedIn via publications
- LinkedIn Jobs
- The Village of Justice
- Carrieres-juridiques.com
- Fed Legal
If you have the associated budget, you can use a suitable recruitment firm such as Fed Legal.
You can also diversify your distribution channels by relying on relays, channels that will ensure that you reach a qualified audience.
- By contacting the members of the Legal Ops Commission
- Participating in podcasts or interviews in which you talk about this position
- By innovating in your way of communicating on social networks: leave the classic post with the description of the missions. Why not use your teams to make a simple video?
In short, the only limit is your imagination and creativity. Don't hesitate to abuse it by relying on your company's HR and communication teams, while respecting your company's tone of voice.
Sources
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