The Transformative Power of UX in Legal Recruiting
Experience Consultant for Winston & Strawn LLP
Experience Design • User Experience Research • Change Management • Agile Business Strategy • Diversity, Equity & InclusionProject Brief
In 2019, firm leadership initiated a reorganization of their recruiting structure and strategy. I began my engagement with Winston & Strawn LLP to develop a new recruiting strategy for law student interns and refine their recruiting brand assets.
Problem Statement:
Winston & Strawn LLP was facing a consistent decline in interest in their legal internship program. Over the five-year period of 2013-2018, offer acceptance from feeder and target schools declined significantly in comparison to the beginning of the decade. The DE&I initiatives were equally inadequate.
Goal:
Winston’s goal was to develop a recruiting strategy and structure to attract a diverse, well-rounded class of 22 law students from feeder and target schools for their 2020 2L Internship program.
Initial Observations:
Throughout an initial exploratory phase, it became clear Winston’s brand language lacked value for law students and did not drive interest in the firm. The structure of their recruitment process was lengthy, antiquated and inefficient, resulting in candidates getting ost in the process.
The Plan
At the outset of the project, I distilled a plan to delve deeper and understand the problems Winston was facing. Primarily, what was the end-to-end experience of law students interacting with the firm?
Current State Analysis
Review the current state of the recruitment process
1.
Quantitative Analysis
Analyze Winston’s recruitment data
2.
User Research
Interview past, present and future interns on their brand perception of Winston & Strawn LLP
3.
Qualitative Analysis
Thematic analysis of interview feedback
4.
Journey Mapping
Define the user journey throughout the recruitment process
5.
SWOT Analysis
Understand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
6.
Brand Assets
Revise existing brand assets based on UX research
7.
Agile Recruitment Process
Implement an Agile recruitment process to modernize candidate management
8.
Develop 2020 Recruitment Strategy
Using feedback, develop a new strategy to engage and recruit law students
9.
Implementation
Execute on the recruitment strategy. Monitor candidate engagement.
10.
Results
Document results of new recruitment process and strategy. Note any improvements to the process.
11.
Current State Analysis
Before any changes and implementation, I took a comprehensive look at the current state of the recruiting department. I was surprised to find that the entirety of candidate management throughout the process was still being done on paper.
Candidate files were compiled in manilla folders and organized by the phase of the process they were in. I immediately could see why the recruiting department was struggling in all areas of the process.
This manual candidate management process was not only antiquated, but accounted for many of the pain points both candidates and recruiters were experiencing. A few of the pain points were:
Time consuming process of compiling candidate information
Physical candidate management process allowed candidates to get lost in the shuffle of physical paperwork
Frustrating to update candidate profiles with new information
Quantitative Analysis
After a current state assessment, I delved into the recruiting data. I compiled all the historical recruiting data across the past eight years to perform trend analysis in Tableau. The data confirmed what the firm was experiencing - a declining offer acceptance that was impacting the firms 2L internship program. With data confirmation of the problem, I moved on to interviewing current, past and future interns to get a comprehensive understanding of the law students’ perspective.
User Research: Personas
The result of this meticulous process provided me with four key insights.
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Who We Are
Winston needed to differentiate itself from other law firms when recruiting on campus. Specifically, highlighting it’s strongest practice areas, work-life balance, and benefits.
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Candidate Experience
Lagging response times from the recruiting department created a poor candidate experience and resulted in candidates accepting offers elsewhere.
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How We Engage
Poor interviewer-interviewee matchups left candidates with more questions than answers.
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Representation Matters
Lack of represented firm diversity during on campus events created a perception of exclusion which left candidates uninterested.
Restructuring the Recruitment Process
With a clear set of insights, I could begin building up the strategic plan and supporting infrastructure. The first step was partnering with the marketing, legal and recruiting teams to rewrite their on-campus brand language. I worked collaboratively and cross-functionally with these teams to update the on-campus collateral and marketing campaigns; Paying unique attention to highlight Winston’s strongest practice areas, its work-life balance and employee benefits.
The next step was to restructure the candidate experience. Implementing a project management approach to build out a candidate pipeline, the recruiting team was able to stay up to date on all active candidates and lead action items on a consistent basis. Utilizing agile methodology, daily scrum meetings, and sprints ensured we followed up with every candidate.
To address insight three and four, I worked directly with the senior manager of recruiting to develop a comprehensive interviewer dashboard to effectively match candidates, and included scoping questions during the initial interviews to establish candidate’s areas of interest. To engage diverse law students at on-campus recruiting events, I established a rotating list of the firms’ attorneys to attend these events, increasing engagement and discussion about life at Winston.
Results
At the end of the recruiting season, the 2020 summer intern class consisted of 28 individuals from the top 10 U.S. Law Schools. The recruiting strategy and agile recruiting structure was so successful, offer acceptance rate jumped 9% and Winston added six additional interns to the 2020 class.
