Creating Company Culture Through Hiring: Not Every Prospective Employee Is Motivated By Money

Wherever I turn these days, I meet or hear of someone who decided sometime during the pandemic they weren’t going to return to their job if that meant a return to the status quo at their job. According to CNBC Make It, this past December, another 4.2 million people left their current roles. This comes on top of the departures now dubbed the Great Resignation; 47 million people left their jobs in 2021 alone.?

Indeed, a report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in February 2022 showed there were 11.3 million job openings on the last business day of the month. But that doesn’t mean people are sitting around after they quit. CNBC reports the job market, according to economists, remains strong for many. The many who say, as this article from NPR describes, they are looking for more than just money in their next position.?

The result is that employers like me must vie to attract the best talent. As I have long suspected, money is not the only motivator for prospective employees. I argue it is not even at the top of the list. It is the reason why I created a fully remote law firm long before the pandemic to begin with.?

Experience has shown me that it is something else, something that cannot be measured in dollars and cents, that drives people. That something else is personal time. More specifically, it is time with family, time to pursue dreams, and time to be alone. Yes, we all need that, too.

Recruiting is a two-way street, which is why the questions my team members and I ask during our interview process are just as, if not more, important than the answers. If we do not ask the right questions, we risk the person we are interviewing not communicating to us what environment they are looking for and us not knowing if it is one we can provide them with.

This is important information to have, not just for us being able to hire, but also for the likelihood the new hire will assimilate well into the firm culture my team and I have worked hard to create. To that end, here are a few of the questions we ask our prospective employees. ?

What do you foresee your work “day” (and week) to be?

Because we are a remote law firm, we can accommodate the varying schedules of our employees while knowing there is always someone available on the team to field emergencies when they arise and to, on a day-to-day basis, ensure that we meet all deadlines.?

Speaking of teams, we are a large team made up of smaller ones. For every case, there will be numerous people serving different functions working on it. Not everyone on a case is a lawyer. There will likely be some combination of an intake specialist, relationship manager, lawyers, paralegals, assistants, and other support staff all doing their part to get our clients’ matters resolved.

For teams to function as they are intended and remain strong under any circumstances, everyone on that team needs to honor their teammates. That means pulling their weight, adhering to deadlines, covering other teammates when necessary, and practicing radical candor while still being respectful.?

Not everyone is cut out for working like this, and that is OK. But it means if you are a lone wolf, ours may not be the environment best suited for you. Better to know that early on, which is why we bring it up.?

What are you interested in learning at work and outside of it?

We are interested in seeing our team members grow inside and outside the office. At work, we offer continuous learning opportunities to expand various skillsets; classes, training sessions, and offsites. Not all of our learning has to do with the law either. In the past, we have offered classes on yoga, cooking, and mixology. More classes are on the horizon.?

The best part is sometimes these classes are taught by our very own in-house talent. So not only is our team interested in what prospective employees want to learn so that we can provide it to them, we want to know what prospective employees can share because we are interested in what is important to them, too.?

Where do you see yourself in six months, a year, or 10 years down the line?

Teams are especially strong when the relationships that hold them together run deep. This is accomplished by working on projects together, group learning, and social activities, as I have already mentioned. That said, these relationships can become even stronger the longer they continue.?

Our firm has a casual, familiar feel to it, and we want to know if prospective employees would be interested in being a part of this type of environment at work. We frequently share bits and pieces of our lives with one another; what our children and grandchildren are up to, our pets, what projects we are working on, the dance class that we are attending, or how our latest home renovation is going. As a prospective employee, do you plan on sticking around? We want to know.

High turnover has an obvious cost to it in the time and money we must spend to recruit a replacement. Moreover, when a prospective employee becomes an integral part of our team, the people they work with would be sad to see them go. So would our clients, who frequently return to us for help with other matters, such as their estate planning. They often request the team members they worked with in the past and loved. ???

What are your salary requirements??

Yes, we ask this question, too. Our salaries are competitive, in addition to the other perks we offer, among them our health benefits package, flex time, monthly wellness stipend, and week-long firm closures in December and July.

We understand money is a factor for most people. However, if it is the only factor a prospective employee cares about, we want to know that too because there are many things besides money that we care about as a team.

What are your hopes and dreams?

This may be the most important question we ask because it is probably the most telling. A prospective employee’s answer to this question will tell us a lot about who they are as a person; what issues they care about and what values they espouse.?

As best we can, we want to support those hopes and dreams. To that end, we have recently kicked off our Dream Maker program, through which we provide grants at intervals throughout the year to employees who demonstrate how seed money could propel them forward.?

It is our sincerest hope we can provide support for our employees in their professional and personal lives out of the work environment we provide. We strongly believe it is what makes us and our clients thrive. The only question left is are you interested in thriving with us??

If you're interested in learning more about Elise Buie Family Law Group and the possibility of joining our team, please check out our current job openings.

Elise Buie, Esq. is a Seattle-based family and divorce lawyer and founder of the Elise Buie Family Law Group. A champion for maintaining civility throughout the divorce process, Elise advocates for her clients and the best interests of their children, helping them move forward with dignity and from a position of strength.