The Hidden Costs of Overlooking Behavioural Assessments in Legal Recruitment

While CVs and interviews remain foundational in any recruitment exercise, behavioural assessments in legal recruitment provide crucial insights that can significantly enhance the long term effectiveness of in-house legal hiring decisions regardless of a candidate’s level of experience.

This article is a summary of some of the key points in an article I originally published on the Florit Legal website, which you can read here:

Behavioural Assessments in Legal Recruitment: How to Build Stronger In-house Legal Teams

The article explores why these tools are particularly valuable in legal teams. It outlines a real-life example of a 'bad' hire ('Donald') - showing what can potentially go wrong if behavioural assessments are not adopted routinely in recruitment processes. It also addresses some common misconceptions about their utility – especially with junior legal hires - as well as revealing in-house legal departments’ historically low adoption of behavioural assessments, revealing some statistics that may surprise you.

When Technical Excellence Isn't Enough

Ever had someone join your legal team who looked perfect on paper but turned out to be anything but perfect in practice owing to the manner in which they behaved and carried out their legal work? If so, you're not alone.

In fact, 70% of legal departments don't use behavioural assessments in their recruitment process at all - a gap that can lead to costly mistakes.

In the original article I shared a cautionary tale about 'Donald' (a candidate our client had hired direct a year earlier) where technical excellence simply wasn't enough.

Donald seemed like the ideal appointee: a first-class honours graduate from a prestigious university, magic circle trained, three years' PQE, and some valuable, previous 'non-legal' experience in the same industry as our client.

The interview process revealed strong technical capabilities, and his confidence impressed several stakeholders. The perfect mid-level addition to supervise junior lawyers and help grow the team, right?

Wrong.

Within twelve months, Donald's combative communication style and inflexible approach had created serious problems. Some junior lawyers felt intellectually intimidated rather than supported. Colleagues avoided seeking his advice on regulatory issues due to poor interpersonal experiences. The very team members he was supposed to supervise became flight risks.

The cost?

Not just financial, but the potential loss of valuable junior legal talent and a toxic environment in what had, until he joined, been a well-functioning in-house legal function.

The Missing Piece in Legal Recruitment

This scenario highlights the fact that the omission of any form of behavioural assessment amounts to a blind spot in legal recruitment.

Our research with General Counsel and Heads of Legal reveals that:

• Only 4% of legal departments use any form of behavioural technology to identify the core behaviours likely to lead to success in a role, before going to market.
• Just 11% put candidates through behavioural assessments before meeting them for the first interview.
• A striking 89% don't use behavioural assessments at all for roles below leadership level.

As an in-house legal professional, you work hard to minimise business risks. So why would you not apply the same rigorous approach to your legal recruitment process?

Why This Matters More Than Ever

The cost of a bad hire can exceed three to four times the employee's annual salary. For a relatively modest ￡65,000 position, that's potentially ￡250,000 in lost productivity, decreased team morale, and direct recruitment costs.

But it's not just about avoiding hiring mistakes.

Behavioural assessments can:

• Reduce staff turnover (97% of our placements using behavioural assessment stay beyond 12 months).
• Identify hidden potential in candidates who might not tick all the traditional boxes.
• Create targeted development plans from day one.
• Enhance interview effectiveness with structured, candidate-specific discussion points.

Beyond Leadership Roles

"We only use behavioural assessments for senior hires" is a common refrain. However, it's one that overlooks a crucial truth: junior hires often require more support and development than senior ones.

Behavioural assessments at junior levels can:

• Reveal learning agility and adaptability potential.
• Bridge the information gap when work history is limited.
• Help identify future leaders early.
• Create more meaningful interview discussions focused on potential, rather than just experience

Other Barriers to Successful Legal Recruitment

Poor cultural or behavioural fit is just one of the barriers to successful legal recruitment.

Another is not having enough candidates to interview in the first place, and frequently why companies turn to external recruiters.

The root causes of any failed recruitment processes can sometimes be hard to identify, which is why we developed the Legal Recruitment Mastery Scorecard - to highlight issues that can be easily fixed, and to empower legal teams to recruit more effectively. This free online self-assessment is designed for General Counsel and Heads of Legal and takes around 7 minutes to complete, at the end of it you'll leave with a personalised action plan to fix recruitment problems experienced with a direct hiring strategy.

Remember: Technical excellence alone doesn't predict in-house success.

As Donald's case shows, the right behavioural fit can make the difference between a hire that enhances your team and one that undermines it.

Read the full article, including a review of some of the tools, the stats, the benefits, the costs on our website here.

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Want to learn more about implementing behavioural assessments in your legal recruitment process? Let's connect. I'd be happy to share more insights from over three decades in the legal space - the majority of which has been in in-house legal recruitment.