Growing a good trainee - pre-contract contact

I recently bumped into a Trainee in Waiting who is starting at my Firm this September. He did his LPC compulsory work experience in my dept at the beginning of the year so we kept in touch. I was surprised to find out he hadn't heard anything from the Firm despite him starting so soon. He is in a better position because of his work experience; his peers haven't had that experience. I didn't really have any contact with the Firm before I started either, so I asked around some of my fellow trainees and discovered this isn't so rare.

Now being a member of the Firm, I can see that our HR dept is very busy at this time of year with us trainees; we have just had the NQ process and we will be doing the seat swap choice next week. Plus the firms annual reviews are ongoing and there are a raft of new recruits with the new financial year. I can understand if contacting new trainees is not top priority. However, given these trainees are one of the biggest people investments the Firm will make, I don't think these priorities are quite right.

My Firm pays out over £50,000 per trainee on salary, LPC and PSC fees, not to mention the supervisory and training time plus the risk of letting unqualifieds near clients. The aim, I would suggest, is to influence the development of good potential into loyal and talented NQs. Like an investment. I don't think many financial advisers would advocate leaving an investment alone for 2 years in the hope it would still have growth potential. I would hope at the very least it would be monitored at regular intervals to ensure the potential is maintained. Now as we are talking about people, I think it unlikely trainees would lose potential, but a trainee's relationship with a firm will be key in realising that potential. If a firm started out developing a positive relationship before the trainee is at the firm they will have a head start when the training contract starts.

My Firm recruits trainees 2 years before they start. Given the statistics, Trainees in Waiting are really happy to get an offer, especially as my Firm pays LPC fees. However 2 years is a long time to wait and hear nothing. By the time I got to choosing electives on my LPC, 18 months of no contact had me feeling a little jumpy. Had I really got a training contract or had I dreamt it? I also could have used a little guidance; as it turns out, I chose electives that I thought would be helpful and weren't. I in fact wrote to the Firm to ask this very question but didn't get a response. Perhaps I would have spent my Firm's money a little better if I had a way of getting some guidance.

Many trainees I have spoken to have a similar story to me, no contact until a month before they started. Some, however, told me that they were invited to firm events; the christmas party and summer fundraiser whilst others were invited to Junior Lawyer events with the firm's trainees but paid for by the firm. All these trainees informed me they felt relaxed when they eventually started. Having met other trainees and staff members they already felt part of their firm and had made contacts they could turn to for support. They had also met each other and maintained contact leading up to their. The relatively small effort their firm had made to include them meant their transition from student to trainee went a little smoother. The lack of transition turbulence probably helped those trainees develop quicker and learn more in their first seat when compared with trainees like me.

I think the period between offer and start of a training contract is an opportunity for firms to cultivate their relationships with trainees-in-waiting. They have sifted through the multitudes of law students to find a choice few to invest in and will spend a lot of time and money on those lucky candidates. Missing the chance to ease them into their training is shortsighted. Firms shouldn't wait until their trainees are in the building to help them grow, they should be laying foundations as soon as the offer has been accepted. Investments in people don't grow themselves.

An Interim Review Dictionary

It is the review season at my Firm; trainees have their mid seat reviews and the rest of the staff have their annual reviews. Even the partners have reviews with other partners (although I am lead to believe this is more 'boozy lunch with targets' than 'serious discussion'). The general format is there are many many forms to be filled out by all concerned which are then sent to HR and filed (read lost.... eaten... generally not looked at) based on attributes on a centralised 'expectations' database.

Each level within a role has a set of expectations which should be achieved before the staff member can progress. This sounds all very transparent and should facilitate easy goal setting discussions within teams. However, as with many processes that involve HR and potentially employment law aspects the expectations are so overly worded that serious review sessions (such as those with trainees) need a pre-review review to establish what they all mean!

Given that most trainees will have a review process, even if it is not so bureaucratic as ours, I thought I would explain some of the more obscure terms that came up in my review (N.B: not to be taken seriously)

1. Demonstrate understanding of the importance of managing time
All tasks must be done yesterday or earlier and understand this must be achieved within normal working hours. Requires an appreciation of the impossible and also some mind reading ability. Do not base your time keeping on that of your superiors.

2. Demonstrate professional behaviour and represent the Firm appropriately
DON'T GET DRUNK AT WORK.

3. Show willingness to help others and put in extra effort
Stay in the office as long as someone has something for you to do, even if it is helping the cleaners.

4. Display an ability to question findings
but not the findings of your superiors, colleagues or anyone better than you. Only your own. Especially when you are wrong (even if you are not).

5. Gain an understanding of client culture

Make sure you spot the dodgy ones and take them out for client meetings

Coupled with these gems are a speckling of expectations that I'm surprised the Firm considers it necessary to include:

6. Produce work that is easy to review (how could it be difficult to review?!)

7. Complete simple research (instead leaving it unfinished?)

8. Display knowledge (in graph format or would you prefer a presentation?)

9. Prompt timekeeping and good attendance (................................are we at school?)

10. Demonstrate an understanding of why you are carrying out work (??!?!?!)

If I am honest, the feed back in my first 3 months review was that I had ticked most of these boxes already. Not surprising really, given the height of the hoops - I hope this isn't the criteria my Firm chooses trainees!

Finally - the one that surely no-one can reach - Understand what is expected of you and confirm this with others....................................