Recruitment of Best Lawyers for CSSO - Essay Example

An integrated marketing plan for CSSO targeting the recruitment of best lawyers. Recruitment of best lawyers for CSSO. The integrated marketing plan(IMP) is the master piece for guiding (CSSO) into being the employer of choice for the best lawyers in the country. After much brainstorming of all departmental heads and the office of the CSSO, several goals and objectives were listed which include: This program will be executed in a span of 3 years: During the 1st year, the goal shall be branding aimed at augmenting the organization’s image in the eyes of the prospective recruits not forgetting the current staff of the organization. This will be achieved by designing messages aimed at communicating the market plan internally and externally. In order to dissect the needs of the target audience a market analysis in for of a research shall be initiated and carried out continuously with the sole purpose of ensuring that the messages communicated to prospective lawyers are affected and are not a waste of money. To ensure generalization and the reaching out to as many target audience as possible the plan shall be laid out in such as way as to consider all the geographical zones in the country. Competitor Analysis In a bid to understand better CSSO’s environment, competitor analysis, was carried out; these include private law firms which are very good at attracting the best lawyers in the country, and the foreign law firms such as those in the US have been identified due to the fact that they offer very competitive salaries and therefore most law graduates head directly to there. The committee overseeing the IMP shall therefore be meeting bi-weekly to brainstorm and keep track of the program as well as sprucing it up In order to ensure effectiveness there shall be initial assessment on messages to prospective audience in order to ensure that the messages are meeting their purpose. The marketing plan will be tailored to be an ongoing scheme but not a one-use strategy. Since the projected kick-off for the program is January 2007, the budget shall factor in any chances of cost variation. Rationale In a recent staff meeting chaired by the CEO, it was noted that the ‘the organization was facing an imminent danger of collapsing if it can not attract and retain the best lawyers in the country did not shock many. In fact the situation has been clearly pointed out and brought forth in most of the staff meetings in the recent years. The organization’s IMP is set to change the trends in favor of a more vibrant public law office. Therefore the IMP serves as the link between the future performance of the public law office and the present, it shall further aim at resonating the organizations endeavor to tell all and sundry on the relevance of the institution as well as why it is the employer of choice to potential recruits including new graduates, those working in other areas as well as other government agencies but are not satisfied; and therefore; wish to switch to a promising employer. The IMP also seeks to coordinate all the marketing campaigns as well as integrating them to work to the advantage of the organization. Key to the IMP is to inform the prospective law recruits on the benefits of working with the public law office. It also reinforces the evaluation and monitoring strategies, which will ensure that the IMP transforms the organization for good. Internal Audit. During the year 2006 January to February, the research and development department carried out an assessment of the organization, in its findings, ( INSERT) it recommended for the initiation of the IMP, besides the assessment efforts, focus groups were established with an aim of assessing the viability of the IMP, it is through such meetings whereby a proposal was drafted detailing the needs of the organization in terms of messages and communication needed in order to accomplish the campaign for recruiting the best lawyers. After much work from the meetings of the committee and those coordinating the work groups (INSERT), one thing become clear, that the organization needed a more vibrant workforce. Internal Analysis Although there are some good elements in the general performance of the organization, such as (INSERT) covering and serving of many people per day, as well as offering free and affordable legal services, the main challenge remained to satisfy the disgruntled percentage. There are some setbacks such as low performance in service which was in turn being caused by a skeleton staff which is overworked. On the other hand the organization was not retaining staff and turnover was high. By drawing from the research studies and the internal analysis, the findings of the surveys were incorporated in the development of the IMP. Culture The CSSO has a strong culture of integrity in its relations with staff and with stakeholders of the organization. There is a culture of confidentiality due to the Official Secrets Act. There is a practical recognition of life/work balance in the organization such as job sharing and flexi work time. THE VALUE CHAIN Support Activities Strength Weakness CSSO Infrastructure Non traditional hierarchy Good organisational culture Decision making process Recruitment Excellent Training Opportunities No reward system to motivate staff. Technology Knowledge Management driven throughout the Organisation Knowledge Management, a lot of knowledge is with the staff and not shared. Management Circles Good Management Circle, vertical and horizontal communication between all levels. The only M.C. which is really working is MAC and partnership. All the others M.C. are not meeting on a regular basis. Project Operations Strong and efficient management in all legal areas With many tiers. Funding of for the IMP Good internal system Financial Constraints Primary Activities Strength Weakness Inbound Logistics Quality legal advice Operations Section organisation. Section is responsible for holiday planning, work management Very well trained staff Internal development of IT 100% support to provide best quality legal advice for clients. Lack of information flow regarding staff decisions. Staff do not identify with the organization. Business Management Senior Managers great legal experience good relationships with clients and stakeholders. Lack of down stream information flow Outbound Logistics When there is high court attendance time, good collaboration staff within section and outside section. Support staff numbers low Service Core competency is customer service. Turnaround of legal advice expectation is too high. Marketing Good customer service Financial limits Table 1: Value Chain: Primary Activities There is good communication within sections in each division. Therefore the coordination of market plan is highly likely to succeed. Core competence The core competencies of the CSSO are:- Customer Service Effective knowledge management Communications Managing and developing people Core operations The core operation of the CSSO is:- The provision and management of legal advice The operational effectiveness can be measured in terms of the success or otherwise of the six key objectives of the organization. The organisations effectiveness can be increased additionally by: Direct Selection and Recruitment by the Organization High morale among staff. The CSSO is essentially a ‘service provider’, so the ultimate resource of the CSSO is the Staff of CSSO. The operational strategy of the CSSO is aligned to the strategy of the CSSO in its provision of legal services. EXTERNAL ANAYLSIS PEST ANALYSIS The PEST analysis looks at the influences and impacts of the key environmental factors for the CSSO. Key External Influences Key external influences Political Irish Government European Union. Economic Department of Finance Staff Salaries Competitors Social Life/Work/Family Balance Technological Information Technology Table 4: PEST: Impact Analysis Key external influences in 5 years Political No change Economic CSSO budget more self regulated Social All staff on flexi-time Technological No paper files Table 5: Pest: Key Influences in 5 Years 7. STAKEHOLDERS CSSO being a public service office is answerable to manyaudiences who are affected directly or indirectly affected by the actions of the office. Therefore the integrated marketing plan considers the issues shown in the table 1.2 below and therefore needing attention. Stake-holder Nature of stake holding  Government of Ireland Government Departments Department of Finance Office of Public Work The Legal Profession The Daily Public Accounts committee The Courts CSSO Staff Being a public office, the CSSC is controlled by the government and therefore all actions will have to be approved prior to implementation. The government (INSERT) departments which works closely with CSSO has to be involved since they will be affected by the marketing plan. (INSERT) (INSERT) (INSERT) (INSERT) (INSERT) (INSERT) The above stakeholders can affect the achievement of the CSSO Integrated marketing plan. Specifically, the department of finance could veto extra finance to recruit specialized legal staff. There is a competing interest for the Department as they are also a client of the CSSO requiring legal services. The members of the public as stakeholders must be shown value for money. The CSSO communicates informally and formally with key stakeholders so that the provision of legal advices is appropriate to their expectations of the CSSO. This is a type of audit. This in turn is aligned to the mission of the organization to provide the highest quality of legal advice. Thus a direct link is made between the key stakeholders’ objectives and the objectives and strategy of the CSSO. 8. PORTERS FIVE FORCES Porter’s model is a strategic tool used to identify whether new products, services or businesses have the potential to be profitable. Porter argues that, the five forces determine the profitability of an industry. At the heart of industry are rivals and their competitive strategies linked to, for example, pricing or advertising; but, he contends, it is important to look beyond one’s immediate competitors as there are other determines of profitability. Specifically, there might be competition from substitute’s products or services have adopted porters five forces model to reflect the public sector nature of the CSSO. The clients of the CSSO are the Government, the government departments and Offices. The Clients do not pay for the services of the CSSO. In this, the CSSO has its own distinct external market. Fig. 1: 5Porters Five Forces Diagram The analysis shows that the industry attractiveness for CSSO competitors is high and that as it is, many recruits favour working with the competitors as opposed. The CSSO needs to look at this as a strong threat and utilize the IMP to achieve competitive advantage. Intensity of rivalry This would be intense if it were not for the Government Directive requiring the services of the CSSO by State offices. Personal injuries legislation has resulted in decreased business for commercial law firms. State legal business is an attractive alternative. The CSSO must never take its eye off the ball in this regard. The CSSO gains competitive advantage by: Legal service provision differentiation – The CSSO has developed information technology such as case and records management system that is not the norm in commercial law firms. Differentiation by adding value in an area that customers regards as important – awareness of how they do business. Keeping best practice and best value to the forefront of the organization. Who are the customers and how are they segmented? The CSSO customers are Taoiseach, Government Ministers, Government Departments and State Agencies. The CSSO Staff are the internal customers. CSSO’s external customer needs are:- The delivery of a high quality legal service The provision of an ethical and confidential legal service Maximum use of information technology in the delivery of service to them CSSO Customer needs: Competent response to any need and minimum delay Excellent service Assurance that their priorities are paramount when delivering a legal service. Good working relationships. The CSSO has built up long term professional, stable relationships with its customer which was confirmed in a Client survey as recent as 2004. 10. SWOT ANALYSIS The table below highlights the strengths weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Internal Analysis Strengths Weakness Organisational structure Legal Advice Quality Customer Service No motivation systems High file storage costs. High cost of staff Accommodation External Analysis Opportunities Threats Identify and Respond to new areas of law in a faster and more efficient way. Economy Competitor Rivalry Table 6: SWOT Matrix The matrix shows that Staff Issues need to be addressed. Key Staff will leave the organization for better opportunities in commercial law firms. Here are my suggestions for dealing with the weakness in the organization:- The introduction of overtime. (INSERT) Ansoff’s Product-Market Matrix The basic assumption behind Ansoff’s Product-Market Matrix is that new products and new markets require different competitive marketing strategies than current products and currents markets do (Harding and Long, 1998). This, of course, is equally true for the CSSO for all other industries. The four strategic growth options identified by Ansoff are: Market penetration. Market development. Product development Diversification. The applicability of each of these options to the law office will be discussed in the following section. Market Penetration is the most popular option and concentrates on increasing sales and market share of CSSO by finding ways of encouraging existing or potentially new recruits to join the office. Different ways of achieving this are for example: Improvement of salaries awarded. Improvement of working conditions and especially working hours. Converting non-customers to customer’s by targeting untraditional markets such as private practicing firms. Replacing competitors attraction to customers. Definition and targeting of new target customers in addition to graduates, students and workers Entering foreign markets to recruit lawyers there such as from Wales (INSERT) Increased offerings such as fringe benefits. Modification or improvement of existing services to attract recruits who chose their employer based on potential for growth and career development. Application of Porter’s Three Generic Competitive Strategies According to Porter (1980), an organization should identify one of the three strategic directions cost leadership, differentiation or focus for its business. Assuming that the CSSO wishes to grow continuously in a changing and uncertain environment, Porter noted that this decision is fundamental to establishing and maintaining a strong competitive advantage – regardless the industry the firm is involved in (Harding and How you will get there (tactics, marketing programmes etc) Timeline 1st year focus. Since it is clear that the IMP is too ambitious to be implemented in whole at once, image enhancement through the emphasizing of the organization vision/mission statement shall be given prominence. This shall enable the communication to the audiences listed above is effective and result oriented. 2nd year focus. Focus shall be tuned to public servants in other public service departments. 3rd year focus. The plan shall focus on general law fraternity especially in private practice as this is viewed as hard market segment to reach up to, compare to fresh graduates and other public segments. Here it is forecasted that many recruits should be drawn from this segment as many of the top-notch lawyers are to be found practicing in the private sector. These shall be achieved in holding seminars, placing adverts in magazines, banners, publications, and radio. Key messages. The messages aimed at our audience and subject to reinforcement include ;( INSERT) That CSO is the employer of choice. That CSSO provides a chance for career growth Read More