How Press Releases Help You Attract and Retain Talent
Did you know that press releases don’t actually have to be sent to the press? Crazy as it sounds, you don’t have to use this age-old tactic solely for its original purpose.
Today, press releases are a great way to codify achievements for your firm. They are more formal than a blog post and can live on your website for as long as you see fit.
So if you aren’t aiming to have your news breathlessly reported by Lady Whistledown, what are you aiming to do? Let’s take a look at how a press release can help you attract and retain talent at your firm.
Who Are the Stakeholders?
When a lateral hire joins your team, you want to let your stakeholders know about it. Keep in mind the stakeholders for this news include:
Your clients
Your community
COIs
Your existing partners and employees
Was that last one a bit surprising? Consider this reporting by Roy Strom, which shows that lateral partner hires in the largest US cities grew more than 50% during the period between November 2020 and January 2021, as compared to the same period over the three previous years. This matters because your firm needs to do two things:
Attract lateral talent.
Retain existing talent.
Each time you announce that a talented person chose to move to your firm, you’re sending a strong message to your existing partners and employees. You’re letting them know that winners are choosing your firm as a great platform to build their book of business.
More Ways to Maximize a New Hire Release
Once the press release is posted on your website – again, codifying the win for your firm – you can look at other ways to leverage it with your stakeholders.
Share the release on social media. You can get more bang for your buck by sharing the news about your lateral hire on social media, and further legitimizing the win by linking back to your formal press release online.
Repurpose the release into a firm-wide email. Let everyone know by sharing the news internally. This should come from your managing partner or another key leader in your talent recruitment efforts. Consider including more personal details in this message to boost introductions across your firm.
Create a branded email for clients and COIs. Remember those talented people you want to retain at your firm? Help them cross-sell this new hire’s skills to their existing clients. Arm them with a branded email that outlines the unique experiences this person brings to the firm.
Other Benefits of Press Releases
Many times, firms forget that press releases offer low hanging fruit in terms of search engine optimization benefits. The release itself, posted on a stand-alone page with the new hire’s name in the URL, can generate SEO benefits within 6-8 weeks. Be sure that the SERP description aligns with what you want users to see.
In addition, press releases create an instant internal link for your new hire. Link building is important for building credibility for your people with search engines. The more links that you can provide to meaningful content, the better they will fare in search results. So an easy welcome gift for your new hire is a press release linked to their bio.
Who Rises to the Level of a Lateral?
We get this question often from our clients. The short answer is anyone who can sell or whose services others can cross-sell. It’s that easy.
The long answer involves going back to the two things we want to achieve – attract lateral talent and retain existing talent. Ask yourself if sharing the news about this hire helps you do those things. This may be a more nuanced discussion, which we are glad to help facilitate. If you need help with using marketing strategies to attract and retain talent, contact us.