employee development Archives - Everpool Recruitment

Ask any business leader in the Legal industry, and they’ll tell you it’s becoming a lot more difficult to keep teams fully staffed, engaged, and confident in their skills. Across industries, hiring is starting to feel more like plugging leaks than building momentum.

75% of employers say finding qualified people to fill roles is their biggest challenge. As technology evolves and skill gaps grow wider every year, it’s no wonder. New demands arrive faster than many teams can respond.

It’s common to spend months recruiting only to see another critical role open when someone leaves. That’s why strategic development planning has moved far beyond optional training budgets or nice-to-have perks. A clear, thoughtful growth plan is now one of the few tools that can help keep good people engaged and ready for what comes next.

Without it, there’s little chance of staying ahead of rapid change or keeping the Legal employees who care about staying productive and competitive. A future-ready workforce depends on a strong development plan.

The question is how you build one.

What Makes Development Plans Deliver

A development plan works best when everyone knows why it exists. It isn’t just a record of training courses. It’s a simple way to show how someone’s skills can grow in a direction that matters to them and the business.

Many plans fall short because they stay too general. They rely on the same list of goals for every role. Over time, people stop seeing the point. If a plan doesn’t connect to real work, it becomes a paperwork exercise. You need a cohesive strategy if you want your plan to deliver a competitive talent advantage. That starts with goals.

The SMART Goals Framework keeps things grounded. It drives companies to set specific, practical objectives that lead to measurable development outcomes. “Get better at data skills” doesn’t mean much. A stronger goal might be, “Finish a data analytics certification by October and use it to improve the next reporting cycle.”

It also helps to think about how learning happens. For most Legal employees, it doesn’t come from sitting in a classroom. The 70-20-10 model indicates that about 70% of skill development happens as a side effect of daily work. 20% comes from social interactions (coaching, mentoring, and peer conversations). Only about 10% comes from formal courses.

That balance might differ depending on your team, though. Some people want to learn with hands-on experiences; others need time to watch examples or walk through steps. Smaller, targeted lessons can also make learning feel manageable. Many Legal companies are moving toward microlearning, offering short videos or guides that employees can pull up when needed.

Whatever approach you take, make sure there’s alignment between individual aspirations and preferences, and organisational objectives.

The Strategic Development Planning Framework

A development plan is easier to build when there is a clear process behind it. Many Legal teams try to start with a list of training courses or generic goals. That approach rarely holds up over time. For measurable development outcomes, you need more clarity.

Here’s how to start:

Conduct a Skills Assessment & Gap Analysis

Any effective development plan starts with understanding the skills your teams already have. Competency mapping doesn’t have to be complicated. It can start with simple questions about the types of tasks employees handle well, and where projects slow down. You might consider what sector-specific capabilities will be more important tomorrow than yesterday.

Take a holistic view. Assessing technical Legal skills will be important, particularly as demand for certain things, like digital literacy, continues to grow. But remember to consider soft skills, leadership qualities, and transferable skills.

Think ahead and remember that some skills are becoming essential across all industries. AI proficiency, data analysis, and automation skills are becoming more relevant to all kinds of Legal employees. Will those be crucial to your team moving forward?

Explore the Four Types of Development Plans

Once you’ve mapped your skills gap, you can look at the bridges that might fit. Not every plan needs to look the same. Sometimes, you’ll be focused on improving employees’ skills in a specific Legal role. Other times, you’ll want to prepare staff to grow into new positions.

Consider a broad range of:

Skill-based plans strengthen the abilities a person uses most days.
Succession plans prepare someone to take over a crucial role for progress.
Management development plans help new leaders feel steady and clear about expectations.
Career transition plans support employees moving into a different part of the business.

Sometimes, your entire development plan will borrow elements from multiple different areas. What matters most is that your approach makes sense to you and your employees.

Define Your Resource Allocation Strategy

Strategic development planning can stall when resources feel limited. Many Legal companies set aside 2-5% of payroll for development, but there’s no ideal budget. Some organisations choose to spend a lot more. After all, certain studies have shown that learning and development has an average ROI of 353%.

If putting more into development helps you spend less on constant recruiting, high turnover, and work that keeps getting redone, it’s usually worth the investment. Learning and growth don’t just improve productivity. It also makes your company more appealing to candidates, keeps people engaged, and helps morale stay steady.

If your resources are limited, look at budget-conscious options:

Cross-training helps people build skills by learning directly from colleagues.
Mentoring connects senior and inexperienced employees for peer-to-peer learning.
Short online courses or microlearning tools can fit into busy schedules without much cost.

Technology is also changing what’s possible. Some teams use simple learning platforms to track progress. Others bring in AI-powered tools to suggest training options or measure results. These systems don’t need to be elaborated on to be helpful.

Remember Cultural Integration

The last piece is making sure development fits the way people already work. A plan that ignores culture can feel forced.

Remote and hybrid teams often need more flexibility. Different types of Legal staff members prefer varying approaches. Certain employees prefer to learn independently, while others need regular check-ins to stay engaged.

Development also means different things to different generations. Early-career employees may want to build credibility, while someone later in their career might focus on mentoring others.

Plans should reflect the fact that people learn and grow in different ways. They need to show their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. When employees see that development is set up to work for everyone, they’re more likely to take it seriously.

A plan that accommodates different needs and backgrounds feels more genuine. It shows that learning isn’t just an extra thing to do when there’s time; it’s part of how the team works.

Implementation Best Practices: From Plan to Performance

A Legal development plan can look amazing in a document, with clear goals, good intentions, and a timeline everyone can follow. But sometimes those plans fall apart because they don’t account for a careful launch, regular monitoring, and future growth.

Here’s how you can plan for success.

Develop a Clear Launch Strategy

How you introduce a plan is important. Without your team’s input, it shouldn’t feel like it was developed behind closed doors. When employees get to share what they need and what feels realistic, it’s easier to get real commitment.

It’s worth talking early about what success should look like, too. Be specific about who will be responsible for what, and what should happen month after month. Make sure everyone knows what resources are available to help.

Don’t overlook basic preparations, too. Setting up logins, ensuring reading materials are easily accessible, and even figuring out how to record milestones early can make a plan feel more structured.

Master Monitoring & Evaluation

It’s common to see plans lose momentum when nobody checks in. Without regular conversations, goals lose their meaning. Some Legal teams meet monthly to see how things are going. Others chat every couple of weeks, even just for ten minutes. What matters is that it happens.

Measuring progress doesn’t need a big system. A few questions work fine. Are new skills showing up in daily tasks? Are people more confident? Is turnover steady? These are the signals worth watching.

You can usually spot the impact if you look for it:

People stay longer because they feel their role has a future.
Projects finish faster with fewer mistakes.
More employees are ready to step into bigger jobs.
Teams can handle more complex work without needing outside help.
Surveys or informal chats show people feel supported.

Don’t wait for a formal review or exit interview to spot issues. A quick conversation can uncover small problems before they turn into big ones.

Commit to Continuous Improvement

The Legal industry, and your business will continue to change. Your development plans shouldn’t stay frozen in place. It helps to define moments when you’ll review what’s happening and decide whether it’s working for your team.

Be ready to adjust when a new project, a shift in priorities, or a change in employee aspirations arises. Keep communication fluid, too, focusing on regular feedback. Gathering insights from team members about what they would like to improve can help you optimise your training resources. Recognizing staff for their efforts keeps motivation high.

The last step is constantly documenting the lessons you’re learning as a business. When a team finishes a development cycle, pause and look back. What worked? What slowed things down? Collect those insights so the next plan feels easier to start and simpler to follow.

Turning Plans into Real Progress

There’s no perfect recipe for strategic development planning. What works for one Legal team might hold another back. Every organisation has its own mix of challenges, priorities, and learning preferences.

But one thing shows everywhere: people want to know their skills matter. They want to see that there’s a path forward, especially when everything around them feels uncertain.

A good development plan helps meet that need in a real way. It tells employees that growth isn’t something they have to figure out on their own.

Getting started doesn’t take a huge step; it just requires a clear goal, a conversation with your team members, and a small investment in the right resources.

If you’re unsure where to begin, don’t wait for the perfect moment or plan. The most important thing is to start somewhere. Even a simple, honest approach can go a long way if it stays connected to people’s daily work.

How much can you learn about someone from a CV? These documents might offer a brief insight into a Retail candidate’s previous roles or credentials, but they don’t show you how competent a candidate will be, or how well they’ll mesh with your company’s culture.

These days, they may not even tell you if your candidate has the skills they’ll need to thrive in a specific role. After all, with innovations in AI and technology happening constantly, a degree in a particular topic doesn’t necessarily guarantee a candidate’s future success.

That’s why 72% of hiring managers prefer skill-based hiring over CV assessments.

Ultimately, hiring the right talent has become much harder. Economic pressures, rising operational costs, and what’s now called a “bifurcated labour market” are making it even more difficult. Some sectors struggle to fill roles, while others face an oversupply of candidates. It’s a confusing, frustrating landscape for both employers and job seekers.

That’s why a skills-based approach is so valuable. In 2025, organisations that shift their focus to examining real capabilities rather than credentials will be better positioned to adapt, innovate, and grow.

The Limitations of Traditional CV-Based Hiring

It’s estimated that around 60% of companies use CV screening in the hiring process. That’s nothing new – Retail employers have relied on these documents for decades, typically using software to immediately “narrow” candidate pools based on specific credentials.

Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t work. Often, your hiring team or automated system will automatically ignore candidates who could be ideal for a role just because they haven’t listed a particular skill or credential.

One Harvard Business Review report found that around 61% of employers reject qualified candidates because they don’t meet “degree” requirements. However, someone without a degree could still be incredibly valuable for a role if they have the right skills.

Plus, it’s worth remembering that roles change faster than educational paths evolve. Today’s candidates don’t always have degrees in things like “data science” or machine learning, but they could have transferrable skills that align with those roles.

Beyond that, traditional hiring methods have inherent biases. Hiring teams have a habit of inadvertently favouring candidates from specific backgrounds or people with a certain amount of experience.

An obvious example is how immigrants in Canada are regularly rejected for roles because they have “no Canadian experience.” Unfortunately, AI can sometimes make this bias problem worse. Although AI screening tools save hiring teams time, they can also prioritise candidates based on the existing CVs and employee data they’re trained on.

What is Skills-Based Hiring?

Many experts believe skills-based hiring is the future of recruitment. This strategy focuses on a candidate’s competencies—both technical and interpersonal—over traditional things like previous job titles or degrees.

The idea is that instead of trying to estimate whether a person will be effective in a role based on what they’ve accomplished in the past, you look at what they can do now and what kind of potential they’ll have in the future.

Skills-based hiring encourages a careful evaluation of all types of skills:

Hard Skills: These are measurable, Retail job-specific abilities acquired through education or training, such as proficiency in a programming language or expertise in data analysis.
Soft Skills: These encompass interpersonal attributes like communication, teamwork, and adaptability, which are crucial for effective collaboration and leadership.
Transferable Skills: Skills applicable across various roles and industries, such as problem-solving or critical thinking, allow individuals to adapt to different job functions.

So, why is this approach so valuable? Skills-based hiring opens doors for a broader range of candidates by focusing on actual abilities rather than formal qualifications. It allows you to overcome the biases in traditional hiring practices and offer opportunities to individuals from diverse backgrounds.

This doesn’t just improve DEI metrics – it means you gain access to more valuable talent, at a time when 87% of global companies are experiencing skill gaps.

Benefits of Skills-Based Hiring for Employers

Studies from McKinsey show that skills-based hiring is incredibly valuable. It expands your talent pool, creates a more resilient workforce (through diversity), and accelerates the hiring cycle. When you focus on skills first, you get:

Access to a Broader Talent Pool

Companies can tap into a more extensive and diverse candidate base by prioritising competencies over traditional credentials. Some studies suggest skills-based hiring can expand the talent pool by up to ten times. In the Retail landscape where access to talent is limited, this greatly impacts your ability to fill skill gaps fast.

Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion

Focusing on skills, rather than arbitrary things like degrees and prior experience, helps reduce biases in hiring, creating a more inclusive recruitment process. That means you end up with a more diverse team, more capable of innovating and sharing unique perspectives. Research shows diverse teams lead to more profitable companies—diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets and 87% better at making decisions.

Better Retention and Reduced Turnover

A skills-focused approach can streamline hiring, resulting in significant cost and time savings. Organisations have reported up to a 91% faster hiring process and nearly a 90% reduction in hiring costs.

Moreover, candidates selected based on their competencies are more likely to excel in their roles, leading to higher job satisfaction and reduced turnover.

Practical Implementation: A Step-by-Step Guide

So, how can companies embrace the era of skills-based hiring?

Ultimately, it’s all about rethinking how you review candidates.

Step 1: Conduct a Skills Audit of Current Roles

Begin by analysing existing positions to identify the specific skills and competencies required for success. The important thing to remember here is to take a forward-thinking approach. Don’t just consider the skills team members need now.

Think about the skills relevant to your Retail roles in the future. According to the World Economic Forum, around 40% of the skills that today’s employers screen for might be obsolete by 2030.

Step 2: Update Your Job Descriptions

Stop listing things like “degree in [x]” or “[x] years of experience in [role]” on your job descriptions. Instead, focus on the skills you need. Clearly outline the essential competencies you’re looking for and why they matter, such as “knowledge of data analysis” or “excellent team collaboration skills”. This will help you attract a broader pool of candidates.

Step 3: Design Skill Assessments

Instead of validating whether Retail candidates have the right skills based on their credentials, put their competencies to the test. Create assessments that accurately evaluate each candidate’s reasoning skills, data knowledge, or cognitive abilities. This will show you whether your employees can leverage the abilities they have in the workplace.

Step 4: Implement Structured Interviewing Techniques

Structured interviewing is a great way to remove bias from the hiring process and gain a deeper insight into the potential of the people you meet. Create a list of specific questions that probe your candidate’s abilities, experiences, and behaviours. Consider using a scoring mechanism to evaluate everyone’s responses fairly.

Step 5: Leverage Technology Effectively

AI and automation can create problems in the Retail recruitment process, but they can also be helpful. Train your models to identify the key competencies linked to a role in candidate applications and assessments. Use predictive analysis tools for deeper insights into which candidates might have the most potential based on their abilities.

Step 6: Address the Need for Upskilling

As Retail roles continue to change, there’s a good chance you won’t find a candidate with the complete set of skills you’re looking for. With that in mind, ensure you have a plan for upskilling. Look for ways to build on impressive candidates by giving them access to new training resources, mentorship programs, and online courses.

Overcoming Common Challenges and Resistance

Although many companies are discovering the benefits of skills-based hiring, certain team members and employees might still resist a shift to a new strategy. Most hiring managers are used to focusing heavily on CVs and resumes.

The best way to address this issue is with education. Show your hiring managers clear evidence of the benefits of a skills-based approach, such as improved performance and diversity outcomes. Engage stakeholders through workshops and discussions that address their concerns.

During the transition period, gather as much data and feedback as possible. Highlight how skills-based strategies are reducing hiring costs or improving productivity.

Remember to focus on a comprehensive approach to assessing skills, too. While it’s important to find candidates with the right technical skills, it’s much easier to “teach” hard skills than to reshape a candidate to fit your company culture.

Skills-based hiring should incorporate evaluations of interpersonal skills and adaptability to maintain and enhance a cohesive workplace culture.

Rethinking Hiring for a More Resilient Workforce

Ultimately, for Retail companies, the case for skills-based hiring has never been stronger. In the years ahead, demand for these strategies will only grow. Thanks to the impact of AI and automation, the types of skills companies need in their employees are changing at an incredible pace.

Human skills, such as resilience and adaptability, are becoming increasingly important, and these competencies cannot be measured in degrees and certifications.

Switching your attention to skills over CVs will ensure you can more rapidly adapt to a changing market and access a wider range of talented professionals. It’s the key to faster, more effective, and more strategic hiring in a dynamic world.

Settling into any new role takes time. Even employees with years of experience in similar Legal industry roles can struggle when faced with new processes, workplace requirements and team dynamics. That’s why business leaders and managers must invest in effective onboarding processes to streamline the path to productivity.

Implementing the right strategy for an employee’s first 90 days in your organisation doesn’t only ensure you get the most value out of your new hire as quickly as possible, but it’s also crucial to retaining top talent in a competitive job market.

A well-structured onboarding process that focuses on training, cultural integration, and development during the first three months helps to forge the foundations of a positive relationship between employees and the companies they support.

Here’s how you can set your new employee up for success during their first 90 days with your company.

The Importance of Employee Onboarding and Development

Studies show up to 20% of employee turnover happens within the first 45 days of a new hire joining the team. This makes the initial stages of welcoming an employee into your team crucial for talent retention. 69% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company for three years or more if they receive an excellent initial onboarding experience.

In a skills-short Legal space, employees are likelier to abandon roles that don’t meet their expectations. Companies could waste time and resources recruiting and training staff who may leave their roles within a few months.

Rapid turnover can significantly impact team morale and overall company culture, reducing productivity and performance. A robust onboarding process, particularly focusing on the first 90 days, sets the tone for a valuable long-term relationship between your company and your new hires.

It allows staff to build strong foundations in your business, provides them with rapid access to essential skills, and helps them forge relationships with other team members. You will reduce your risk of early turnover for new talent and streamline each team member’s path to success within your organisation.

The First 90 Days: Building Your Onboarding Roadmap

The exact elements of a successful onboarding strategy will always vary depending on the Legal role you’re filling and the unique requirements of your new hire. However, the following blueprint will give you a helpful starting point when designing your onboarding strategy.

Pre-Arrival Preparation (Days -30 to 0)

A powerful onboarding experience starts before your new staff member arrives for their first day at your Legal business location. When an employee accepts your job offer, you should prepare to welcome them into the team.

Create a comprehensive and personalised onboarding plan for each new team member that outlines the required training schedule, objectives, and milestones. This will give your new starter an insight into what to expect ahead of their start date.

Prepare any hardware and equipment your employees will need, such as a computer, desk space, and any software they’ll need access to, so it’s ready for them when they walk through the door.

Assigning a mentor or buddy to each new team member is a helpful way to give them a go-to resource if they have questions about their role, tasks or the company. Arrange this ahead of time. Additionally, consider setting up meet-and-greet sessions with the key team members your employee will work with.

Communicate with your new employee before their start date, sending them a welcome email with essential information about their role and the organisation.

The First Week (Days 1-7)

The first week in a new Legal role can be chaotic and nerve-wracking for a new team member. Ensuring your employee feels supported and informed during this time is crucial.

On the first day, focus on welcoming the hire into the team, introducing them to team members, and showing them around the office. Ensure they know where to find everything, from meeting rooms to bathrooms and lunch or break spaces.

Set expectations with your new team member immediately, but ensure you’re realistic about expected accomplishments. Remind your new staff member of the critical elements of your company’s culture and values, and ask them if they have any questions about their role.

Additionally, during the first week, scheduling initial training sessions covering the software your employees will be using or any essential processes they’ll need to follow is helpful. Plus, make sure you have a few regular check-ins scheduled with a manager or team leader so you can monitor your new hire’s progress.

Weeks 2-4 (Days 8-30)

After the first week, you can dive into more role-specific training sessions for your Legal hire, focusing on developing core skills and overcoming potential weaknesses. Introduce the key projects your team member will work on and assign new responsibilities.

For the first month, avoid overwhelming your employees with complex tasks. Instead, ensure they have access to the resources they need to learn more about their roles and functions and build new relationships with valuable team members.

Consider introducing team-building exercises or arranging informal lunches to foster the development of positive connections and enable collaboration.

At the end of the first month, schedule your first formal feedback session, ensuring you both provide helpful guidance and collect insights from your new employee about their experience in the workplace.

Month 2 (Days 31-60)

When they enter their second month with your business, your new Legal hire should start feeling more confident in their role. Start giving your staff members more autonomy and responsibility, ensuring they still have someone to turn to if they have any questions.

Help them set short-term goals and objectives based on their ambitions and your company’s broader goals. Additionally, ensure your staff member can access continued learning and development opportunities, such as training sessions and workshops.

At this point, infusing your new employee deeper into your business operations is essential. Encourage them to actively participate in team meetings and projects and ask them to share their thoughts and opinions regularly.

At the end of the second month, arrange another review and feedback session to assess progress and provide constructive feedback.

Month 3 (Days 61-90)

In the third month of the onboarding process, your new hire should feel fully integrated into the business. You can begin to assign them more complex tasks and projects and ask them to take more initiative in their role. Begin looking for more specific opportunities for growth and development based on what you’ve learned about your hire’s strengths and weaknesses so far.

Arrange another meeting during which your Legal team member can tell you about their long-term career aspirations, and you and your colleague can begin to build a personal development plan for them.

At the end of the third month, invite your employee to a comprehensive 90-day review. During this meeting, you can discuss the employee’s goals and achievements and collaboratively identify areas for improvement. You should also begin to discuss long-term development plans and set clear goals for the staff member’s next 90 days in their role.

At this stage, you can also ask your employees for feedback about what they’ve liked and disliked about the onboarding experience. This will help you optimise and improve future onboarding strategies.

The First 90 Days: Best Practice

Developing an onboarding strategy for your new hire’s first 90 days within their new Legal role is crucial to integrating them into your company culture and setting the foundations for future success. Some experts say an employee’s experience within the first 90 days in a role will significantly impact their long-term performance and contribution to a company.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind throughout the process:

Maintain Open Communication

Communication is key to strengthening the relationship between your new employee and your business. Ensure managers regularly check in with new team members to clarify expectations, offer feedback, and quickly address any concerns or challenges.

Personalise the Onboarding Experience

Every new Legal hire will have requirements and specific challenges to overcome when starting a role with a company. Make sure you personalise the onboarding experience based on the employee’s role, background, and individual learning style.

Leverage Technology

Taking advantage of technology can significantly improve the onboarding experience. Digital scheduling tools, learning management software, and communication solutions can automate and streamline processes throughout the onboarding journey.

Gathering and Acting on Feedback

Gather feedback from your new staff members during and after onboarding to determine what works well for them and what can be improved. This will show employees that you value their input and help continuously refine the onboarding experience.

Master the 90-Day Onboarding Process

An effective onboarding strategy ensures that your new Legal employee thrives in your organisation Retaining crucial talent, enhancing your company culture, and building an effective team are important.

Follow the steps above to design your 90-day onboarding strategy. Remember to constantly optimise and improve the experience based on feedback from each new team member.

Creating Development Plans That Deliver for Your Legal Team

October 16, 2025