Talent Acquisition Officer – Business Services

The opportunity

We have an exciting opportunity for a Talent Acquisition Officer to join our team, focusing on experienced hire recruitment across our London office. Working as part of the Talent Acquisition Team, you will take responsibility for managing the recruitment of Business Services colleagues into our firm.

The firm

Bird & Bird opens up a world of possible for lawyers and professionals everywhere. Here you can advise major enterprises and high-growth businesses on matters that are often transformative in nature, and alongside people who are truly collegiate in the way they work with everyone at Bird & Bird. We are one international firm, where over 70% of our work involves teams from across our firm. And that is only going to increase. It is this common purpose and shared approach that makes for a more productive, and collaborative place to work.

The team

Bird & Bird's Human Resource (HR) team's mission is to empower and support all employees to achieve their potential at the Firm. We do this by encouraging and building strong relationships across all departments to cultivate a friendly, collaborative environment.

In London, the team comprises HR professionals across all areas from graduate and lateral recruitment, learning and development to teams specialising in generalist HR, our HR system, Partner HR, corporate social responsibility, and diversity and inclusion, all working alongside our international colleagues in supporting our 32 global offices. From your first to your last day at the Firm, we will act as your supportive advisors to ensure that you can perform to the best of your ability in your role. Collaborative and committed to creating a valuable service to the Firm, we are focused on providing the best service to all Bird & Bird employees and Partners.

What you'll do

The main objective of the role is to provide a seamless and best in class recruitment experience for our hiring managers and candidates.

Key areas of responsibility include:

Recruitment:

• Managing the end-to-end recruitment processes for experienced hires across Business Services.
• Establishing and maintaining excellent relationships with hiring managers/partners, acting as their recruitment expert and providing advice and guidance on interview processes, candidates and market trends.
• Acting as the main point of contact for all external recruitment agencies. Developing and maintaining strong relationships to ensure they have a full understanding of Bird & Bird, our culture, requirements and strategic goals. Ensuring all Terms of Business are agreed in writing, negotiating terms where appropriate, and proactively managing agency performance on an ongoing basis.
• Drafting recruitment business cases, job descriptions and adverts. Ensuring all templates are kept up to date. Understanding the allocation of resource/headcount within the relevant team and ensuring appropriate level of the hire to maximise cost efficiency.
• Organising and attending agency briefings with the hiring manager leading the recruitment. Briefing agencies via telephone/email on vacancies as they arise.
• Actively marketing Bird & Bird, our current vacancies and the firm culture on social media.

Candidate Management:

• Taking full ownership of the candidate experience from initial screening and candidate response to guidance on the recruitment process, interviewing, providing constructive feedback and managing offer discussions, always ensuring a seamless and professional experience.
• Supporting candidates with adjustments and advising the business on creating a fully inclusive environment to ensure candidates are properly supported throughout the recruitment process and beyond.
• Championing and leading direct hiring initiatives to identify and engage passive candidates in the market, including through the employee referral scheme, social media, online direct advertising, and the use of networks (such as alumni).
• Developing creative approaches to engaging candidates; creating awareness of the firm’s employer brand.
• Working with the HR generalist team to ensure a smooth transition after offer through to on-boarding.

Diversity & Inclusion:

• Championing diversity and inclusion throughout the recruitment process and contributing to D&I recruitment and employer brand-based initiatives and projects.
• Participating in and supporting Mansfield Rule UK activities to track and monitor our progress against key D&I metrics, both for those roles monitored by Mansfield and for roles outside Mansfield to ensure diversity and inclusion initiatives are maintained across the firm.

Projects:

• Working alongside the Talent Acquisition Manager and the wider Talent Acquisition team on projects to ensure a collaborative approach within the recruitment function.
• Taking full ownership of and leading key projects and deliverables, ensuring a global outlook wherever appropriate.
• Playing a key role in embedding our Employee Value Proposition within recruitment activities and championing the EVP externally.
• Providing the Reward & Benefits Manager and HR Managers with market intelligence analysis related to salary surveys, key hiring trends and candidate shortages annually ahead of salary review processes and on an ad-hoc basis throughout the year
• Assisting the HR Managers with advising on all Visa/Immigration processes for potential hires and liaising with our Employment Associates when completing the visa processes for hires or employees where appropriate. Ensuring all steps comply with Home Office/Border Agency standards and are documented fully.
• Keeping up to date with changing technology and new processes for improving recruitment strategy.

People:

• Advising colleagues in the international offices on recruitment methods and advancements, sharing best practice and new ideas/approaches to further Talent Acquisition globally.
• Picking up other ad hoc duties within the HR team, including Early Careers Recruitment activities, where necessary.

About you

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Experience in legal or professional services recruitment (whether in-house or within an agency)
• Excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to develop and maintain professional relationships, particularly at a senior level.
• Strong spoken and written communication skills with the ability to prepare concise, commercial papers.
• Good time management skills with the ability to prioritise work and be self-motivated.
• Be adept at working both as part of a team and autonomously. Use your own initiative to drive forward and improve processes.
• The ability to deal with highly sensitive matters and demonstrate an awareness of the confidential nature of much of the work.
• Desire to develop skills and knowledge in relation to recruitment best practice.

The main responsibilities of this role are outlined above; however, this description is not exhaustive, and the job holder may be required to undertake additional duties from time to time to ensure the smooth running of the department. The role may require some working outside our normal working hours of 9:30am- 5:30pm.