For employment law and HR firms
Who's in the room when an employer decides whether to call you?
When a business owner has a problem with someone on their team, they don't always ring a lawyer first. Quite often, I think, they look you up, maybe after a friend has mentioned your name, and then sit down with a co-director or their operations manager to decide whether it's worth paying for advice or whether they can sort it out themselves. You're not in that conversation, and whatever they found when they looked you up is doing your talking for you.
I think most employment lawyers and HR advisers are really good once they're in the room with someone, and a lot harder to get a feel for before that, which is the part we try to help with.
You'll hear back from me within 24 hours, Monday to Friday.
Eighteen films from one day with Orchard
Jemma Fairclough-Haynes runs Orchard Employment Law, a boutique consultancy that gives businesses employment law and HR advice. She already had some videos when we spoke in February 2023, and I watched them before I wrote her a proposal.
We filmed for one day in Rochester in March 2023, and by the end of April she had eighteen films: answers to the questions employers bring her, on things like bonuses, long-term absence and tribunals, a set on the story of Orchard, and two on how to get in touch. I shot on two cameras and built a caption template, so the films look like they belong together.
Seven of her explainers for employers went up on Orchard's YouTube channel between April and June 2023, about one a week, and they're still there now. We didn't agree a way to measure what they brought in, so there are no figures I can show you.
What employers want to see before they ring
Orchard's project was films only, and it came before we worked the way we do now. These days a project starts with the Positioning Diagnostic, the first part of the Build, our Trust Library Engagement. In it we look at where your enquiries go quiet and who has a say. In a small employer that might be the operations manager who found you. In a bigger one, it's often an HR lead who has to get the managing director to sign off the spend.
Then we'd look at three things in particular.
A film on what working with you costs and how it runs. I think a lot of employment law work gets held up on a simpler question than any point of law: what happens once they pick up the phone, and how much it'll cost them. Answering that on film, in your own words, saves the person who found you from guessing.
Short answers to the questions employers already ask. A two-minute film on long-term absence is the kind of thing an employer might watch at their desk and send on to a co-director. It shows them how you think about their problem before they've asked you anything.
Briefs for whoever signs off the spend. Where an HR lead has to persuade an MD or a finance director, we write a short brief for each of them, plus notes for the HR lead on which to send and when. We call that a Champion Pack, and there's a full sample, built around a made-up firm, on its own page.
And then we put it all into a plan, so every film and post has its week and it goes out steadily over the months.
What employment law founders want to know
What does Epiphany Content do for employment law firms?
Epiphany Content is Kevan Smith's company, and for founder-led employment law and HR advisory firms it makes short films, written briefs and a plan for getting them out. An employer who finds you, or is sent your name, can then see how you work and make the case for calling you to their co-director or MD.
Is it right for a firm our size?
It's built for firms of roughly 5 to 50 people where clients ask for the founder by name and most work comes through recommendation. It isn't built for partnerships that win work on their credentials through procurement.
What kind of films suit an employment law firm?
Short answers to the questions employers bring you most often, like bonuses, long-term absence and tribunals, plus a film on who you are and one on how to get in touch. Orchard Employment Law's eighteen films came from one filming day and followed roughly that shape.
How do we keep general guidance on film from turning into advice?
That line is yours to draw, and the process is built so you can. We write the scripts with you from what you already tell clients, and you check every line before we film, so you decide where general guidance stops and where someone should call you.
How much does it cost?
The Explore call with Epiphany Content is free and takes 30 minutes. The Build, our Trust Library Engagement, is £12,500 +VAT: £4,000 +VAT upfront, then five payments of £1,700 +VAT. If you'd like us to keep going afterwards, the Trust Library Retainer is £1,500 a month +VAT, with a six-month initial term.
How much time will it take from me?
Orchard's eighteen films came from one filming day. On a Build there are also a few calls so I can draft scripts in your words and a rehearsal before the shoot, and we look after the planning and editing. The one posting plan we've built so far, for We Are Brave, is set up so each founder needs about an hour a fortnight once it's going.
Who does the employer talk to before they call you?
Tell me about them on an Explore call, whether it's an operations manager, an HR lead or a co-director, and we'll work out what they'd need to have seen first.
You'll hear back from me within 24 hours, Monday to Friday.