5 Reasons Not to Micromanage Your Split Partners

A split partner relationship can be a delicate thing. That’s because it depends on so many different factors, not the least of which are the personalities and preferences of the recruiters involved.

I receive phone calls, emails, and messages from Network Preferred Members all of the time. They call for a number of reasons, including to share their experiences with other TE recruiters.

A Network recruiter recently contacted me about a situation. That situation: one of their split recruiting partners tried to micromanage them.

I won’t go into the details of the situation, but suffice it to say, micromanaging does NOT constitute “best practices” for our split fee recruiting membership. I’d like to take this opportunity to explain why.

Below are five reasons not to micromanage your split partners in TE:

#1—You’re complicating the placement process.

The hiring process is complicated enough. There are people on both sides of the sale, and there are more than enough people in the middle of the sale. The candidate, the hiring manager, other company officials, and now TWO recruiters.

When a split partnership works well, there is teamwork involved and the process can unfold more smoothly. However, when you micromanage the situation, it usually does not help things go more smoothly.

#2—You’re straining the relationship.

Nobody likes micromanaging. They just don’t. You’re not helping the situation or the relationship. You’re introducing stress into both.

The last thing that two recruiters need in a split placement situation is to become annoyed or bothered with each other. You can’t be bickering. You must work together to bring a satisfactory conclusion to the process.

#3—You’re not operating in “the spirit of networking.”

One of The Four Pillars of Top Echelon Network is Trust, perhaps the most important Pillar. That’s because it’s the key ingredient to not only making one placement, but also making multiple placements.

If you’re going to be part of a split network and you’re going to work with trading partners, then you must trust those partners. You can’t just say that you’re going to trust them and then your actions contradict that.

#4—You’re branding yourself in a negative fashion.

Branding isn’t just for clients and candidates. It’s also for your Top Echelon Network Preferred Membership. You don’t want to brand yourself as somebody who micromanages your trading partners during the placement process. You want to brand yourself in a much more position fashion than that.

When other Network recruiters think of you, you want positive things to come to their mind . . . not things they would like to avoid. People don’t like micromanaging, period.

#5—The recruiter may not want to work with you again.

What is the end result of all this? The other recruiter not wanting to work with you. That should not come as any big surprise. Even if you make a split placement with the person, that’s no guarantee they’ll want to work with you again.

It all depends on what kind of experience you provide for them. If you’re constantly “looking over their shoulder” and bugging them about every single detail, that’s not a positive experience.

If you make a split, that’s a negative experience with a positive ending. However, if you don’t make a split, that’s a negative experience with a negative ending.

Do not micromanage your trading partners. Trust them to do what needs to be done. Work together and rely upon each other’s strengths. Provide a positive experience from start to finish.

And of course, make as many split placements as you possibly can.

If you have any questions about this blog post or about your Preferred Membership in Top Echelon’s recruiting network, please contact me at 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.