Okay, before we go any further, let me say this: by completing the survey I’m just about the describe, you have the chance to win a $100 gift card. Are you guaranteed to win the gift card? Of course not.

Matthew Deutsch

But as Lloyd Christmas said in the iconic movie Dumb and Dumber (and no, that’s not a movie about your clients and candidates in 2025), “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”

Now that I’ve delivered that public service announcement, we now join our regularly scheduled program, already in progress . . .

As we look ahead to 2026, one thing is clear: the recruiting landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Shifting client expectations, changing candidate behavior, technology advancements, and economic uncertainty are all shaping how agency recruiters and search consultants approach their work.

That’s why we’re excited to announce that the 2026 Recruiter Confidence and Strategy Survey is officially live.

Why This Survey Matters

This survey isn’t just another data collection exercise. It’s an opportunity for TE Network members to share real-world insights about what’s working, what’s changing, and where challenges remain. (And yes, we just conducted our annual State of the Recruiting Industry Survey last month. That was “big picture.” This is “smaller picture.”)

Your input helps us:

• Better understand how recruiters are feeling about the year ahead
• Identify the strategic shifts firms are making in response to market conditions
• Learn where recruiters are investing time, energy, and resources
• Pinpoint areas where vulnerability or uncertainty still exist

Most importantly, your responses help ensure that the services we provide and the content we produce remain relevant, practical, and grounded in today’s recruiting realities.

Quick, Focused, and Worth Your Time

We know your time is valuable. That’s why this survey is designed to take approximately five minutes. In other words, it’s short enough to complete between calls or meetings.

As a thank-you for participating, all respondents will be entered for a chance to win a $100 gift card. (Yes . . . we’re saying there’s a chance.)

Every year, the insights gathered from our surveys help guide conversations, research, and resources that support recruiters throughout the year ahead. Whether you’re feeling confident about 2026 or cautiously optimistic, your perspective matters.

Regardless, click the link below to get this show started:

Yes, I’d like to take the survey!

Thank you for your loyalty and commitment as TE Network members (and also for completing our survey)!

It makes sense that those TE Network members who were among the Recruiters of the Quarter for the fourth quarter of 2025 would also be responsible for some of the largest split fees of the quarter.

Matthew Deutsch

And that is certainly the case!

It was the case for Amy Chapman of Key People Staffing, who was part of not one, but two of the largest fees of the quarter. One of those fees was the biggest, as she and Chip Yaggi of Chip Yaggi placed an Equipment Design Engineering Manager to earn a $56,250 fee at 25%.

Amy also placed a Senior Manager of Human Resources with Brad Dodge of iLocatum Recruiting to score a $41,250 fee, also at 25%.

However, Amy was not the only TE Network member to be represented twice in the top 10. The other recruiters to do so were Clint Martz of A to Z Search Group and Adam Krueger of Sun Recruiting, Inc.

As a reminder, Top Echelon determines the monthly and quarterly winners of its Network split fee recruiting awards in four distinct categories:

1.) Recruiter of the Month
2.) Largest Split Fee of the Month
3.) Recruiter of the Quarter
4.) Largest Split Fee of the Quarter

We only announce the winners of these awards in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog. We do so usually (but not always) in the issue following the conclusion of each month and/or quarter.

Congratulations to everybody who made the largest split fees in TE Network during the quarter!

Largest Split Fees of the Fourth Quarter – 2025

— — —

First Place:

Amy Chapman of Key People Staffing and Chip Yaggi of Chip Yaggi

The position for this split placement was an Equipment Design Engineering Manager and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 25%.

Amy was the job order recruiter and Chip was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $56,250.

— — —

Second Place:

Sarah Katz of First Search, Inc. and Derek Hilbert of Kingfisher Recruiting

The position for this split placement was a Vice President of Engineering and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 20%.

Sarah was the job order recruiter and Derek was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $50,000.

— — —

Third Place:

Clint Martz of A to Z Search Group and Nick Stoia of ASAP Search

The position for this split placement was a Product Development Leader and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 25%.

Clint was the job order recruiter and Nick was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $48,750.

— — —

Fourth Place:

John Peterson of Sun Recruiting, Inc. and Jay Sitapara of Talent Partners, Inc.

The position for this split placement was a Process Development Leader and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 25%.

John was the job order recruiter and Jay was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $43,750.

— — —

Fifth Place:

Christina Boudreaux of Connectly Recruiting and Bob Calamita of Execu-Tech

The position for this split placement was a Vice President of Finance Operations and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 20%.

Christina was the job order recruiter and Bob was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $42,000.

— — —

Sixth Place:

Adam Krueger of Sun Recruiting, Inc. and Melissa Zuniga of Eden Capital Careers

The position for this split placement was a Senior Fire Protection Engineer and the fee percentage associated with this placement was Flat.

Adam was the job order recruiter and Melissa was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $41,750.

— — —

Seventh Place:

Amy Chapman of Key People Staffing and Brad Dodge of iLocatum Recruiting

The position for this split placement was a Senior Manager of Human Resources and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 25%.

Amy was the job order recruiter and Brad was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $41,250.

— — —

Eighth Place:

Clint Martz of A to Z Search Group and Sean Bonner of Intensiv, LLC

The position for this split placement was a Controls Engineer and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 25%.

Clint was the job order recruiter and Sean was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $40,000.

— — —

Ninth Place (Tie):

Laura Petraitis-Doll of LS Doll & Associates and Nate Meyer of Rare Bird Recruiting

The position for this split placement was a Senior Environmental Engineer and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 25%.

Laura was the job order recruiter and Nate was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $37,500.

— — —

Ninth Place (Tie):

Therese Eckhoff of Therese Eckhoff and W Scott Krepps of We Do The Search

The position for this split placement was a Supply Chain Manager and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 30%.

Therese was the job order recruiter and W Scott was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $37,500.

— — —

Ninth Place (Tie):

Janis Mitchell of Precise Resource Inc. and Krishonna Williams of She Recruits, LLC

The position for this split placement was a Senior Business Analyst and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 25%.

Janis was the job order recruiter and Krishonna was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $37,500.

— — —

Tenth Place:

Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC and Adam Krueger of Sun Recruiting, Inc.

The position for this split placement was a Product Engineer and the fee percentage associated with this placement was 30%.

Maria was the job order recruiter and Adam was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was $36,000.

— — —

If YOU want to make more money through Top Echelon’s recruiter network, then contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

You can reach Drea by calling 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Since Brad Dodge of iLocatum Recruiting was Recruiter of the Month in TE Network in December, it should not surprise you that Brad is . . . Recruiter of the Quarter, as well!

Matthew Deutsch

That’s right, Brad claimed the award for the fourth quarter of 2025, racking up a total of 20 split placements in Q4. Those 20 splits brought him a cash-in total of more than $160K.

Amy Chapman of Key People Staffing, who finished second in the race for Recruiter of the Month in December, was also second in the quarterly standings. However, her production is also impressive, as she scored six splits during the quarter totaling nearly $100K.

Below is the information that we include with the Recruiters of the Quarter feature in TE Network:

1. The top 10 recruiters for the quarter
2. The “cash-in” total for each recruiter during the quarter. (We base the order of the recruiters on their amount of “cash-in” dollars, as opposed to the number of split placements they made during the quarter.)
3. The number of splits that the recruiters made during the quarter
4. The date that each recruiter’s agency joined TE Network
5. The number of splits each recruiter has made during their TE Network career
6. Each recruiter’s cash-in total for their TE Network career

Congratulations to the recruiters listed below . . . and congratulations to every TE Network member who made a split placement (or multiple splits) during the quarter!

Recruiters of the Fourth Quarter – 2025

— — —

First Place:

Brad Dodge

Recruiter: Brad Dodge
Agency: iLocatum Recruiting
Placements: Twenty (20)
Cash-in total: $161,670.21
Career Top Echelon placements: 248
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $2,028,606.66

— — —

Second Place:

Amy Chapman

Recruiter: Amy Chapman
Agency: Key People Staffing
Placements: Six (6)
Cash-in total: $99,287.50
Career Top Echelon placements: 113
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $1,421,492.91

— — —

Third Place:

Clint Martz

Recruiter: Clint Martz 
Agency: A to Z Search Group
Placements: Four (4)
Cash-in total: $70,500.00
Career Top Echelon placements: 9
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $141,000.00

— — —

Fourth Place:

Sarah Katz

Recruiter: Sarah Katz 
Agency: First Search, Inc.
Placements: Four (4)
Cash-in total: $60,302.88
Career Top Echelon placements: 38
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $436,946.54

— — —

Fifth Place:

Troy Randolph

Recruiter: Troy Randolph
Agency: Lea Randolph & Associates, Inc.
Placements: Eight (8)
Cash-in total: $56,846.50
Career Top Echelon placements: 74
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $557,522.15

— — —

Sixth Place:

Adam Pantelli

Recruiter: Adam Pantelli 
Agency: AJ Search
Placements: Five (5)
Cash-in total: $54,715.83
Career Top Echelon placements: 20
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $207,847.55

— — —

Seventh Place:

Steve Kohn

Recruiter: Steve Kohn
Agency: Affinity Executive Search, Inc.
Placements: Six (6)
Cash-in total: $48,253.18
Career Top Echelon placements: 578
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $5,279,702.88

— — —

Eighth Place:

Nick Stoia, CPC

Recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC 
Agency: ASAP Search
Placements: Three (3)
Cash-in total: $45,120.00
Career Top Echelon placements: 140
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $1,197,409.16

— — —

Ninth Place:

Jim Strickland

Recruiter: Jim Strickland 
Agency: BioSource Recruiters
Placements: Four (4)
Cash-in total: $40,110.74
Career Top Echelon placements: 246
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $1,950,441.36

— — —

Tenth Place:

Michael Stuck

Recruiter: Michael Stuck
Agency: Gables Search Group
Placements: Five (5)
Cash-in total: $38,690.17
Career Top Echelon placements: 611
Career Top Echelon cash-in: $4,409,115.32

— — —

If YOU want to make more money through Top Echelon’s recruiting network, then contact Director of Network Operations, Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

You can reach Drea by calling 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Attention: this blog post is about Policy 11: Placement Fees, Payment Terms, Refunds, Fall-offs, and Guarantees and what it means to you as a Preferred Member of TE Network.

As a member of Top Echelon, it is vital for you to know all of the Network Policies and their effect on how you operate your business and relationships with your TE partners.

The happy side: getting paid!

I want to start with Policy #11 as it is about the money you make, keep, and in some cases . . . return.

Without pasting the entire text in this article, which is available in the link above, here is the situation when a placement is made between two Top Echelon members.

When the job recruiter is paid by the client, they are to send both Top Echelon our 6% brokerage fee and their trading partner their 47% fee within 24 hours of receiving the check. Sure, some banks hold on to the funds for a few days. Job recruiters should inform their partners of expected pay date specifics, their client’s internal processes, and bank holding periods. These are all extremely important to the conversation that TE members should have together.

The ugly side: the fall-off

According to the guarantee period and refund/replacement side of Policy #11, if the candidate falls off during the guarantee period, the job recruiter should notify their TE partner by phone and follow up with an email with the details of the fall-off. Then they must fill out the fall-off form and both Top Echelon and the candidate recruiter are required to refund their fees immediately and in their entirety.

What do you need to do about this? Be prepared. Any agency working in Top Echelon should have money set aside for such an instance.

Do fall-offs happen in Top Echelon Network? Absolutely. It’s part of the recruiting business, and therefore, a part of what occurs here in Top Echelon Network, which is why we have a specific policy for such instances, as well as a system for reporting them.

Ignorance of the law is never an excuse. Everybody is responsible for understanding these rules and their ramifications regarding how they/you operate here.

Not having the funds available to handle this situation is not acceptable and in poor form. What can you do to accommodate this in your desk as a member of Top Echelon Network?

Suggestions:

• Ask the job recruiter to hold on to the fee until after the guarantee period is over.
• Do not cash the check until after the guarantee period is over.
• Cash the check and put it in escrow until the guarantee period is over.
• Build up an escrow account of $10-20K for solely this type of a situation.

Regardless of what you do, be sure that you are prepared to be the best trading partner you can be by communicating, being active, showing yourself as a trusting partner, and being a quality professional. Be ready to handle any situation that arises, including the one described in this blog post. We want you to be the “best of the best” in this industry and set a benchmark for how recruiting partners are supposed to work together in a cooperative fashion.

I am proud to have been here so long and to have watched so many Preferred Members thrive in business because of their understanding of how to be the best trading partners in Top Echelon Network.

Top Echelon Training and Support Manager Todd Bossler recently conducted a special TE Recruit Training Tuesday webinar titled, “Back to Basics: The Essential TE Recruit Workflow.”

Matthew Deutsch

You may have attended this free webinar on Tuesday, January 6. On the other hand, you may not have been in attendance.

Regardless, we have the recorded version of the webinar, which I am presenting to you now. (The recording is also located in the Top Echelon Help Center.)

If you are not a user of our recruiting software, TE Recruit, then check out the video, anyway, to see how the software could benefit your recruiting desk and agency.

We at Top Echelon are continually working to make the resources that we provide to our customers better, and this is yet more proof!

Below is the official description of this training video:

— — —

It’s been a while since we last delivered a true “back to basics” session, and with the major updates we rolled out this past year (including UI enhancements, Automations, and Sequencing), a modernized look at the essential TE Recruit workflow is long overdue.

Todd Bossler

And that’s why Top Echelon Training and Support Manager Todd Bossler revisits this topic during the most recent Training Tuesday webinar video.

This session is intentionally focused on process, consistency and best practices, not advanced configuration. By mastering the basics, you’ll reduce friction, avoid data issues, and create a system that supports growth, reporting, and automation down the line. Attendees of this FREE webinar will learn:

• ALL the ways to add data to your TE Recruit account
• Three (3) essential tools that recruiters use to be more productive
• Features you might not even know TE Recruit has!

So start the new year right by watching this Training Tuesday webinar video and get “Back to Basics: The Essential TE Recruit Workflow”!

Watch this TE Recruit training video!

— — —

Remember to check The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog every week for more updates regarding Top Echelon software improvements and upgrades.

If you have any questions about how you can maximize your TE Network membership, please contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

You can do so by calling 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.