Everybody likes a BIG placement fee . . . and all we have in this Pinnacle Newsletter article are BIG placement fees!

In fact, we have the top 10 placement fees in Top Echelon’s recruiting network for 2020.

You might have thought that because of the COVID-19 pandemic and everything that came with it, that the biggest fees for 2020 wouldn’t be that big. Quite the contrary: the biggest fees for last year were even bigger than they were the year before!

Surf Search with FOUR huge placements!

As you can see below, the big winners were Debbie Winkelbauer of Surf Search and Austin Morioka of e-Health Jobs. They placed a National Chief Medical Officer and split a fee of $87,500.

Debbie’s huge split was one of FOUR splits on our top 10 list of the biggest TE placement fees of 2020 of which Surf Search was a part. Debbie also made another one with Shelli Saunders of GoRecruitMe ($72,500).

In addition, Jan Hudson of Surf Search was also represented twice on our list. Jan made huge splits with Austin Morioka of e-Health Jobs. The fees associated with those split placements were $75,000 and $47,000, respectively.

Congratulations to Surf Search for pretty much dominating our list of the top split recruiting fees in Top Echelon Network for 2020!

Also noteworthy is the fact that both Steve Kohn of Affinity Executive Search, Inc. and John Ricciardi of the Afton Consulting Group were part of two of the 10 biggest fees in TE last year.

Because the only thing better than one big placement fee is TWO big placement fees . . . or FOUR!

So congratulations to everybody who was part of our top 10 placement fees for 2020! Here’s to bigger fees in 2021!

— — —

Largest Split Fees of 2020
First Place:

Debbie Winkelbauer

Austin Morioka, CPC

Debbie Winkelbauer of Surf Search and Austin Morioka of e-Health Jobs (candidate recruiter)

The position for this split placement was a Regional Chief Medical Officer.

Debbie was the job order recruiter and Austin was the candidate recruiter.

The fee for this split placement was 25% and the total fee was $87,500.

— — –

Second Place:

John Ricciardi of the Afton Consulting Group (job order recruiter)
Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Vice President of Product Development
Fee percentage: 25%
Split Fee: $81,250

— — –

Third Place:

Jan Hudson of Surf Search (job order recruiter)
Austin Morioka of e-Health Jobs (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Chief Medical Officer
Fee percentage: 25%
Split Fee: $75,000

Fourth Place:

Debbie Winkelbauer of Surf Search (job order recruiter)
Shelli Saunders of GoRecruitMe (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Medical Director – Psychiatry
Fee percentage: 25%
Split Fee: $72,500

Fifth Place:

George Mancuso of Client Growth Resources (job order recruiter)
Kathlene Kuykindoll of MorningStar Recruitment, Inc. (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Fee percentage: 20%
Split Fee: $64,000

Sixth Place:

Therese Eckhoff of TriVista Recruitment (job order recruiter)
Ernie Young of Advistory and Consulting Services, LLC (candidate recruiter)
Position Director of IT – Consulting
Fee percentage: 20%
Split Fee: $58,750

Seventh Place:

Rowe Henderson of Rowe Henderson & Associates (job order recruiter)
Ken Nunley of 7 Solutions USA (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Plant Director
Fee percentage: 25%
Split Fee: $51,250

— — —

Eight Place (tie):

Kerry Boehner of KOB Solutions, Inc. (job order recruiter)
Steve Kohn of Affinity Executive Search, Inc. (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Director, Biology
Fee percentage: 25%
Split Fee: $50,000

Eighth Place (tie):

John Ricciardi of the Afton Consulting Group (job order recruiter)
Brad McMillan of RPM ReSearch (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Group Leader, Bioanalytical
Fee percentage: 25%
Split Fee: $50,000

Ninth Place:

Shree Kumar of Max Populi, LLC (job order recruiter)
Recruiter name withheld by request (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: Medical Director Palliative
Fee percentage: 20%
Split Fee: $48,000

Tenth Place:

Jan Hudson of Surf Search (job order recruiter)
Austin Morioka of e-Health Jobs (candidate recruiter)
Position Title: VP of Network
Fee percentage: 20%
Split Fee: $47,000

— — —

If you have questions about how you can start making more split placements in Top Echelon Network, then contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

You can do so by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

In 2021, I am starting my 22nd year with Top Echelon. Time certainly does fly by.

During the past 20+ years, I’ve been part of Top Echelon’s recruiting network. Over the course of that time, I’ve come to fully appreciate the recruiters who comprise our split network.

When you do something for 20 years, you get to know the people with whom you work. Of course, I’ve grown to know the other people who have worked at Top Echelon over the years. But who I’m specifically talking about Top Echelon Network members.

Like any network, people come and people go. That’s just a fact of life. However, some people stay and they often stay for a long time. During the past 20 years, I’ve grown to know quite a few recruiters who have been Network members for five, 10, and 15+ years.

Heck, there are TE recruiters who were Network members before I even joined Top Echelon, and they’re still Network members! To me, that’s an awesome display of resiliency, loyalty, and success, and I can’t thank those recruiters enough for everything that they’ve done during their time with us.

That being said, no journey is immune to hardship, and as you all know, there were plenty of hardships not only in the recruiting profession, but in life in general in this country and around the world in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the headlines and the lives of many people during the past year, and there were many members of the Network who have been affected by the ongoing challenges that this pandemic presents.

While there are vaccines currently being rolled out even as I write this, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the virus right now and that will probably continue to be the case throughout the rest of this year. You’ve probably heard the mantra, “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” Those are certainly words of wisdom as we close out the first month of 2021 with our Yearly Issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post: I want to thank YOU, the Top Echelon Network membership, for your commitment to us. And it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been with us, either; I’m thankful for every single one of you.

So in more than 20 years at Top Echelon, I’ve learned quite a few things. One of those things is that a customer doesn’t have to just be a customer. A customer can be a friend, too. And that’s not the only friendship that can exist with the Network. Customers (or recruiters) can be friends with other customers. There have been literally hundreds of such friendships down through the years.

And even though we’re proud of the many recruiters who have called themselves Top Echelon customers down through the years, we’re more proud of the many Top Echelon customers who we’ve been able to call friends.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you once again for your commitment as Top Echelon Network members and for choosing to join us in making 2021 the very best that it can be!

We don’t have to tell you that 2020 was a rough year for agency recruiters and search consultants. You know ALL about it.

However, recruiters in Top Echelon Network still made a lot of money. In fact, according to the list of the top TE recruiters for 2020, they made just as much through the Network last year as they did in previous years. (We’re talking on average, of course. We know that results vary.)

However, before we surge ahead, let’s look behind, albeit briefly. Specifically, let’s look at the aforementioned list of the top-producing recruiters in Top Echelon Network from 2019!

As you can see below, Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group is once again the Recruiter of the Year in the Network. Although he did not eclipse the $1 million mark, as he’s done in years past, he did pass the $600K mark. That was still nearly twice as much as the second-place recruiters on the list.

So before we unveil the full list of top-producing recruiters, I must trot out our usual disclaimer regarding these rankings:

Our annual list of the top recruiters is determined by Members’ cash-in total in our split network on a rolling 12-month basis. The order of the list reflects the recruiters’ cash-in total for the 2020 calendar year, which ended at midnight on December 31, 2020.

Below are the top 10 recruiters in Top Echelon Network for 2020, from #10 to #1. We’ve included the recruiter’s name, their agency name, and their total cash-in.

#10—Debbie Winkelbauer of Surf Search.: $110,920

#9—John Peterson of Sun Recruiting, Inc.: $115,345

#8—Austin Morioka of E-Health Jobsp: $116,560

#7—Joe Cresci of Food Management Search: $117,124

#6—Gary Schultz of Work 22, Inc.: $124,014

#5—Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC: $149,180

#4—Michael Stuck of Gables Search Group:$161,726

#3—Terry Rhodes of NewCareers: $208,497

#2—Steve Kohn of Affinity Search: $350,955

#1—Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group: $638,944

Usually, I would plug the upcoming Top Echelon Network National Convention right here, but we don’t know for sure if there will be one this year. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is still a factor in the United States and around the world, there is still a chance that there will be a convention. (Although it might be in the fall, as compared to the spring, when we’ve traditionally held it.)

Keep reading The Pinnacle newsletter for updates regarding the National Convention and other Network announcements.

In the meantime, join us in congratulating the top-producing recruiters listed above.

And here’s to hoping that 2021 is a better year for every recruiter in Top Echelon Network!