The “Recruiter of the Week” feature in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog is back! And why is that? Well, three reasons, actually:

1. There are a bunch of recruiters who are currently kicking split placement butt.
2. The majority of those recruiters are relatively new to Top Echelon Network.
3. We want to recognize these butt-kicking recruiters in front of their peers.

Kristy Staggs

AND, of course, it’s been a popular feature in the newsletter. So to re-boot this franchise, this week’s Recruiter of the Week is Kristy Staggs of Byrnes & Rupkey, Inc. Since her agency joined the Network in May of 2014, Kristy has made 27 split placements in TE!

Let’s break that down, shall we?

• Two (2) placements in 2014
• Six (2) placements in 2015
• Fourteen (14) placements in 2016
• Five (5) placements so far in 2017

Obviously, Kristy’s recognition is long overdue. She “hit the ground running” in our split recruiter network and she hasn’t looked back. With 15 placements this year, she will have increased her production every single year since Byrnes & Rupkey has been a Network member! (And at her current pace, she’ll far surpass 15.)

Kristy specializes in a number of areas, including Consumer Packaged Goods and Food Manufacturing. Read our interview with Kristy below to find out exactly why she’s been so successful.

Congratulations to Kristy Staggs, the Recruiter of the Week in Top Echelon Network!

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What do you believe have been the keys to your success in Top Echelon Network?

Communication with TE partners as well as posting all of our jobs so our trading partners can provide us resumes for our job openings.

What value do you believe the Network provides for your firm?

The ability to make more and faster placements with our client companies.  We have access to many more candidates via the [website integration] and our affiliates sending us resumes directly.

Who are the trading partners you’ve been working with?

Trey Cameron, Steve Kohn, Pam and Steve Copeland, Bob Alexander, Debi Apple, Terry Rhodes, Jeff Katz and so many more!

Why do the relationships you have with your trading partners work so well?

These trading partners work my jobs and know the types of candidates I am looking for my jobs and send me resumes or post my jobs through their websites so I get talent on my desk!

What advice would you give to a new Network member just starting out?

Get to know the system and all it has to offer as well as your Trading Partners.

What are your goals for future production in the Network?

To see my name ahead of Trey Cameron on the Top Recruiters Page! In reality, to continue to reach out and make connections with trading partners, to make more split placements and to work harder/faster/smarter to increase in more split placements.

How would you describe the activity level in your niche?

My desk if extremely busy with lots of active and hot job orders.  I am in need of candidates! I work heavily in the Food Manufacturing arena and am 90% a placer so always in need of candidates such as Production Supervisors, Maintenance Supervisors, QA Supervisors, Sanitation Supervisors, Maintenance Managers, Production Managers, Operations Manager, Continuous Improvement Engineers, Maintenance Mechanics etc.  ANY and ALL Food manufacturing candidates!

What’s the biggest obstacle on your desk right now, either with candidates or with clients?

Lack of candidates! I do not know what rock they are all hiding under, but I am definitely lacking strong candidates. I would LOVE to partner with all of the TE members in the network.  To continue growing my relationships I currently have, as well as to form new relationships with those members I have not yet networked or actively worked with yet.  ALL of my jobs are posted on the network and if they are on the network it means it is an active job I have that I am in need of talent for! Send me your candidates!

What’s one new recruiting strategy or technique that you’ve implemented in the past year that you wouldn’t mind sharing with other recruiters?

We are constantly trying to keep up with the times and the newest and latest recruiting strategies.

What are your thoughts on the recruiting industry overall and where it might be headed in the next 12 to 18 months?

I love the recruiting industry and all it has to offer.  You never know what your day is going to entail. I can only hope things will continue to get bigger and better for us in this industry.

It’s another week and another round of new Top Echelon Network member firms!

That’s right, we had seven new Network recruiting firms in last week’s issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog. And now we have seven more in this week’s issue. Some of these firms joined at the end of January and some joined at the beginning of February. Regardless, the recruiters in these firms all have at least one thing in common: they all want to make split placements!

In addition, these new Network agencies work within different industries, including the following:

• Healthcare
• Technology
• Information Technology
• Construction

We’re two months into 2017, and placements in Top Echelon Network are ahead of last year’s pace. Network recruiters are sharing job orders and candidates and making split placements. The recruiters below want to join the party! Help them join the party!

With that in mind, I encourage you to reach out to these recruiting agencies and their owners. Introduce yourself, welcome them to our split placement network, and ask about the biggest need on their desk.

More recruiters, more placements, a bigger party in 2017!

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H CAP CONNECT
Date joined: January 25
Location: Stow, Ohio
Industries:  General
Agency members: Rachel Hurst

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VISION RECRUITERS
Date joined: January 26
Location: Morristown, New Jersey
Industries: Healthcare and Technology
Agency members: Tim Young and Lori Aynat-Mastalia

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EBC ASSOCIATES
Date joined: January 31
Location: Maplecrest, New Jersey
Industries:  General
Agency members: Liz Capants

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MARYN CONSULTING
Date joined: February 1
Location: Washington, D.C.
Industries: IT, Healthcare, and General
Agency members: Steve Arnold, Marissa Agno, Steve Maryn, Ann Cruz, April Ventilacion, and Tom Arnold

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MONIVA STAFFING, INC.
Date joined: February 2
Location: Palos Verdes Estates, California
Industries: General
Agency members: Erik Weiss

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HIREFLUX
Date joined: February 2
Location: Clayton, North Carolina
Industries:  General
Agency members: Johnny Hill

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MPC PARTNERS, LLC
Date joined: February 9
Location: Asheville, North Carolina
Industries: Construction
Agency members: Hugh Moran

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It doesn’t matter if you’re a newer Network recruiter or an established members. If you want help making more split placements, then contact me! You can do so by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

What’s one of the biggest problems that recruiters are facing right now? A lack of quality candidates. What’s another of their biggest problems? Clients that don’t want to move quickly enough to hire those quality candidates even when they’ve been presented!

But how much different are the clients of Top Echelon Network recruiters? Well, we wanted to find out. And how did we find out? By posting yet another question, that’s how. That question, in the form of a Members’ Area poll, was as follows:

What percentage of your clients actually move quickly enough to hire the best candidates?

The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of Network recruiters that selected each one:

• 1% to 25% — 29.6%
• 26% to 50% — 32.7%
• 51% to 75% — 21.4%
• 75% to 99% — 12.2%
• 100% — 1.0%

Clients: whistle a different tune

Let’s start with this fascinating fact:

Only 1% of the Network recruiters participating in this poll indicated that 100% of their clients move quickly enough to hire the best candidates.

Ouch.

Okay, but is that really surprising? Probably not. But still . . . it stings just a bit. Let’s move to the next category. Only 12.2% of poll participants chose “75% to 99%” as their answer. That’s better, but not that much better.

Next: “51% to 75%,” which garnered 21.4% of the vote. Let’s put all of that together, and here’s where we’re at: only 34.6% of recruiters believe that more than half of their clients move quickly enough. Double-ouch.

So what does that tell us? Well, it easily tells us that 65.4% of recruiters in our poll believe that less than half of their clients move quickly enough. (The other not-so-attractive side of the coin.)

To break it down further, about a third of poll participants chose “1% to 25%” and “26% to 50%.” Not exactly a glowing endorsement of their clients’ ability to move quickly in the marketplace, eh?

The bottom line is this: employers are NOT moving quickly enough to hire the best candidates. In fact, it’s not even close. Whatever it is that’s going on in their heads or in their hiring process, it’s not enough to get the job done.

It’s the same old story, same old song and dance. Recruiters just need to get their clients to start whistling a different tune . . . before they’re the ones who lose the game of musical chairs. (Yeah, I’m not sure what that means, either, but you get the gist.)

Adding contracting creates another revenue stream and provides an alternative staffing option that you can offer your clients. And you can add this piece to your business with no ramp-up time or financial investment when you utilize a full-service contract staffing back-office such as Top Echelon Contracting.

Even if you already offer contract staffing, there are ways to increase your revenue on that side of your desk. You may flinch at the thought of expanding your contracting services because of the additional in-house staff or a larger line of credit doing so might require. However, you can expand your business without these additional costs and hassles by outsourcing some or all of your contractors to a contract staffing back-office service provider.

Below are four ways that contracting can help recruiting firms expand:

#1—Taking on more contractors

Has your reluctance to increase your overhead caused you to limit the number of contract placements you will accept? A full-service back-office provider would handle all of the employment tasks, including payroll funding and processing, tax withholdings and filings, unemployment, Workers’ Compensation, legal contracts, benefits offerings and administration, and background checks, so that you don’t have to dedicate more administrative resources to the contracting side of your business. Instead, you can focus on growth by getting more contract AND direct-hire job orders.

#2—Placing contractors in new states

When you run your own back-office, expanding into new states takes a lot of additional time and money. You have to research each state’s employment laws and tax requirements. You have to register to file taxes and for Workers’ Comp coverage. In addition, you have to be aware of state and city-specific employment laws, such as paid leave requirements. It can take months just to get set up to take out-of-state placements. Plus, your ongoing work will increase due to the additional tax filings, reporting, and reconciliations. If you select a nationwide contract staffing back-office, they will already be set up to place contractors in any state, so there is no ramp-up time and no ongoing administrative burden.

#3—Exploring new industries

If you currently only place contractors who work in an office environment due to the Workers’ Comp costs and professional liability, you may want to consider utilizing a contract staffing back-office so you can expand beyond the 8810 office classification. Some back-offices have Workers’ Comp and professional liability coverage that allows them to take on a wider variety of technical, professional, and healthcare placements. When selecting a back-office, though, you will want to ask if they place the specific positions you want to pursue.

Contract staffing can help you enjoy a stellar 2017, and a back-office provider can help you get started with no money and little effort. Just be sure to select a quality, full-service back-office. They should become the legal employer of your contractors and handle ALL of the legal, financial, and administrative tasks accurately and promptly.

You also want to align yourself with a back-office service that has a proven history for delivering quality customer service because ultimately, the back-office provider is a reflection of you and your recruiting firm.