Last week in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog, we discussed how there are seven million job openings in the country and a lack of candidates to fill them. That’s exactly why we advocate using the Network Candidates sourcing tool (formerly known as the MEGA Database).

And members of Top Echelon’s recruiting network ARE using the tool and they ARE making more Network placements!

You can see evidence of that at the end of this blog post, where we chronicle a recent split between members Mike Burk and Trey Cameron.

As we’ve mentioned before on more than one occasion, there are millions of job candidates in the Network Candidates sourcing tool. For those of you who may not know, the Network Candidates tool allows Top Echelon Network members who use the Big Biller recruiting software to share information more quickly and easily.

However, if you’re a Network member and you don’t use Big Biller, you can still use this special sourcing tool. There is just one caveat. While you can perform searches in Network Candidates, your information will not be included in searches conducted by other Network recruiters. The reason, of course, is because your data is being housed in an applicant tracking software other than Big Biller.

So, let’s summarize as follows:

• If you have Big Biller, then you can conduct searches in Network Candidates and your information will be included in searches conducted by other members.
• If you do NOT use Big Biller, then you can still conduct searches in Network Candidates, but your information is not included in searches conducted by other members.

Below are two other important facts regarding the Network Candidates tool:

1. Resumes are blinded! That means nobody can see your candidates and/or take them and run.
2. There is NO additional charge. It is included with your split network membership.

Below is a video that explains the Network Candidates sourcing tool in a more comprehensive fashion and how you can use it to make more placements in the Network:

So what does the new Network Candidates feature offer? The following, among other things:

• For starters, you’ll search in one place for your candidates within the Network software. Specifically, you’ll click the “NETWORK” tab in the search results to see what’s available in terms of the over four millions candidates to which you have access.
• Multiple state location searching
• Filters: Most Common Locations, Education Levels, Resume Add Date, and the top five recruiters representing data in the list
• More information to make a determination regarding which candidates to request:
  • Current Position Title
  • Location
  • Parsed skills from the resume
  • Display of past work history position titles and the number of years/months in those positions
  • Summary on the candidate

The new Network Candidates is a powerful sourcing tool. More Network, members are making split placements with this tool, and so can you!

— — —

Mike Burks

Trey Cameron

“Nice to get a placement with you!”

Submitted by Mike Burks of T. Burks & Associates regarding his Network split placement with Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Position Title—MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR

Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: This is the first Network split placement that Mike and Trey have made together in Top Echelon.)

We’ve written numerous times about the return that Network recruiters can earn on their investment in Top Echelon. In fact, what follows is our standard argument.

The monthly membership dues for Top Echelon’s recruiting network is $130 per month. Over the course of a whole year, a recruiting agency would pay $1,560 in dues.

Let’s say that same agency makes one placement in the Network during the year. Let’s also say the fee for that placement is $20,000. Top Echelon takes 6% of that total as its brokerage fee, which is $1,200. That means each recruiter will now split $18,800. Some quick math tells us that’s 9,400 per recruiter (or per agency).

Theoretically, that agency paid $1,560 in membership dues over the course of a single year. That was the agency’s monetary investment. The return that it received on that investment was $9,400.

Pay $1,560, receive $9,400. That sounds like an acceptable return on investment (ROI). But what do Network recruiters think? Well, we decided to ask them:

How many splits per year give you an acceptable return on your TE investment?

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

• One — 30.0%
• Two — 20.0%
• Three (3) — 14.0%
• More than three — 20.0%
• I receive an acceptable return even when I don’t make a split. — 10.0%
• I’m still looking for my acceptable return. — 4.0%

What about YOUR investment?

Nearly a third of recruiters participating in our poll agree with us! That’s because 30% said “One.” But wait, there’s more. Another 10% indicated that they receive an acceptable return even when they don’t make a placement.

That means 40% of poll participants believe that one (and sometimes zero) placements in any given year is an acceptable return on their investment in TE.

Another 20% of recruiters rose the bar to two placements. Then another 14% jacked it up to three. But then we have 20% of members who believe they must make more than three split placements in a single year to receive an acceptable return. Not a surplus return, but an acceptable one.

And alas, there’s the 4% of recruiters who stated that they’re still looking for their acceptable return.

What about YOU? What do you consider to be an acceptable return on your investment in our split fee recruiting network?

If you have questions about this (or you haven’t seen your acceptable return yet), please 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.