Last week in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog, we discussed what recruiters think of each other in this current market. We received some help from our 2019 State of the Recruiting Industry Survey, which we conducted earlier this year. (We’ll be publishing the full report in the near future.)

In the meantime, though, we’ve going to “tease” the full report by releasing some of the contents of said report. This week, those contents deal with what recruiters think of hiring managers.

In this type of economic environment, one in which we’re at the end of a bull market and candidates have the leverage, a certain patterns emerges. This pattern includes hiring managers who can’t quite “wrap their brains” around current market conditions.

This becomes a problem because, as you’ll see, when hiring managers aren’t full grasping the conditions, they can’t move quickly enough to hire top candidates. Because top candidates have more options. And they have no qualms about exploring those options in rapid-fire succession.

Hiring managers: in the spotlight

We asked multiple questions about clients and/or hiring managers. As you might expect, we received a lot of feedback regarding those questions.

And although every question in the survey was of the multiple-choice variety, we also gave recruiters the opportunity to leave their comments. They were not shy about leaving their comments.

“Hiring managers want multiple candidates for consideration vs. timely acting on great candidates that available. Passive candidates that become active have multiple opportunities. Company that treats them the best with a timely offer wins.”

“It’s a combination of not making the offer timely enough and also not making strong enough offers- the candidates don’t want to move for a 2-3% bump.”

“Timely and relevant feedback continues to be an issues, especially with clients who change the job order.”

“Clients are often doing three steps in the interview process which slows things down and then we can loose the best candidates.”

“In most cases, the candidate is the more excited part of the equation and when clients drag their feet on giving feedback it puts the recruiter in a pickle. And then you wait…”

“Dragging things on and on. No sense of urgency, [with] weeks separating the interviews, etc.”

“Third-party vendor management companies trying to act as a firewall between hiring managers and us. They don’t want us having a conversation with each other. It is crazy and it doesn’t work.”

“We still have clients ‘ghosting’ us and either taking too long to extend an offer, hoping for the 100% perfect match, and when they finally pull the trigger, the candidate is no longer available. Then the client says, ‘That’s okay, find us another one like him/her,’ which we don’t do as a contingency firm because we lost that placement and we do not want to put ourselves in that position again.”

Lest you think, though, that all clients are causing problems for their recruiters, there are those who answered along this vein:

“My clients are awesome . . . I don’t have these problems with them.”

Yes, employers are willing to hire. Sure, clients are willing to give job orders to recruiters. But that doesn’t mean everything is both hunky and dory.

There are still problems and there is still a certain level of friction between recruiters and hiring managers. And regardless of how good the economy and the marketplace are, that will probably always be the case.

Sherry Umpleby of Innovative Search Solutions is the epitome of a success story in Top Echelon’s recruiting network.

The numbers speak for themselves. Sherry’s agency joined the Network in August of last year. Since then, she’s made a total of seven split placements. That’s right: seven splits in seven months of membership. (If every Network member average one split per month, what a wonderful world this would be.)

Sherry, who works in IT and Engineering, has made those seven placements with five different trading partners. In the seven months since joining Top Echelon, Sherry has paid $910 in membership fees. Her seven splits have generated over $37K in additional income for her agency.

That’s a pretty good return on investment, wouldn’t you say?

And in addition to that heft ROI, we’re pleased to announce that Sherry Umpleby is Recruiter of the Week in Top Echelon Network!

Sherry Umpleby: the secret to her success

It would be an understatement to say that Sherry has “hit the ground running” in the Network. But we’re going to say it, anyway. And we wanted Marcus to say a few words, as well, specifically about the success that she’s enjoyed so far in TE. Thankfully, she agreed. Thank you, Sherry!

“After only 6 months I’m blown away by the effectiveness of the TE Network. Once I really started to work TE things just took off and in such a short period of time. I must say I’m surprised and elated by what we’ve been able to achieve. Don’t get me wrong, I thought a placement would be made here and there but this success goes above and beyond what I ever imagined.

In addition, I’ve been able to forge some nice relationships and I’ve already buddied up with some wonderful Trading Partners and I’m looking forward to developing successful relationships with other TE Members in the near future.

Joining TE has been a very smart business decision and I’d like to thank you all for allowing me to be part of something so great!”

Like many top producers, Sherry routinely compliments her split recruiting partners when submitting Completed Placement Forms. In fact, we have two such compliments below.

So congratulations to Sherry Umpleby for her production and success in the Network and for being named Recruiter of the Week!

— — —

Sherry Umpleby

Deb North

“Thanks for your help Deb! The conversion from U.S. to Canadian was a little different due to the exchange rate that specific day. Thanks again!”

Submitted by Sherry Umpleby of Innovative Search Solutions regarding her Network split placement with Deb North of True North Consulting, LLC

Position Title—ENGINEERING SUPERVISOR

Fee Percentage—Flat

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

— — —

Cynthia Woods

“Thanks for all of your help, Cynthia, and for finding such a great candidate!”

Submitted by Sherry Umpleby of Innovative Search Solutions regarding her Network split placement with Cynthia Woods of Woods & Paolino Recruiting Solutions

Position Title—CONTRACT ADMINISTRATOR

Fee Percentage—Flat

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

— — —

The selection process for the Recruiter of the Week Award is based upon multiple criteria, including production within Top Echelon Network, adherence to the Network Policies and Golden Rules, the spirit of networking that the recruiter displays while interacting with other members, and the level of commitment that the recruiter exhibits in regards to their Network membership overall. The Recruiter of the Week is a true embodiment of The Four Pillars of Top Echelon Network—Quality, Communication, Trust, and Active Participation.

Okay, so we asked members how many Network placements they made last year. And also how much they’d like to increase their Network billings this year. But what about the number of direct hire placements Network members made overall in 2018?

Intrigued? Good! Because have the answer to that question in the form of our Members’ Area poll. And below is the question that we recently posed with that poll:

How many direct hire placements did you make in 2018?

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

• None — 1.0%
• 1-10 — 47.1%
• 11-20 — 27.9%
• 21-30 — 16.3%
• More than 30 — 7.7%

Direct hire is on fire!

As has been the case in the past, two answers dominated the results of this poll. They were “1-10” (47.1%) and “11-20” (27.9%). That means 75% of poll participants made between one and 20 direct hire placements in 2018.

Here’s more good news: just 1% of members indicated they made zero direct hire placements.

And here’s even more good news. A healthy percentage of recruiters (16.3%) made between 21 and 30 direct hire placements last year. But wait, it doesn’t stop there! That’s because 7.7% of members indicated they made more than 30 such placements in 2018.

But the results of this poll underscore what we already know: Top Echelon Network recruiters are successful. They’re veterans of the profession. Many run their own agency. They’ve “been there and done that.” (Wherever there is and whatever that is.)

It’s no secret that we’re in a candidates’ market right now. In other words, direct hire is on fire! And as long as it, so will the recruiting desks of Top Echelon Network members.

If YOU want to make more placements and more money through Top Echelon’s recruiting network, then contact Director of Network Operations, Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS. You can reach Drea by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

There are a number of reasons recruiters should add contract staffing to their service offerings. The best reason: it helps you generate more placements.

It provides a steady stream of recruiter income that can help you weather economic storms. And the placement cycle with contract placements tends to be quicker than with direct hires.

But did you know that contract staffing can actually allow you to save dying direct placement job orders?

Below are three scenarios that describe how you can save a dying job order:

1. Hiring freeze

A hiring manager needs to fill a position immediately, but can’t hire direct due to a hiring freeze. However, the company could bring the worker in as a contractor because money for contractors comes from a different budget.

2. Last-minute plan change

A hiring manager suddenly switches a direct hire job order to a contract job order because the company doesn’t want to commit to a direct hire during economic uncertainty.

3. Contract-to-direct hire

A hiring manager likes your candidate, but is still hesitant to extend a direct job order. The manager would, though, consider a contract-to-direct arrangement because he/she would be able to see if the candidate has the skills to get the job done and blend with the team.

If you only work direct hire, then you would lose the placement in each of these scenarios. Adding contract staffing to your business model allows you to offer staffing alternatives when your clients determine that a direct hire is not the right solution.

By providing these alternatives, you not only can save a dying placement, but you can also make yourself a valued staffing partner to your clients.

For more information, please visit the Top Echelon Contracting website to find out about our contract placement services. You can also give us a call at 888.627.3678.

If you’re ready to add contract staffing to your business model and start making contract placements, then download our “Quick-Start Guide to Contract Staffing.”

This guide is FREE and can help walk you through the basic steps of a contract placement in a matter of minutes!