It’s no secret that Top Echelon is owned and operated on Christian principles. As a result, there is plenty to celebrate during the month of April. That includes, of course, Easter, the holiday that celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

And although these occasions are not on the same level of celebration as Easter, there are also firms in TE that are celebrating Network anniversaries.

April anniversaries bring May placements

In fact, we have a bunch of firms that are celebrating anniversaries in excess of 20 years. Those firms include:

• Staffing4u/Careers4u, Inc. (28 years)
• KB Search Team, LLC (27 years)
• Systems Search (24 years)
• Executive Directions and Pinnacle, Int’l (24 years)
• Technical Management Advisors (24 years)
• SearchStars, Inc. (22 years)

That’s 149 combined years of membership in Top Echelon Network! That’s also a whole LOT of placements. KB Search Team has made a total of 247 placements during the past 27 years. Not only that, but the firm’s cash-in total for those placements is close to $2 million! That represents a rather hefty return on the firm’s investment in our recruiting network.

But there are other Network agencies celebrating anniversaries this month, as you can see below. We at Top Echelon would like to congratulate everybody celebrating an anniversary.

And we’d also like to once again remind readers that there’s a bigger celebration occurring this month. Happy Easter, everybody!

(Editor’s note: Top Echelon recognizes firms celebrating five, 10, 15, and 20-year Network anniversaries, plus any firm celebrating an anniversary in excess of 20 years.)

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28-Year Anniversary

Staffing4u/Careers4u, Inc. in Melbourne Beach, Florida
Staff Members: Bernadette Buda Rowe, Mike Rowe, and Melissa Royer
Agency Join Date: April 6, 1989
Placements: 79

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27-Year Anniversary

KB Search Team, LLC in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Staff Members: Kathy Rogers; Pat McCombs, CPC; Brenda Wylie-Biggs, CPC; Rhonda Dove; Amber Schleinkofer; and Susie Kaiser
Agency Join Date: April 18, 1990
Placements: 247

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24-Year Anniversary

Systems Search in Lincolnshire, Illinois
Staff Members: Ed Nathan
Agency Join Date: April 12, 1993
Placements: 65

Executive Directions and Pinnacle Int’l
Staff Members: Paul E. Richards, Sean Broom, Anthony Shulik, Katherine Scherer, Carrie Workman, and Cecilly Lisik
Agency Join Date: April 15, 1993
Placements: 45

Technical Management Advisors in Columbus, Ohio
Staff Members: Gerald Brown
Agency Join Date: April 22, 1993
Placements: 43

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22-Year Anniversary

SearchStars, Inc. in Lincoln, Virginia
Staff Members: Cindy Sommer and Frank Sommer
Agency Join Date: April 27, 1995
Placements: 74

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15-Year Anniversary

WSI Nationwide, Inc. in New York, New York
Staff Members: Jay Wallin
Agency Join Date: April 4, 2002
Placements: 1

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5-Year Anniversary

Mangrum Career Solutions, LLC
Staff Members: Anjela Mangrum, CPC
Agency Join Date: April 24, 2012
Placements: 16

Several weeks ago, we introduced our “Did You Know?” series in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog. This series is designed to help show Network recruiters how to maximize the power of the Big Biller recruiting software.

And we’re back with more power tips!

In fact, we have three more such tips, which are listed below. Accompanying each nugget of information is a link to a Help Center article and/or video that explains the feature in more detail. (Remember, the Help Center is available 24/7 to answer your questions and provide assistance.)

The next three tips in this series are below. Power up, people!

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Did You Know . . . About Mass Emailing Through Big Biller?

As a recruiter, it’s vitally important to stay “top of mind” with candidates, clients, and prospective clients. And the Big Biller recruiting software can help you do that!

Big Biller’s mass email functionality allows you to stay in front of candidates and contacts, all while increasing your chances of making more placements.

Click HERE for a Help Center article about how to leverage the power of the Big Biller mass emailer!

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Did You Know . . . About Scheduling an Activity in Big Biller?

Activities are commonly used to document your completed work throughout the day in Big Biller. But did you know that you can use them to schedule follow-ups or reminders for yourself, as well?

You can schedule activities for specific dates and times or leave that time field open to add it to your tasks list. All of your scheduled activities will flow to your planner so you can manage those day-to-day.

Click HERE for a Help Center article about how to schedule activities in Big Biller!

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Did You Know . . . Big Biller Can Streamline Your Process?

Did you know . . . that one of the ways Big Biller helps recruiters work more efficiently during the placement process is through the use of Pipelines?

Pipelines allow you to track your job orders so that you can quickly see who is being considered for the position and exactly where they stand within the placement process.

Click HERE for a Help Center article explaining how to manage Pipelines in Big Biller!

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Check future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog for another installment of “Did You Know?”

And if you’re ready to see what the Big Biller recruitment ATS can do for your agency, then click here to sign up for a LIVE demo!

Recruiters deal with people ALL of the time. But do they like people? You would think that they do, but do all of them? The law of averages would say, “No.”

But why are we debating this? We have a bunch of recruiters whose opinion we could ask. The recruiters of Top Echelon Network? Why, yes!

We posed the following question in the Members’ Area and then greedily collected the responses:

You’re a recruiter, but do you consider yourself a “people person”?

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

• Yes, I’m the “peoplest person” ever! — 29.7%
• Yes, I’m a standard-issue “people person.” — 32.4%
• I’m neutral; call me Switzlerland. — 24.3%
• I was a “people person” before I started recruiting. — 13.5%
• You could call me an “anti-people person.” — 0.0%
• I can barely stand the existence of other human beings. — 0.0%

Power to the people . . . OR maybe not

Let’s start with the easy stuff. Nobody who participated in the poll out-and-out hates other human beings. Both of the choices at the far end of the spectrum received zero votes. That’s heartening, at least, since one of the choices was, “I can barely stand the existence of other human beings.” (Who comes up with these choices, anyway?)

With those choices out of the way, the real race begins! That’s because three responses were neck-and-neck at the top. The most popular choice: “I’m a standard-issue ‘people person'” with 32.4% of the vote. Right behind that answer was “I’m the ‘peoplest-person’ ever!” at 29.7%. I’m not sure how much you have to love people to be in this category. I’m also not really sure I want to know.

Then there are those who said “Call me Switzerland.” This non-committal bunch commanded 24.3% of the vote. Could it be that these recruiters neither like nor dislike other human beings? That would seem to be the logical conclusion.

And of course, there’s the fun answer of “I was a ‘people person’ before I started recruiting.” That answer was too tempting for 13.5% of poll participants. That just goes to show what recruiting can do to a person.

As we all know, though, regardless of what recruiters think of homo sapiens overall, there’s one aspect of dealing with them that they all love: placing them!

If you want to make more placements in our recruiter 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.

If you’re running your own back-office for contract placements, there are certain things you need to do when a new contractor starts working. This helps ensure that you have accurate payroll records and that you’re in compliance with any applicable employment laws.

Below are five things that recruiters MUST do to employ a new contractor.

1. Verify their name and social security number.

This is important for W-2 reporting. If you make a mistake, the contractor’s earnings could be applied to the wrong social security number. You could end up having to file corrected W-2s for each year the contractor works for you. It’s worth the time to get it right from the start. You may want to consider using the Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS) to verify that employee names and social security numbers match.

2. Determine the workers’ compensation code.

This can be tricky. In general, the correct code is the governing code for the client, but there are exceptions. When in doubt, submit the code and job description to your workers’ compensation insurance carrier and ask them to confirm the correct code. AND get their opinion in writing in case you are audited. If you are audited and are found to have used the wrong classification code, you could be hit with much higher workers’ compensation premiums than you expected.

3. Complete the I-9.

You MUST have the contractor complete Section 1 of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification Form on their first day of work. Within three days of their start date, you must view their “acceptable documents” and complete Section 2. Penalties for not doing this correctly are stiff. As a result, take special care to make sure the form is complete and everything is done on time. And if you are required by state or local law or by a federal contract to run employees through the federal E-Verify system, that must also be completed within three days of their start date.

4. Have the new contractor complete a W-4.

This will determine how you calculate their federal taxes for their payroll. Unless they want to make changes or they claim tax exemption, your contractors only need to do this once: when they are first hired. If they do indicate they are tax-exempt, they must complete a W-4 for each year they are claiming exemption.

5. Report new hires.

New hire reporting laws require you to report your new hires to ensure the enforcement of child support orders. Each state is different, so be sure to look up the New Hire Reporting Center for the state in which the contractor is working.

This is not an exhaustive list. There may be additional requirements based on how many contractors you employ and the laws in the state(s) in which you conduct business. So you need to do your homework before you employ contractors.

Or you can consider outsourcing the employment of your contractors to a contract staffing back-office. Either way, it’s important to “get all of your ducks in a row.” That way, you can prevent legal and payroll headaches.

(Note: This article is intended for informational purposes only and should NOT be considered legal advice.)