The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly set the world asunder during the past year, affecting just about everything in our personal and professional lives. One of those things has been our recruiter networking events, specifically our National Convention and Fall Conference.

You might remember that we conducted a survey of the Network membership a few months ago to “take the temperature” of Network recruiters. We wanted to see their thoughts and opinions about our next big networking event.

We typically hold the National Convention in the sprint of each year, which means that this year’s convention would be happening right about now. Of course, it’s not going to happen this year, just as it did not occur in 2020 due to the pandemic.

However, based on the results of our convention survey (and the fact that vaccines are being rolled out all across the country), I’m pleased to announce that the 2022 Top Echelon National Convention will be held in Las Vegas next year!

While I’m sure that many of you will be happy to hear this, I’m willing to bet that at least some of you have a question on your lips: “But what are the dates?”

I understand that you want to know the dates so that you can plan for the event. However, we do not have the exact dates quite yet. We’re still negotiating with the hotel that we’ve chosen regarding those dates, as well as the room rate.

Obviously, we want to select the best dates possible, and the cost of the rooms are a factor that helps us to determine which dates those are.

We are excited to make this announcement to the Top Echelon Network membership. We believe that our National Convention is the biggest networking event of the year for Top Echelon, and we have been sorely disappointed that we had to put the event on hiatus.

But as disappointed as we were, we’re equally optimistic that the 2022 National Convention will be everything that we remember our conventions to be.

So keep reading The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog for more updates and information regarding the 2022 National Convention, and we hope that you’ll make plans to join us!

The past year has certainly been a tumultuous one, both in this country and around the world. And while the economy appears ready to rebound, it also seems as though there is still quite a bit of uncertainty in the economy and the employment marketplace at large.

With all that being said, we at Top Echelon want to continue focusing on our Network membership. As a result, we’re pleased to announce the following upcoming changes to The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog:

#1—Weekly placements

That’s right, we’re bringing back weekly placements in The Pinnacle! This means we will be publishing the split placements that are made in the Network every single week.

(Please note that if you do NOT want your placement details to be published in The Pinnacle, send an email to marketing@topechelon.com indicating as much.)

#2—“Comments and Compliments” feature

We’re bringing back another popular series of blog posts from days gone by! In this feature, we publish not only placement details, but also the comments that recruiters submit with their Completed Placements Forms.

These comments illustrate the gratitude that TE members have for their split recruiting partners, further underscoring the importance of relationships in the Network.

#3—Recruiter of the Week

And yes, it’s a third feature that we’re bringing back! You know that we recognize the Recruiter of the Month, the Recruiter of the Quarter, and even the Recruiter of the Year.

But why not also recognize Top Echelon Network recruiters on a weekly basis, you ask? Great question! Let’s do that!

#4—More success stories

We’ve posted a LOT of Pinnacle Newsletter Blog posts about best practices in our split fee recruiting network. So it makes perfect sense that we would also post a lot of blog posts about those Network members who have put those practices into, well, practice and are experiencing a tremendous amount of success as a result.

We want to thank you for your commitment and loyalty as Top Echelon Network members, and we’re excited to bring back these features and place the focus more squarely on YOU.

We hope that you are enjoying considerable value from your Network membership and that you are experiencing a positive year on your recruiting desk and within your agency!

Top Echelon offers a free monthly webinar as part of its Expert Recruiter Coaching Series.

These webinars touch upon a variety of recruiter-related topics. These topics deal with both job candidates and clients. As always, our goal with these webinars is to help agency recruiters and executive search consultants just like YOU make more placements.

We record these webinars for those recruiters who can’t attend the live recording, and we’re now pleased to offer the video from our most recent webinar by Bob Marshall of TBMG International.

The title of that webinar (and corresponding training video) is “Key Performance Indicators for Your Clients and Prospects: Decoding the BLS Numbers.”

Below is the official description for this training video:

— — —

Recruiting industry trainer Bob Marshall has been publishing “The BLS Analysis for Recruiters” for more than 11 years. And many of you use the information contained in these reports in your presentations to clients and candidates. This is one of the reasons that he spends the time he does to assemble this information—for free to his distribution list! But since this is a rather lengthy report, many of us don’t utilize all of the information that we could. So in the next webinar in Top Echelon’s Recruiter Coaching series, Bob will provide an overview of the various parts of his report:

• The Article Section, made up of the most current information that impacts our economy
• The importance of the ADP/Moody’s National Employment Report
  Understanding the Unemployment Rate
• Why the rates are so important to our niches and the candidates we place
• Understanding the GDP and the COVID-19 impact on current GDP estimates
• The new labor numbers that focus on the Real GDP by industry
  Understanding why the unemployment rate can never be 0%
• The 5 main sources of unemployment, plus two other factors that influence it

With the new vaccines all around us and great economic recovery predictions on every front, now is the time to understand the numbers that operate in our business and use them to your advantage. So watch this video and discover “Key Performance Indicators for Your Clients and Prospects: Decoding the BLS Numbers”!

Watch this FREE training video!

Recorded versions of our Expert Recruiter Coaching Series webinars are posted on our website as free online recruitment training courses in the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Library.

Keep an eye out for the next free webinar in our Expert Recruiter Coaching Series!

One of the biggest questions recruiters have when adding contract staffing to their business model is how they will find clients. In other words, how will they find contract job orders.

The easy and unexpected answer is they don’t have find a bunch of new clients to start getting contract job orders. Recruiters have told us that the best source for contract job orders is their current client base.

Think about it. You already have a relationship with your existing clients. There is already a level a trust. Hopefully, they’ve come to see you as a good source for hiring advice and trends.

So when you present contract staffing solutions as an answer to a staffing issue, they will be more likely to listen. Even better, they probably already use contractors or have a desire to, but never asked you because you previously didn’t offer the service.

So now you know WHO your best source of contract job orders is. But HOW do you get them to use your contract staffing services. Here are a few ways:

#1—TALK about about contract job orders.

It’s as simple as that. When you are following up with a client, say “By the way, we can now place contractors.” Or suggest contract staffing if they are talking about a specific situation in which contractors would be a perfect fit.

You can even consider proactively contacting all of your current customers to let them know that you have added contract staffing to your service offerings.

#2—Ask the right questions.

Your clients may not know that contractors are the solution to their problems. Try asking questions like these to determine their true needs:

• “Do you have a short-term need or upcoming project?” These are the perfect times to use contractors because there is no long-term commitment.
• “Are you prohibited from hiring due to a hiring freeze?” Contractors come from a different budget than direct hires, so they may be able to utilize contractors even during a hiring freeze.
• “Are you worried about hiring the right person?” You can let them “try-before-they-buy” through a contract-to-direct arrangement.

#3—Put it in writing.

Be sure to mention contract staffing on all your written communications. This includes your website, email signature, social media profiles, your standard fee schedule, your client newsletter, and more.

You may want to consider an email campaign or sending marketing documents explaining your new service to current clients.

BONUS TIP: The “sweet spot” of contracting

When trying to offer contract staffing services, be aware of the size of the companies with which you’re working. Small-to-medium-sized companies are considered by many recruiters to be the “sweet spot” when it comes to contracting. Why? Because they:

• Tend to be more flexible with rates and contract term negotiations.
• Are less likely to have vendor management systems and primary vendor agreements.
• Have more limited budgets, but still need deadlines met and projects completed.

This doesn’t mean you should discount larger companies when it comes to contract staffing. Just be aware that, as with direct hire, there may be more gatekeepers and “hoops to jump through.”

For those agency recruiters and executive search consultants looking to get started with contract staffing, Top Echelon recommends using Foxhire (formerly Top Echelon Contracting). They serve as the Employer of Record while your contractors perform work at your client companies.

Click HERE for more information about how Foxhire can help you make more placements!