Sometimes you need a friendly reminder . . . and we’re here to give you one!

That friendly reminder is about the 2013 National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) Conference, which is scheduled for Tuesday, September 10, through Friday, September 13.  The location: the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This year’s jam-packed event will feature a number of benefits for executive recruiters.  Those benefits include the following:

• 20 of the recruiting industry’s leading speakers
• CPC, CTS, and CERS certification sessions
• Networking lunches
• Fast-track speaker breakouts
• An “Owner/Manager Special Day” embedded within the conference!
• And a whole lot more!

We’re pleased to announce that Hiring Hook recruitment website design and Big Biller recruitment software are both sponsors of this year’s NAPS Conference!

The cost to attend the 2013 conference is $795 for NAPS members and $1,195 for non-members.  However, recruiters are encouraged to contact NAPS to inquire about special pricing and payment plans.

Since its inception in 1961, NAPS has built a reputation as being the educator for the executive search and staffing industry.  NAPS has accomplished this not only through its annual conference, but also through its certification program and emphasis on continuing education.

We’ll see you in Vegas!  Be there or be square!

Since it’s baseball season, it’s only appropriate that we talk about the “Cal Ripken, Jr.” of Top Echelon Network.

Ripken played his entire Major League Baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles, setting the league record for most consecutive games played at 2,632.  Now that’s consistency.

Sean Napoles, CPC of Career Brokers, Inc. has also maintained an incredibly high level of consistency in the Network during the past 10 years, winning numerous awards in the process.  To date, Napoles has made 176 Network placements for a cash-in total of over $1.5 million.

Of those 176 split placements, he’s made 16 of them with Wendy Johnson of CPS and Professionals Incorporated, including one in this issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.  As one might suspect, Napoles has made multiple placements with numerous Network recruiters down through the years.

Napoles’s split placement with Johnson is one of two that he has in this week’s issue, and it’s also one of seven that he’s made already in the Network in 2013.  If anybody’s going to catch Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group before the end of the year, it’s going to be the “Cal Ripken, Jr.” of Top Echelon Network.

Below are the positions that were recently filled by Network recruiters:

• IT Project Manager
  
• SAP Bi Dev
  
• Manager of Product Automation
  
• Operations Manager – Industrial Manufacturing
  
• RN/Director of Clinical Services – Hospice
  
• Software Engineer – Progress (two of them!)
  

If you work within any of these industries and would like to know more about how you can make split placements in Top Echelon Network, contact Membership Development Coordinator Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS at (330) 455-1433, Ext. 156.

THIS WEEK’S COMPLETED SPLIT PLACEMENTS!

Job order recruiter: Wendy Johnson of CPS and Professionals Incorporated

Candidate recruiter: Sean Napoles, CPC of Career Brokers, Inc.

Job title: IT PROJECT MANAGER

Fee percentage—20%

Action causing split placement: Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter

— — —

Job order recruiter: Matt Bruns of the North Peak Group

Candidate recruiter: Sean Napoles, CPC of Career Brokers, Inc.

Job title: SAP BI DEV

Fee percentage—20%

Action causing split placement: Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter

— — —

Job order recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search and Recruiters

Candidate recruiter: Joe Miglizzi of Perspective

Job title: MANAGER OF PRODUCT AUTOMATION

Fee percentage—30%

Action causing split placement: Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter

— — —

Job order recruiter: Paul Johnson of Paul Johnson & Associates

Candidate recruiter: Dan Lawlor of Dan Lawlor

Job title: OPERATIONS MANAGER – INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING

Fee percentage—25%

Action causing split placement: Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter

— — —

Job order recruiter: Troy Randolph of Lea Randolph & Associates, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Jim Strickland of BioSource International

Job title: RN/DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL SERVICES – HOSPICE

Fee percentage—Flat

Action causing split placement: The job seeker or client was found through my Hiring Hook recruitment web design.

— — —

Job order recruiter: Michael Stuck of Gables Search Group, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Bill Law of OraStaff, Inc.

Job title: SOFTWARE ENGINEER – PROGRESS

Fee percentage—15%

Action causing split placement: Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter

— — —

Job order recruiter: Michael Stuck of Gables Search Group, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Mario Linale of Atlas Consulting Group, LLC

Job title: SOFTWARE ENGINEER – PROGRESS

Fee percentage—15%

Action causing split placement: Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter

The 2013 Top Echelon Network National Convention is next week!  We’re going to St. Petersburg Beach!  A great time will be had by all!

And we’re going to take pictures . . . a LOT of pictures.

Want proof?  All you have to do is look through our photos from past Top Echelon Network conventions.  And where might those be, you ask?  Well, on our Facebook Fan Page, of course.

We recently posted photos from all of our networking events for recruiters . . . well, since we started taking photos at the National Convention.  While we didn’t post every single photo, we definitely posted the majority of them, with an emphasis on including recruiters who are currently Preferred Members of the Network (as opposed to former Members).

Now of course, we’ll be uploading photos to Facebook during and after the upcoming 2013 National Convention, and we encourage those recruiters who will be in attendance to do the same.  Let’s have a great convention, let’s have fun, and let’s share that fun.  In the meantime . . .

There’s less than a week left before the start of the National Convention.  So there’s still time to register.  So do it now—you won’t regret it!

One of the trickiest things about running your own back-office is navigating the complex web of state and local laws.  Paid sick leave (PSL) is an area where recruiters need to be especially careful.  With no paid leave laws on the federal level, some states and cities are taking matters into their own hands.  Most recently, the city of Portland, Ore., passed a sick leave ordinance that will go into effect on Jan 1, 2014, according to HR Hero. If you’re running your own back-office, you are responsible, as the employer of your contractors, for providing PSL when required.  Here is a quick breakdown of the PSL laws currently on the books in specific areas: Portland, Ore.—Employers with six or more employees will be required starting 1/1/2014 to provide PSL to those working 240 or more hours per year within the city limits.  This will apply to employers even if they are not based in Portland and even if the employee only works in the city occasionally, as long as they meet the 240 hours per year requirement.  Employees will earn one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked up to a maximum of 40 hours per year.  They can also carry up to 40 unused hours over.  This law will also require employers with less than six employees to provide them with one hour of UNPAID sick leave for every 30 hours worked up to 40 hours per year. San Francisco—All San Francisco employers are required to provide one hour of PSL to employees for every 30 hours worked.  The maximum is 40 hours per year for small businesses (10 or fewer employees) and 72 for larger employers (more than 10).  Unused leave carries over every year, not to exceed the maximum limit.  Visit the City & County of San Francisco Labor Standard Enforcement site for more details. Seattle—Seattle’s PSL law applies to employers with a total of five or more full-time employees.  If any of those employees work at least 240 hours per year within Seattle’s city limits, the employer is required to provide one hour of leave for every 40 hours they work.  The maximum hours range from 40 to 72, depending upon the size of the company.  This law is unique in that it not only allows employees to use the time to care for themselves or a family member in the case of injury or illness, but it also can be used as “safe leave” if their place of business has been closed by a public official for health or safety reasons. Washington, D.C.—Under the Washington D.C. Paid Sick Leave Act, employees must be employed for a year without a break in service and work at least 1,000 hours prior to their request to take time off.  The law excludes the following types of workers: independent contractors, students, health care workers who have opted into a premium pay program, and restaurant servers and bartenders who receive both wages and tips.  The number of hours accrued depends upon the employer’s size, but cannot exceed seven days a year. Connecticut—With the only state-wide PSL law so far, Connecticut requires employers with 50 or more employees in the state to provide up to 40 hours of PSL.  The tricky part about this law is that it only applies to “service workers,” those who are not exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requirements and who fall into one of the positions listed in the legislation.  You can view a list and other details about the law by clicking here. Just because you don’t have contractors working in these areas doesn’t mean you don’t need to be concerned.  New York City is also close to passing legislation, and Philadelphia is considering its own PSL law.  Chances are that more will follow suit.  As a contract staffing recruiter running your own back-office, it’s important that you stay on top of these developments and make sure you’re following any applicable PSL laws. This article is for informational purposes only and should NOT be construed as legal advice.

These days, if you have the candidates, you’ll make the placements . . . and that statement pertains to Top Echelon Network, as well.

Let’s face it: within some industries and some niches (the majority of them, perhaps), superstar candidates are difficult to find—and superstar candidates are who your clients want.  If they’re going to make the leap of hiring a full-time employee, they want that candidate to be as close to perfect as they can possibly be.

Which, of course, means that you have to find candidates who are as close to perfect as they can possibly be.  The recruiters below were tasked with doing just that, and they turned to other recruiters in the Network for help.

They got the near-perfect candidate they were searching for, they presented that candidate to their client, their client made an offer to the candidate, the candidate accepted it, and now the recruiters involved are splitting a big placement fee.

And they lived happily ever after . . .

But split placements are no fairy tale. Quite the contrary: they’re real, and they’re alive and well in Top Echelon Network.

Now share every candidate you have with the rest of the Network.  There are more placements to be made!

If you’d like to compliment a Trading Partner for providing you with a near-perfect candidate for your client’s job order, then submit your comments with your Completed Placement Form or send them to marketing@topechelon.com.  The end.

— — —

“Great candidate, Roni!  Thanks for finding him and getting him on Top Echelon Network.  And as always—it was great working with you!”

Submitted by Chuck Sissom of Sissom & Associates regarding his split placement with Veronica Snyder of Career Professionals, Inc.

Position Title—PROCESS ENGINEER

Fee Percentage—25%

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

— — —

“Bob is a delight to work with.  He ‘gets’ the job order and accurately forwards well-qualified candidates.”

Submitted by Susan Stone of SAP Recruiters regarding her split placement with Bob Ferris of Ferris & Associates, LLC

Position Title—SAP BUSINESS ANALYST

Fee Percentage—25%

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