Attention: this blog post is about Policy 11: Placement Fees, Payment Terms, Refunds, Fall-offs, and Guarantees and what it means to you as a Preferred Member of Top Echelon Network.

As a member of Top Echelon, it is vital for you to know all of the Network Policies and their effect on how you operate your business and relationships with your TE partners.

The happy side: getting paid!

I want to start with Policy #11 as it is about the money you make, keep, and in some cases . . . return.

Without pasting the entire text in this article, which is available in the link above, here is the situation when a placement is made between two Top Echelon members.

When the job recruiter is paid by the client, they are to send both Top Echelon our 6% brokerage fee and their trading partner their 47% fee within 24 hours of receiving the check. Sure, some banks hold on to the funds for a few days. Job recruiters should inform their partners of expected pay date specifics, their client’s internal processes, and bank holding periods. These are all extremely important to the conversation that TE members should have together.

The ugly side: the fall-off

According to the guarantee period and refund/replacement side of Policy #11, if the candidate falls off during the guarantee period, the job recruiter should notify their TE partner by phone and follow up with an email with the details of the fall-off. Then they must fill out the fall-off form and both Top Echelon and the candidate recruiter are required to refund their fees immediately and in their entirety.

What do you need to do about this? Be prepared. Any agency working in Top Echelon should have money set aside for such an instance.

Do fall-offs happen in Top Echelon Network? Absolutely. It’s part of the recruiting business, and therefore, a part of what occurs here in Top Echelon Network, which is why we have a specific policy for such instances, as well as a system for reporting them.

Ignorance of the law is never an excuse. Everybody is responsible for understanding these rules and their ramifications regarding how they/you operate here.

Not having the funds available to handle this situation is not acceptable and in poor form. What can you do to accommodate this in your desk as a member of Top Echelon Network?

Suggestions:

• Ask the job recruiter to hold on to the fee until after the guarantee period is over.
• Do not cash the check until after the guarantee period is over.
• Cash the check and put it in escrow until the guarantee period is over.
• Build up an escrow account of $10-20K for solely this type of a situation.

Regardless of what you do, be sure that you are prepared to be the best trading partner you can be by communicating, being active, showing yourself as a trusting partner, and being a quality professional. Be ready to handle any situation that arises, including the one described in this blog post. We want you to be the “best of the best” in this industry and set a benchmark for how recruiting partners are supposed to work together in a cooperative fashion.

I am proud to have been here so long and to have watched so many Preferred Members thrive in business because of their understanding of how to be the best trading partners in Top Echelon Network.

Top Echelon Network recruiters were in double digits again last week, as they racked up another 13 split placements.

In addition, the largest split fee of the week was $42,500!

Congratulations to both Jim Sitek of FSN and Sarah Katz of First Search, Inc. Jim and Sarah placed a Finance Manager to generate that fee at 25%.

But that wasn’t the only sizeable fee in Top Echelon last week. Check out the placements below to see the industries and niches in which Preferred Members are making placements.

And congratulations are also in order for Luke Oliver of Lazio Search Group, Inc. and Elizabeth Wellington of TWG Recruiters. They both made their first split placement in Top Echelon Network recently!

As a friendly neighborhood reminder, here is the information that we publish with our weekly placements:

• Names of the split recruiting partners involved (with their profile photos, when available)
• Job title
• Overall placement fee (before TE’s 6% brokerage fee, of course)
• Fee percentage

Please note that the placements listed below reflect deals finalized in Top Echelon Network for the period from April 17 through April 23, 2023.

Remember, if you don’t want information related to your Network placements published in The Pinnacle, please send an email to marketing@topechelon.com to that effect.

Congratulations to everybody below for the split placements they made in Top Echelon Network!

This Week’s Top Echelon Split Placements

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Job recruiter: Steve Schanz of CPS Recruitment

Candidate recruiter: Sara Alexandroff of Sterling St. James, LLC

Job title: MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Overall placement fee: $18,700

Fee percentage: 22%

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Job recruiter: Gary Kaufman of ExcelliSearch, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Sara Alexandroff of Sterling St. James, LLC

Job title: SENIOR SQL SERVER DBA CONSULTANT

Overall placement fee: $26,400

Fee percentage: 22%

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Job recruiter: Pat McGue of Mackie Search, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Yanna Belilovsky of SourcePro Search, LLC

Job title: MATERIALS ENGINEER

Overall placement fee: $19,000

Fee percentage: 20%

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Job recruiter: Sherry Umpleby of Innovative Search Solutions

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of Cameron Craig Group

Job title: PROJECT MANAGER – CAPITAL PROJECTS

Overall placement fee: $25,000

Fee percentage: 20%

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Job recruiter: Blake Kindle of Mackie Search, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of Cameron Craig Group

Job title: JUNIOR AUTOCAD ENGINEER

Overall placement fee: $6,250

Fee percentage: 10%

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Job recruiter: Pat McCombs, CPC of KB Search Team, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Brad Dodge of iLocatum Recruiting

Job title: PLANT SUPERINTENDENT

Overall placement fee: $26,450

Fee percentage: 23%

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Job recruiter: Jim Sitek of FSN

Candidate recruiter: Sarah Katz of First Search, Inc.

Job title: FINANCE MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $42,500

Fee percentage: 25%

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Job recruiter: Michael Stuck of Gables Search Group

Candidate recruiter: Luke Oliver of Lazio Search Group, Inc.

Job title: PROJECT MANAGER – FACILITIES

Overall placement fee: $21,250

Fee percentage: 25%

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Job recruiter: Mark Udulutch, CPC of Markent Personnel

Candidate recruiter: Jim Strickland of BioSource Recruiters

Job title: ENGINEERING LAB MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $28,750

Fee percentage: 23%

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Job recruiter: Alex Bakker of USA Staffing Network

Candidate recruiter: Michael Stuck of Gables Search Group

Job title: PHYSICAL THERAPIST

Overall placement fee: $10,968

Fee percentage: 15%

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Job recruiter: Sheri Welsh, CPC/CERS of Welsh & Associates, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Michael Stuck of Gables Search Group

Job title: APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT SCIENTIST

Overall placement fee: $14,500

Fee percentage: Flat

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Job recruiter: Elizabeth Wellington of TWG Recruiters

Candidate recruiter: Jim Sullivan of Galaxy Management Group, Inc.

Job title: SENIOR SCIENTIST

Overall placement fee: $18,000

Fee percentage: 15%

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Job recruiter: Alex Bakker of USA Staffing Network

Candidate recruiter: Bob White of Impact Solutions, Inc.

Job title: CERTIFIED OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY ASSISTANT

Overall placement fee: $5,850

Fee percentage: 15%

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If you’re a newer Network member and you’d like to enjoy more success in our recruiter network, then I encourage you to contact Top Echelon Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

You can do so by calling 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Obviously, networking is a huge part of Top Echelon Network, but what are the specific reasons why you should network?

What can you get out of it? In other words, what are the benefits of being a Network member?

First and foremost, what does networking cost?

The answer to this question is individual to each recruiter. However, there are certain costs that are pretty much constant. They include the price of your Top Echelon Network membership, increased phone time, an investment of time overall, participation, and possibly an occasional headache. As for any additional costs, those would be up to you.

However, what are the benefits of networking? What’s the return that you would receive on your investment?

There are a total of 11 networking benefits for Preferred Members of Top Echelon’s recruiter network. Specifically, there are four tangible benefits and seven intangible benefits, and I’ve listed them below:

4 Tangible Benefits:

1. Make more money.
2. Gain increased exposure for your recruited candidates.
3. Gain exposure for your clients’ job openings.
4. More easily satisfy your clients because you have more resources at your disposal.

7 Intangible Benefits:

1. Recognition by your peers when you excel.
2. The support of the entire Network behind you.
3. Have fun while making money.
4. Grow professionally (through training, education, recruiter networking events, and peer-to-peer information exchanges).
5. Reputation with your clients is enhanced.
6. Reputation with your candidates is enhanced.
7. Through the Internet, specifically your website, your Network membership can help you to attract candidates and clients.

As you can see, the benefits of networking—both tangible and intangible—far outweigh the cost of networking and the corresponding investment of time and money. That’s why networking is so integral to Top Echelon, because the investment that you make in networking ends up paying off in the form of split placements.

So invest as much as you can in networking as a Preferred Member of Top Echelon . . . and see how many benefits come your way.

I also invite you to download a copy of “Planning Your Network Success: A Guide to Growth Within Top Echelon Network.”

If you have any questions, please give me a call at 330.595.1742.

Last month, I blogged about the six things you should find out from a candidate before sending that candidate to a split recruiting partner.

In this blog post, I’ll be further exploring the placement process. Specifically, I’ll be exploring, the “give and take” between candidate recruiters and job order recruiters and the Pillar of Quality.

It’s imperative that Quality is part of this process at all levels. Both recruiters are responsible for keeping up “their end of the bargain.”

3 candidate recruiter ‘dos’

If you’re the candidate recruiter, now that you have (theoretically) found out six things about the candidate, there are three more things you should do before sending the candidate to your split network partner. Those three things are as follows:

1. Make sure that the candidate actually has experience with all of the requirements listed in the job description. If the candidate’s resume does not detail experience with those requirements and they actually have that experience, ask the candidate to update their resume to accurately reflect that.

2. Keep notes regarding your conversation with the candidate, including why you think they’re a good fit for the position. Basically, do exactly what you would do when submitting a candidate to one of your clients.

3. After sending the candidate to your trading partner, reach out to them. Ask if they received the candidate’s resume and then ask if they need you to help with anything else. The job order recruiter should provide direction at that point.

2 candidate recruiter ‘don’ts’

Now that I’ve presented three “Do’s” for the candidate recruiter during the split placement process, below are two “Don’ts.”

1. Do NOT give the candidate the job order recruiter’s contact information.

2. If the job order recruiter provides a valid reason as to why your candidate is not a fit for the position, do NOT argue or try to “push” the candidate on the job order recruiter.

If you have any questions about this blog post or about your Top Echelon Network membership in general, I encourage you to contact me. You can do so by calling 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Top Echelon offers a free monthly webinar as part of our 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 professional recruiters and executive search consultants just like YOU make more placements.

We record these webinars for recruiters who can’t attend the live presentation, and we’re now pleased to present the video from our most recent webinar by Barb Bruno, CPC/CTS of Good as Gold Training.

The title of that webinar (and corresponding training video) is “Communication Has Changed . . . or Has It?”

Below is the official description for this training video:

— — —

Does anyone answer their phone, email, or InMail? Is texting the best way to communicate when recruiting is a relationship-building profession?

These are all great questions, and renowned industry trainer Barb Bruno will answer them (and others) during the next webinar video in Top Echelon’s Expert Recruiter Coaching Series.

During this FREE session, Barb will cover the following topics:

• How to rate your current ability to develop relationships
• The best way to communicate with prospective clients and candidates
• Emails that are opened
• Voicemails that are returned
• InMails that result in responses

So if you want to make sure that you’re getting through to candidates and clients, then watch this training video as Barb Bruno answers the question, “Communication Has Changed . . . or Has It?”

Watch this FREE training video!

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Recorded versions of our Expert Recruiter Coaching Series of 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!