THE RECRUITERS:

Ron Sunshine has made 21 placements as a Top Echelon Network recruiter.  His firm, Ron Sunshine Associates, has been a Preferred Member since 2007.

Larry Goldberg, CPC has made 55 placements as a member of Top Echelon’s Recruiting Network.  His firm, Lawrence Personnel, has been a Preferred Member since 1991.

Kristen Jiles has made 11 placements as a Top Echelon Network recruiter.  Her firm, eSearchPro, Inc., has been a Preferred Member since 2007.

Debra Bennett has made 1 placement as a Top Echelon Network recruiter.  Her firm, Velocity Search Group, has been a Preferred Member since April of 2013.

THE SPLIT PLACEMENTS:

It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand-new Top Echelon Network recruiter (Bennett) or if you’ve been in TE for more than 20 years (Goldberg): you can make split fee recruiting placements with a recruiter you’ve never made split placements with before.  So no matter who you are, how long you’ve been a Network Member, or how long you’ve been in the industry, your next split with a new recruiter could be just around the corner!

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“I posted the job on TE.  Larry called me and submitted four candidates, and [the candidate] got hired.  Thanks for your help, Larry!”

Submitted by Ron Sunshine of Ron Sunshine Associates regarding his split placement with Larry Goldberg, CPC of Lawrence Personnel

Position Title—PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: this is the first Network split that Sunshine and Goldberg have made together in Top Echelon.)

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“This is Debra’s first Network placement, and she is FABULOUS.  Great addition to the TE team!”

Submitted by Kristin Jiles of eSearch Pro, Inc. regarding her split placement with Debra Bennett of Velocity Search Group

Position Title—VP of Sales

Fee Percentage—Flat fee recruitment

(Editor’s note: this is the first Network split that Jiles and Bennett have made together in Top Echelon.)

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), the healthcare reform law often referred to as Obamacare, is being credited for a spike in contract staffing, which is at its highest level since 2006 and is outpacing traditional, direct hiring.

The Bureau of Labor statistics reported that 2,679,800 workers were employed in contract/temporary positions in May, inching ever closer to the all-time record of 2,767,300 contractors working in October 2006, according to ere.net.

Moreover, year-over-year contract staffing growth was 7.5%, which is five times the growth of the overall economy’s jobs increase of just 1.56%.  The contractor penetration rate (the percent of workers who are contractors) has hit 1.98%, close to all-time high of 2.03%.

Investors Business Daily is pinning some of this contract staffing growth on what are being called ‘Obamacare-Dodgers’ — employers trying to get around the employer mandate portion of the ACA by utilizing contractors instead of direct hires.  The employer mandate, which begins in 2015, will require employers with 50 or more employees to provide healthcare insurance to their employees or pay a per-employee penalty.

Utilizing contractors who are W-2 employees of a contract staffing back-office is a legitimate strategy for reducing or eliminating an employer’s responsibilities under the employer mandate.  Basically, companies are outsourcing the employer responsibilities to the back-office.

Recruiter Joell Iskander of Select Hire Resource is seeing more of her clients go the contract staffing route as a result of Obamacare.

“When clients utilize contractors, benefits and other employer issues are no longer their problem,” Iskander said.  “If they put someone on as a contractor, it’s something the recruiting firm or back-office handles.”

This is a safer alternative to another popular Obamacare avoidance strategy — classifying workers as 1099 Independent Contractors.  Companies may use this technique to reduce their number of employees that must be counted to determine if they fall under the employer mandate.  However, simply calling a worker an independent contractor doesn’t make it so.

They must meet the IRS guidelines for independent contractors.  The Obama administration has been very diligent in targeting companies that misclassify W-2 employees as 1099 independent contractors because the proper employer taxes are not being paid on those individuals.  This is not an issue when companies utilize contractors employed through a back-office because that back-office classifies the workers as W-2 employees, pays the employer share of payroll taxes, and takes responsibility for Obamacare compliance.

The continued growth of contract staffing in light of Obamacare presents a huge opportunity for recruiters willing to place W-2 contractors.  Unfortunately, some recruiters will pass up this opportunity because they are reluctant to delve into contract staffing due to the misconception that it is more difficult than direct hire.

But contract staffing does not have to be any more difficult than direct hire placements when you utilize a contract staffing back-office.  The back-office becomes the legal W-2 employer of the contractors and handles all of the financial, administrative, and legal details of the contract placement.  This leaves you to handle the traditional recruitment tasks: get the job order, find the candidate, and negotiate the rates.

Additional placements are yours for the taking IF you are willing to stretch a little outside of your comfort zone.  Not only can you increase your sales, but you can also become a valuable partner by providing clients with a viable solution to one of the most challenging staffing issues they’re facing.

(Editor’s note: this article is for informational purposes only and should NOT be considered legal advice.)

SURVEY QUESTION:

Networking is one of the cornerstones of success in Top Echelon Network, and face-to-face networking is even more so.  That’s why we hold a National Convention and a Fall Conference every year.

However, approximately how many Network recruiters meet each other on a face-to-face basis?

We recently conducted a survey of Network Members to find out the answer.

That survey was based upon the following question:

Have you met another Network recruiter face-to-face in the past year?

SURVEY RESULTS:

The choice of answers that were provided is listed below, along with the percentage of Network recruiters who selected each answer:

• Yes, I have. — 72.7%
• No, I have not. — 27.3%

SURVEY ANALYSIS:

As expected, the majority of survey participants responded in the affirmative, as 72.7% chose “Yes, I have” as their answer.  The rest of the participants, of course, selected “No, I have not.”

Meeting another Network recruiter in person helps to ‘seal the deal,’ so to speak, on your Trading Partner relationship.  It makes it easier to call them when you get back to the office, to share information, and to trust them implicitly.

And you have a chance to meet other Network recruiters face-to-face in the near future: the 2013 Top Echelon Network Fall Conference!  The conference is scheduled for Thursday, October 3, and Friday, October 4, in Chicago. (We’ll be releasing more details in the near future.)

FEEDBACK:

Have you met another Network recruiter face-to-face in the past year?  If you have, what benefits did you derive from the meeting?  If not, why not, and do you plan to meet another Network recruiter before the end of 2013?