Because we’re always striving to improve and evolve, that’s exactly what we’re doing with this feature in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.  Many of you have made it clear that you like seeing the details of recent split placements in the newsletter, and that’s why we include them.

However, we believe that certain details of the placement—like the industry in which it was made and the position title involved—represent just the tip of the iceberg.  We want to dig deeper into HOW you’re making these split placements.  And WHY is that?  So that other Network recruiters can build upon your success, put into practice the techniques they see described here, and enjoy similar success themselves.

In short, we want more Preferred Member recruiters making more split placements, and one of the best ways to do that is to communicate exactly how other recruiters have made split placements in the past.  For example, “Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member” is the number-one reason listed by recruiters for why split placements occur.  The problem is this: that description is very general.  We’re going to drill down into that reason and dig up the specifics, such as who did what and when they did it.

Will we be able to do that with all of the split fee recruiting network placements that occur in Top Echelon Network?  Probably not, but if you’ve made a split placement in the Network recently, don’t be surprised if I give you a call and ask a bunch of questions.

Because inquiring, split-minded recruiters want to know.

THIS WEEK’S COMPLETED SPLIT PLACEMENTS!

Job order recruiter: Doug Meeker of Career Search Associates

Candidate recruiter: Bob Allen of The ManCom Team, Inc.

Job title: PLANT MANAGER

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Michele Hafez of KV Resources, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Susan Christian of PRI Business Services, Inc.

Job title: SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYST

Action causing placement: The job order or candidate was found by searching Top Echelon Network’s split databases.

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC

Candidate recruiter: David M. Sgro of True North Consultants, Inc.

Job title: SENIOR DEVELOPER

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Amy Recker of Ridgeway Professionals, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Eric Berg of JN Adams & Associates, Inc.

Job title: LEAN MANAGER

Action causing placement: The job order or candidate was found by searching Top Echelon Network’s split databases.

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Deanna Metcalf of TeamLink Global

Candidate recruiter: Nick Stoia of ASAP Search & Recruiters

Job title: REFRIGERATION MAINTENANCE TECH

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Stacy Pursell of The Pursell Group, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Scott Connell of the Connell Group, LLC

Job title: DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY

Action causing placement: The job order or candidate was found by searching Top Echelon Network’s split databases.

 — — —

Remember, you can opt out of having your placement highlighted, if you so choose.  All you have to do is send an email to marketing@TopEchelon.com indicating your desire to be left out.  Once you do so, you won’t be included in future installments of this feature.

If you’d like to see the amount of the fees associated with each of the placements listed above, login to the Members’ Area and click on the profiles of the recruiters involved.  The fee totals will be included along with those placements.

To find out how YOU can become a Preferred Member recruiter in Top Echelon Network, click here.

If you boiled it all down, what’s the number-one factor for making split placements in Top Echelon Network?  The answer: TRUST!

It’s been proven time and time again.  That’s why it’s one of The Four Pillars of Top Echelon Network and arguably the most important.  Why is that?  Because trust between Trading Partners doesn’t usually lead to just one split placement . . . it often leads to multiple split fee recruiting placements!

As you might have guessed, trust is the theme of this week’s installment of “‘Comments’ and Compliments.”  That’s because no matter how many split placements Preferred Member recruiters make with each other, they never seem to get tired of heaping praise upon their Trading Partners.

If you’d like to compliment your Trading Partner for a recent split placement (or placements), send your comments to marketing@TopEchelon.com.

— — —

“This is the second time that Dave and our process has worked.  Every IT order I take, Dave goes with me to meet with my client.  We split the fee no matter what.  This is what our Network is all about . . . trust!”

Submitted by Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC regarding her split placement with David M. Sgro of True North Consultants, Inc.

Position Title—Senior Developer
Fee Percentage—20%

— — —

“John knew his candidate extremely well and was very helpful during the entire placement process.  Thanks, John!”

Submitted by Pat McCombs of KB Search Team, LLC regarding her split placement with John Snyder of CareersPro, Inc.

Position Title—Production Supervisor
Fee Percentage—Flat fee

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Remember, if you have compliments for a Trading Partner regarding a split placement, please email them to marketing@TopEchelon.com.

To find out how YOU can become a Preferred Member recruiter in Top Echelon Network, click here.

The crazy recruiting stories keep pouring in as part of our “Craziest Recruiting Story of 2011” contest . . . so we’re going to keep publishing them!  (After all, that’s what you want.)  And all of these stories are like snowflakes or fingerprints—none of them are exactly alike.  They all have their distinctly different shade of crazy, which makes perfect sense if you’re a recruiter.  You know exactly what can happen on a daily basis in this profession, so much so that what might seem crazy to the rest of the world is perfectly routine for you.

This week’s story was submitted by a Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter, and this is one of the few stories that ended with a recruiter actually placing the candidate.  He didn’t place the candidate once, either.  Schutt placed him three times!  That, perhaps more than anything, is what makes the story so “crazy.”

— — —

“I received a resume from a Case graduate—Master’s Degree, BSEE, Putnam Fellow honors, etc.  This was about 1986 or so, when I worked for another agency in Beachwood.  The interview rooms faced south with a window about 8’ x 8’.  The secretary said that there was somebody to see me, but that I should hold my nose.  I went into the room and shook the guy’s hand.

“He was about 6-4 and as skinny as you can get, with a button-down shirt that was buttoned all the way to the top with no tie and flood pants.  There were salt stains from his armpits to within about four inches of his pants.  I thought I was going to die from the smell.  By policy, we closed the door for an interview, but I did not do that because I wanted to live.

“It turns out that the candidate was a very brilliant engineer, so I decided to market the guy, knowing that I would get job orders and interviews.  Anyway, I got some interviews.  I asked my boss what I should do with this guy.  He said to send him out and tell him to take a shower, which I did over the phone.  He goes on the interview and gets the job.

“But wait, it gets better.  This guy becomes a bit of a cash machine.  I have the guy on six interviews, get him four offers, and place him three times.  It turns out he had a gland problem, and there wasn’t much he could do about his sweating.  He works at Cisco in California now, I believe.  The lesson here, at least in Engineering, is don’t let appearances stop you from setting up an interview!”

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Remember, there are three ways you can submit your “Craziest Recruiting Story”:

1. You can email your story to marketing@TopEchelon.com.
2. You can post the story by including it in the comments section at the end of this blog.
3. You can give me a call and relay your story to me.

The deadline for submitting your “Craziest Recruiting Story of 2011” is midnight on Saturday, December 31.  We’ll announce the winner during the first part of January in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog and the Recruiter Training Blog.

Three months to go!  Keep those “crazy” stories coming!

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330.455.1433, Ext. 125
MDeutsch@TopEchelon.com
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(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

If you have clients who have been misclassifying W-2 employees as independent contractors (ICs), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is providing a way for them to come clean.

Through the agency’s recently launched Voluntary Worker Classification Settlement Program, if employers voluntarily reclassify their ICs as employees, they will only be required to pay a small portion of the back payroll taxes they owe.

To be eligible, the employer must:

• Have consistently treated workers in the past as nonemployees.
• Have filed 1099s on those workers for the previous three years.
• Not currently be undergoing an audit by the IRS, Department of Labor, or any other state agencies.

Employers can apply for the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program by filling out Form 8952.  If accepted, the employer will pay the IRS just around 10 percent of the payroll tax liability that should have been due for the past tax year (equal to about one percent of the wages paid to the workers during that year).

But why wouldn’t an employer just quietly reclassify their workers and pay nothing?  Well, if they participate in the program, the IRS will not audit them on prior payrolls for those workers.  If the past misclassification was found during an IRS audit, not only would the employer have to pay the entire amount of back taxes due, but they would also be subject to penalties and interest.  And, according to The Wall Street Journal, the IRS is planning to be even more diligent about investigating worker misclassification going forward.

You can help make it even easier for clients to fix their misclassification errors by converting their 1099 independent contractors to W-2 employees and outsourcing their employment to a contract staffing back-office, such as Top Echelon Contracting.  That way, your clients can still keep their costs and administrative hassles down, but they can do so legally without the threat of an IRS audit, because all of the required payroll taxes are paid by the back-office.

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888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
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