I thought perhaps a nice photo of a bundle of wood would go nicely with this blog post. I opted instead for the above photo of a bundle of wood on fire.

Why? Why not. After all, it’s now the fall season. And besides, split placements are on fire in Top Echelon Network! (By the way, you can forget about reference to a baby.)

Bundle of placement joy

First and foremost, we’d like to give a shout-out to those recruiters making their first placement as a Network member. They are:

• Blake Lawson of CNC Jobs, Inc.
• Jane Roberts of Jane Roberts Consulting, LLC

We always like to highlight those Network members who make their first TE split. Because you can’t make your second TE split until you make your first. And you can’t make your third TE split until you make your second. And you can’t make your third . . . you get the idea.

Plenty of the recruiters below have made more than three placements in Top Echelon’s split network. In fact, some have made hundreds of Network placements. And for that, we thank them.

We both thank them and congratulate them for those placements. In fact, we both thank and congratulate everybody who made this week’s bundle of placements in Top Echelon Network!

This Week’s TE Split Placements

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Job recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search & Recruiters

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: CONTROLS & ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

Fee percentage: 20%

Action causing split placement: Network Jobs Feed

— — —

Job recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search & Recruiters

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: CMM OPERATOR/PROGRAMMER

Fee percentage: 20%

Action causing split placement: Network Jobs Feed

— — —

Job recruiter: Georgette Sandifer of Gallman Consulting

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: HVAC SERVICE TECHNICIAN

Fee percentage: Flat

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Nancy Hastings of The Hastings Group

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: LIVE HAUL MANAGER

Fee percentage: 20%

Action causing split placement: Network Jobs Feed

— — —

Job recruiter: Lawrence T. Ploscowe of EXEK Recruiters, Ltd.

Candidate recruiter: Terry Rhodes of NewCareers

Job title: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER – DME/JME SERVICES

Fee percentage: 20%

Action causing split placement: Network Jobs Feed

— — —

Job recruiter: Keith Cornelison of Personnel Resources

Candidate recruiter: Steve Kohn of Affinity Executive Search

Job title: LAB TECHNICAL SUPERVISOR (MED TECH)

Fee percentage: 25%

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Keith Cornelison of Personnel Resources

Candidate recruiter: Steve Kohn of Affinity Executive Search

Job title: MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIST/MEDICAL LABORATORY TECHNICIAN

Fee percentage: 25%

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Blake Lawson of CNC Jobs, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Steve Kohn of Affinity Executive Search

Job title: CNC APPLICATIONS MANAGER

Fee percentage: 20%

Action causing split placement: Network Jobs Feed

— — —

Job recruiter: Tim Piccini of Philips Recruiting Services

Candidate recruiter: Justin Bidwell of Bidwell & Associates

Job title: MATERIALS MANAGER

Fee percentage: 20%

Action causing split placement: Offline Communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Keith Cornelison of Personnel Resources

Candidate recruiter: Terry Rhodes of NewCareers

Job title: LAB DIRECTOR (MANAGER), HOSPITAL

Fee percentage: 25%

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Donna Carroll, CPC of Systems Personnel

Candidate recruiter: Matt Bruns of the North Peak Group

Job title: MARKETING PROGRAMS MANAGER

Fee percentage: 22%

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Daniel Simmons, CPC of Continental Search & Outplacement, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Joe Cresci of Food Management Search

Job title: FEED SALES REP

Fee percentage: 25%

Action causing split placement: Network Jobs Feed

— — —

Job recruiter: Kristy Fangman of Automationtechies.com

Candidate recruiter: David Wick, CPC of Wick Jobs (Career Center of Cincinnati)

Job title: CONTROLS ENGINEER

Fee percentage: 25%

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Alan Daum of Alan N. Daum & Associates, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Jane Roberts of Jane Roberts Consulting, LLC

Job title: PROCESS CONTROL ENGINEER

Fee percentage: 25%

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

— — —

Job recruiter: Melissa Truax of Premier Health Career, Inc./Premier Paths

Candidate recruiter: Hank Winters of HPS Talent, Inc.

Job title: ASSOCIATE MEDICAL DIRECTOR

Fee percentage: Flat

Action causing split placement: Offline communication with a member

There’s a big reason that we stress building relationships and utilizing teamwork in Top Echelon’s recruiting network.

Because it results in more placements!

Sure, software is great. Yes, technology is amazing. However, does that alone hold the key to more production as a recruiter? No, it does not. You need more. And that’s what Top Echelon offers to its members.

Trust, teamwork, and multiple splits

Below are three prime examples of how teamwork between two recruiters during the hiring process can result in placements. And we’re not talking about single, isolated, one-off instances of placement success. For some of these split recruiting partners, we’re talking about multiple placements. They’ve made placements in the past, they’re making them now, and they plan to make more in the future.

Trust is arguably the most important Pillar of Top Echelon Network. When you find a trading partner that you trust, there is no better situation than that. Trust is the building block for a great relationship, and when you have a great relationship in Top Echelon, making split placements is almost a foregone conclusion.

If you want help finding trading partners in TE, please contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS. Drea has over 12 years of experience helping recruiters build trading partner relationship Top Echelon Network. And he can help YOU, too.

You can do so by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

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“Diva sent this candidate to us because she felt he was a good hardware engineer, and she knows we always have a need for them. We’ve done significant work together, so she has a good sense of this. We sent [the candidate] in for three different hardware engineering positions, but this one, in autonomous driving, was the best fit. Our close work with Diva continues to pay off as together, we locate some of the hardest-to-find candidates out there. ”

Submitted by Dan Trudeau of The PRA Group, Inc. regarding his Network split placement with Diva Milani of Tuscany Enterprises

Position Title—HARDWARE ENGINEER – ACTIVE SAFETY

Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: This is the sixth Network split placement that Dan and Diva have made together in Top Echelon.)

— — —

“Thank you so much, Mike, for really being key to making this deal happen! I don’t do many sales placements, so you provided a lot of guidance through the process.”

Submitted by David M. Sgro, CPC of True North Consultants, Inc. regarding her Network split placement with Michael Brown of Seneca Creek Executive Search, LLC

Position Title—CLOUD SOLUTIONS SALES EXECUTIVE

Fee Percentage—22%

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

Welcome back to our special series of blog posts designed to educate Network members about contract staffing. (Also in this issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog is “2 Questions: Then You Make Contract Placements.”)

We at Top Echelon want to show Network members how easy it is to offer contract staffing solutions to clients. One of the reasons it’s easy is that Top Echelon Contracting is a recruitment back office that can handle all of the paperwork associated with making contract placements.

Here, though, we want to show how much money can be made through contracting. Below are leading contract recruiters in the Network who are billing thousands of dollars per month (if not tens of thousands).

As always, the numbers below represent the placements made by Network members through Top Echelon Contracting. There are also placements made through TEC every month by non-members.

Congratulations to the recruiters listed below. They certainly know how easy it is to make contract placements!

This report lists the Top 10 Top Echelon Network members by contract placement earnings through Top Echelon Contracting. The report is provided to Network members for informational purposes.

Leading Contract Recruiters: September 30, 2018

Recruiter and Agency	2018 Earnings
Keith Adams of PediaStaff	$651,614
Jim Brown of Galileo Search, LLC	$630,368
Cindy Stephens, CPC/CTS of Stephens International Recruiting, Inc.	$104,965
Linda Nicholls of	$63,125
Cindy Ridley of HRtechies, Inc.	$48,335
Philip Bartfield of Analytic Search	$33,646
Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC	$26,409
John F. Hope, CPC of Tri-Force	$25,783
Donna Carroll, CPC of Systems Personnel	$25,567
Katy Moses of Top Hire Recruitment	$14,426

All of the leading contract recruiters on the list above are direct hire recruiters. You do NOT have to stop making direct hire placements to offer contract staffing services to your existing base of clients. All you have to do is two things:

#1—Ask your clients if they have contract job orders. (If they do, then there’s a good chance they’ll give them to you.)

#2—Use Top Echelon’s recruitment back office solutions. We’ll take care of all the financial, legal, and administrative details associated with employing the contractors.

If you have any questions about this whole process, we have answers. We invite you to contact us at 888.627.3678.

You can also click here to schedule a walk-through of Top Echelon Contracting’s services. Click here to download our “Quick-Start Guide to Contract Staffing.”

This month is a HUGE month for anniversaries in Top Echelon’s recruiting network! Why is that? Well, all me to count the ways:

• We have five agencies that are celebrating anniversaries of 20 years or more.
• One of those agencies (Lou Michaels Associates, Inc.) is a Charter Member agency. That means it joined Top Echelon in 1988. When Top Echelon was known as Nationwide Interchange Service.
• Another agency (The Williams Company) has made 99 Network placements and stands on the cusp of a milestone.
• Three agencies have billed more than $1 million through TE. One of those three (Continental Search & Outplacement, Inc.) has billed more than $2 million.

Huge production numbers

Overall, we’re recognizing 10 Top Echelon recruiting agencies for anniversaries this month. Combined, these agencies are responsible for the following huge production numbers:

• 1,018 placements
• $7.7 million cash-in

As you can see, there is clearly a lot to celebrate this month. These agencies represent “the best of the best” when it comes to membership in our split fee recruiting network. We’re both pleased and proud to recognize them for their achievements.

We also hope that they enjoy many more years of success, both inside and outside of the Network!

(Editor’s note: Top Echelon recognizes firms celebrating five, 10, 15, and 20-year Network agency anniversaries, plus any firm celebrating an anniversary in excess of 20 years.)

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30-Year Anniversary

Lou Michaels Associates, Inc. in Battle Creek, Michigan
Staff Members: Lou Michaels
Agency Join Date: October 10, 1988
Placements: 274
Career cash-in: $1,732,958

— — —

25-Year Anniversary

Gundrum & Associates, Inc. in Cedarburg, Wisconsin
Staff Members: Dan Gundrum and Mark Gundrum
Agency Join Date: October 28, 1993
Placements: 42
Career cash-in: $329,253

— — —

24-Year Anniversary

Stickle & Associates in Asheboro, North Carolina
Staff Members: Robert Stickle
Agency Join Date: October 27, 1994
Placements: 40
Career cash-in: $293,196

— — —

22-Year Anniversary

Continental Search & Outplacement, Inc. in Oceanview, Delaware
Staff Members: Dan Simmons, CPC; Jim Hipskind, CPC; Deborah Simmons; Trish Valenzuela; Rick Pascual; Fred Clark; Damien Marley; and Charles White
Agency Join Date: October 7, 1996
Placements: 315
Career cash-in: $2,247,714

— — —

21-Year Anniversary

R.A. Briones & Company
Staff Members: Robert Briones, CPC and Marisela Briones
Agency Join Date: October 23, 1997
Placements: 39
Career cash-in: $379,277

— — —

15-Year Anniversary

BioSource International in Wilmington, North Carolina
Staff Members: Jim Strickland
Agency Join Date: October 17, 2003
Placements: 137
Career cash-in: $933,613

Galileo Search, LLC in Atlanta, Georgia
Staff Members: Jim Brown
Agency Join Date: October 7, 2003
Placements: 25
Career cash-in: $271,579

The Williams Company in Memphis, Tennessee
Staff Members: Daniel L. Williams, Jay Laney, Amy Williams, David Nakano, and Paige Locke
Agency Join Date: October 14, 2003
Placements: 99
Career cash-in: $1,142,671

— — —

10-Year Anniversary

Access Talent Search in Surf City, North Carolina
Staff Members: David Manns
Agency Join Date: October 27, 2008
Placements: 6
Career cash-in: $48,407

— — —

5-Year Anniversary

Top Hire Recruitment in Syracuse, New York
Staff Members: Wendy Johnson, Katy Moses, and Pete Chunka
Agency Join Date: October 17, 2013
Placements: 41
Career cash-in: $410,023

Last week in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog, we presented “2 Big Reasons to Start Making Contract Placements.” We also explained the difference between direct hire and contract placements.

This week, we continue our special series of blog posts about contract staffing. The main point of this post is that making contract placements is really not that difficult. You can get started relatively quickly. In fact, all you really need to do is answer two questions.

Those two questions (and their answers) are listed below:

#1 — How do I get started in contracting?

This is one of the questions that we’re asked all the time. The first step in making contract placements is the same first step as making direct hire placements. You need job orders. Without a job order, there is no placement.

However, statistics show that 80% of contract job orders come from a recruiter’s current client base. So start by notifying all your direct hire clients that you now offer contract staffing services. Then ask them if they have any contract positions that they need help filling.

More than likely, they ARE trying to fill contract positions. Up to this point, they were probably trying to fill them in a way that didn’t involve you. That’s because they did not know you offered contract staffing solutions. You can easily fix that.

In addition, make sure your existing marketing vehicles contain your contract staffing message. This includes your firm’s website, business cards, social media profiles, marketing documents, etc.

#2 — How do I figure out the bill rate and pay rate?

Negotiating rates can seem daunting, but it’s not as difficult as it sounds. First, most contractors are paid on an hourly basis. As a result, the bill rate charged to the client and the contractor pay rate will both be hourly.

We recommend obtaining a range of bill rates the client would be willing to pay up front so that you can negotiate with confidence. Then, you will need to determine the contractor pay rate.

Start by taking the annual salary for a comparable direct hire position and dividing it by 2,080. That’s the average number of full-time hours per year. You can then multiply that pay rate by a markup to get the hourly bill rate.

OR you can go directly to our website. That’s because we have a Profit Calculator that will tell you the bill and pay rates for our new Express Model. (Click here for more information about TEC Express.) In the meantime . . .

Click here to try out the Profit Calculator!

The final step is to find and use a recruitment back office. That’s easy: you use Top Echelon Contracting. We become the W-2 Employer of Record for your contract candidates. We handle all of the paperwork. You just make the placements.

See? Making contract placements really isn’t difficult after all.

For more information, download our Quick-Start Guide to Contract Staffing. Or request a demo from one of our contract staffing specialists.