Another TE recruiter has reached a big Network milestone! Brenda Wylie-Biggs, CPC of KB Search Team, LLC recently made her 100th placement as a member of Top Echelon’s recruiting network.

Brenda is the second recruiter at KB Search Team to reach this particular Network milestone. The first was Pat McCombs, CPC. At the moment, Pat has 104 Network placements, so she leads Brenda by four. The race is on!

KB Search Team has been a powerhouse TE agency. All told, the firm has made 249 placements since joining the Network in 1990. That’s an average of over eight placements per year.

A Network milestone . . . and more

Like Pat, Brenda has exemplified what it means to be a Top Echelon Network recruiter. In fact, she does everything necessary to enjoy success:

• She has a circle of split recruiting partners with whom she works on a consistent basis.
• She communicates with her split partners frequently.
• Perhaps most importantly, she meets other Network members face-to-face. (She’s pictured in the photo above at the recent Fall Conference in Chicago.)
• She utilizes many of Top Echelon’s tools and services.
• She is a split-minded recruiter. This means that she looks for opportunities to make split placements instead of reasons not to.
• Brenda shares her job orders and candidates liberally. As of the writing of this blog post, she had 13 job orders and 54 candidates shared on the Network.

Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group is one of Brenda’s trading partners. As you can see below, Brenda’s 100th placement was the 16th split that they’ve made together. It proves once again that there is no such thing as too much of a good thing.

Recruiter of the Week, too!

For reaching this Network milestone and for being an exemplary Network member, we’re pleased to announce that Brenda is also the Recruiter of the Week! She is fully deserving of the award, not just for her recent placement achievement, but also for her entire Network career.

We reached out to Brenda recently, and she was good enough to provide some comments regarding her success in TE:

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“How exciting to finally reach my 100 split goal! Many thanks go to Top Echelon and to our trading partners. You are all a great asset to me and to KB Search Team. Not only do I have access to quality candidates and training . . . the support and encouragement is incredible! Let’s do 100 more! Thank you!”

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Congratulations to Brenda for reaching this Network milestone and for winning the Recruiter of the Week award! We want to thank her for her commitment to Top Echelon and her willingness to use our recruiter network tools to make more placements.

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Brenda Wylie-Biggs, CPC

Trey Cameron

“Yay! Thank you, Trey! Finally made it to 100 placements!”

Submitted by Brenda Wylie-Biggs, CPC of KB Search Team, LLC regarding her Network split placement with Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Position Title—SECOND SHIFT PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

Fee Percentage—25%

(Editor’s note: This is the 16th Network split placement that Brenda and Trey have made together in Top Echelon.)

The end of the year is a good time for a recruiting agency owner to think about growth. Specifically, about how they’re going to grow their business during the next year.

There are many different ways to grow your business. However, we chose just two ways when we polled members of Top Echelon’s recruiting network recently.

Two ways call for two different poll questions. The first of those two questions was follows:

Do you plan to grow your recruiting business in terms of personnel in the next year?

The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of split network recruiters that selected each one:

• Yes, absolutely. — 15.2%
• I’m leaning toward yes, but not 100% sure. — 13.3%
• It’s a very remote possibility. — 18.1%
• No, absolutely not. — 47.6%
• I actually have no idea. — 5.7%

And then we asked THIS question:

Do you plan to grow your recruiting business in terms of resources/tools in the next year?

The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of split fee recruiting network members that selected each one:

• Yes, absolutely. — 34.6%
• I’m leaning toward yes, but not 100% sure. — 22.1%
• It’s a very remote possibility. — 18.3%
• No, absolutely not. — 19.2%
• I actually have no idea. — 5.8%

Grow? Yes, no, maybe so

As you can see, the two areas that we chose to explore were growth in terms of personnel and resources/tools. Right off the bat, recruiters indicated that they plan to grow more in the latter category than the former. That’s because 15.2% said, “Yes, absolutely” for personnel, but 34.6% said “Yes, absolutely” for resources/tools.

A look at the other end of the spectrum supports this data. Nearly half of poll participants (47.6%) chose “No, absolutely not” when asked about personnel. However, only 19.2% chose “No, absolutely not” when asked about resources/tools.

There are other poll results that are interesting, including the following:

• Approximately the same percentage of recruiters indicated that growth is “a very remote possibility” for personnel (18.1%) and resources/tools (18.3%).
• Approximately the same percentage of recruiters indicated that they “actually have no idea” in terms of growth for personnel (5.7%) and resources/tools (5.8%).

Growing your business, of course, involves an investment. You have to spend money to make money. You know the drill. The bottom line in terms of these polls that members of Top Echelon Network are more likely to invest in resources and tools than they are to invest in personnel. That makes sense, since investing in personnel can be more costly.

Hiring people is a commitment. And that’s something that recruiters know better than most.

Looking to maximize your membership in Top Echelon’s recruiter network and make more split placements?

Then contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS. You can do so by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Big Biller is ALL about recruiting software success. Our applicant tracking software is designed for simplicity, so that recruiters don’t get bogged down in complicated processes. We want users to save time during the recruitment process so they can focus on more important tasks. Like making a bunch of placements, for instance.

Because of this, we’ve been publishing Big Biller best practices for software success in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog. And yes, you guessed it: we’re back with more! (There is NO such thing as too much success.)

The “Did You Know?” tips below recently ran in the news section of Big Biller. A Help Center article and/or video accompanies each tip, explaining it in more detail. (Editor’s note: the Help Center is available 24/7 to help answer your questions about Top Echelon’s tools and services.)

The next three best practice tips for Big Biller recruiting software success are listed below. Are we being predictable . . . or just comfortingly consistent?

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Did You Know . . . Big Biller Has a Pipeline Report?

The Pipeline Report is driven by the pipeline stages of your open and on-hold job orders. Think of this report as a 30-thousand foot overview that summarizes all of your current pipelines at a quick glance.

Click HERE for a Help Center article about about the Pipeline Report in Big Biller!

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Did You Know . . . About Updating Resumes?

When a candidate sends you an updated resume, you’ll want to update the resume in Big Biller, as well. Did you know . . . there are two different ways to handle this situation within the software?

Click HERE for a Help Center article about updating resumes in Big Biller to see which way you prefer to update resumes!

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Did You Know . . . About Updating Employment History?

When you need to update a person’s employment history, did you know . . . you can do that in Big Biller?

Just use the arrow icon to quickly open up a spot for their current employer. This is better than moving things around manually, which requires valuable time. (Remember, Big Biller wants to save you time.)

Click HERE for a Help Center article about updating employment history in Big Biller!

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Check future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog for another installment of “Did You Know?”

Are you ready to save time with the Big Biller applicant tracking system and see what it can do for your agency? Then click HERE to sign up for a LIVE demo!

You’ve undoubtedly heard of a “win-win” situation before. But what about a “lose-win” situation?

Well, that situation can exist in Top Echelon’s recruiting network. That’s because sometimes, even when you lose in the Network . . . you still win!

All we do is win (most of the time)

How is this possible? One of the split placements highlighted below holds the key. That placement was between Network members Veronica Snyder of Career Professionals, Inc. and David Austin of Austin Technology Resources. Here, in a bullet-pointed nutshell, is what happened:

• David submitted a candidate to Veronica for one of her client’s openings.
• That candidate was ultimately NOT hired by Veronica’s client.
• Veronica continued to present the candidate to her other clients for select positions.
• Eventually, one of her clients extended an offer of employment to David’s candidate.
• Veronica, of course, honored the referral of the candidate for another position for this position!
• The two split the placement fee and are now living happily ever after.

At first, Veronica and David lost with David’s candidate . . . but then they came from behind for the win! BUT FOR David sharing his candidate with Veronica, they never would have made the placement. And it was for a completely different job order.

And that’s the beautiful part. When you invest in TE’s recruiter network, you never know when you’re going to get a return on that investment. It might just transform what looked like a loss into a WIN!

Winning with your host, Drea Codispoti!

Are you looking for more wins with your split recruiting efforts? Then contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

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

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David Austin

Veronica Snyder

“Dave sent me this candidate for a different job search back in late May. That one didn’t pan out, but this was an impressive candidate that I continued working with on local job opportunities. A great opportunity recently surfaced, the company moved quickly on the search, and the candidate is thrilled with the new opportunity! Thanks for the assist, Dave! I really appreciate it!”

Submitted by Veronica Snyder of Career Professionals, Inc. regarding her Network split placement with David Austin of Austin Technology Resources

Position Title—PLANT MANAGER

Fee Percentage—25%

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

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Chuck Cole

Rich Grunenwald

“Great working with Chuck on this. Easy-peasy!”

Submitted by Rich Grunenwald of Advisory and Consulting Services, LLC regarding his Network split placement with Chuck Cole of Cole Professional Search

Position Title—SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR/ENGINEER

Fee Percentage—25%

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

According to the fictitious character Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” The same could be said of hiring. Despite companies’ best hiring efforts, they are often unpleasantly surprised by what they get. In other words, they fall prey to bad hires.

By nearly all accounts, the cost of a bad hire are staggering. They range anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000. And that’s for positions that are NOT in the C-suite. (Imagine the cost of such a hire at that level.)

Recruiters prevent bad hires

That’s why many companies turn to recruiters like you to help prevent the dreaded bad hire. Below are five ways to protect your clients from bad hires:

#1—Know your client.

Having clients complete a survey is a great way to get to know the client and their needs.

#2—Consider clients’ culture.

Being a “good hire” is more than just having the right skill set. Good hires must also be a good cultural fit.

#3—Look beyond local candidates.

Many star candidates will relocate for the right opportunity.

#4—Follow up.

Keep in touch with the client and the new hire throughout the first year to ensure both parties are happy.

#5—Offer contract staffing as a solution.

Many times, the need to hire somebody quickly results in a bad hire. Instead of rushing to select a direct hire, employers can instead bring contractors in to fill the gap until they find the right person. Or if they think the contractor could be that person, they can try them on a contract-to-direct basis instead of diving right into a direct hire commitment.

During the contract period, they can evaluate the candidate’s skills and extend the direct hire offer when they are satisfied that they have indeed found a star player. When that happens, you can get a conversion fee on top of the hourly rate you earn while the candidate is on contract. If the contractor doesn’t meet expectations, then he company can simply end the contract and try someone else.

Are YOU in need of contract staffing solutions or contract placement services?

Then download our Quick-Start Guide to Contract Staffing. Or request a demo with one of our contract staffing specialists.

You can can also call us at (888) 627-3678. Offering contract staffing services is easier than you think!