When we want answers from recruiters . . . we ask them questions, naturally.  In this episode of “Top Echelon TV,” Top Echelon Network President Mark Demaree and Membership Development Coordinator Drea Codispoti discuss the results of a recent recruiter survey.  In that survey, we asked recruiting firm owners their thoughts about business structure and why they chose the structure (S corp, LLC, etc.) that they did.

What say you?  As a recruiting firm owner, which business structure do you prefer?  Why did you make that choice?  What questions, if any, do you have about choosing the right business structure?

Welcome to the second blog post in our series about the 2010 Top Echelon Network Regional Award winners.  Last week, we published the winners in five of the nine regions: Pacific, West North Central, East North Central, New England, and Middle Atlantic.  This week, we’re announcing the award winners in the remaining four regions. For the purposes of this award, we break the country up into nine different regions, and the Regional Awards are based upon the Frequent Placer Program (FPP) points that Preferred Members earn over the course of the calendar year.  Members can earn FPP points in a variety of ways, starting with making split placements.  They can also earn them for telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews, and meeting other Preferred Members in person. Listed below are the award winners in the four remaining regions.  The top four or five recruiters in each region are listed, along with the number of FPP points that they earned.  The top recruiter in each region will receive an award at the 2011 National Convention in May. South Atlantic 18,844—Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group 17,372—Marc Tappis of Opportunity Search, Inc. 13,320—Dan Simmons, CPC of Continental Search & Outplacement, Inc. 12,256—Bob Small of Carroll Technology Services, Inc. 11,503—Michael Foster of Mike Foster & Associates, LLC Mountain 8,032—Marty Stan of Samaritan Technical Professional 4,948—Peter Oettinger of Front Line Solutions, LLC 4,792—Linda Parobek of The Alexander Group 4,516—Thomas Edwards of Front Line Solutions, LLC West South Central 20,182—Sean Napoles, CPC of Career Brokers, Inc. 6,744—Greg Downs of Downs Associates 6,604—Cathy George, CPC of C.G. & Company 5,343—Carolyn Barcus of Barcus Associates 5,172—Tim Hopkins, CPC/CTS of Stephens International Recruiting, Inc. East South Central 12,248—Larry Barlow of Tax Advantage Personnel, Inc. 12,080—Glenda Smith of Metaljobs Network 9,026—Paul Johnson of Paul Johnson & Associates 6,990—Betsy Vincent of The Williams Company 6,133—Tim Hughes of Hughes & Associates Be sure to check future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog for additional articles regarding award winners within the Network for 2010.

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MDemaree@TopEchelon.com (330) 455-1433, Ext. 172

Last week in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog, we published the names of the Top Ten Recruiters in Top Echelon Network for 2010.  The number-one Top Producer, of course, was Sean Napoles of Career Brokers, Inc.  This week, we’re continuing our series of articles regarding 2010 awards with our Regional Award winners.

For the purposes of this award, we break the country up into nine different regions, and the Regional Awards are based upon the Frequent Placer Program (FPP) points that Preferred Members earn over the course of the calendar year.  Members can earn FPP points in a variety of ways, starting with making split placements.  They can also earn them for telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews, and meeting other Preferred Members in person.

Below are the winners of five of the nine regions within Top Echelon Network in 2010.  The top five recruiters in each region are listed, along with the number of FPP points that they earned.  The top recruiter in each region will receive an award at the 2011 National Convention in May.

Pacific

97,517—Richard Lechtenberg of Dick Berg & Associates
78,530—Denice Kerr of Moonriver Resources
53,350—Kathryn Shepherd, CPC/CSP of The Focus Agency
47,827—David Wood of The David Wood Company
40,000—Merlin McIntire of McIntire & Carr

West North Central

98,140—Bob Wylan of R.A. Wylan & Co., Inc.
86,238—Matt Scheihing of J. Miles Personnel Services
76,745—Dan Schultz, CSP of Premier Employment Solutions
76,266—Alan Carty of Automationtechies.com
69,357—Thomas Windsor of Corporate Resources, Inc.

East North Central

166,127—Carol Brinkman of Corporate Resources, LLC
145,344—Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC
144,419—Pat McCombs of KB Search Team, LLC
137,840—Eric V. Stearley, CPC of Eric Stearley & Associates
133,572—Suzanne Griffith, CPC of J S Griffith & Associates

New England

172,964—Richard Connors of Vista Technology
133,114—Eric Berg of JN Adams & Associates
70,018—Maynard Charron of Paper Industry Recruitment
55,648—Donna Carroll of Systems Personnel
45,571—Betsy Harper of Sales and Marketing Search, Inc.

Middle Atlantic

134,749—Philip Bartfield of Bartfield Search, Inc.
115,520—Larry Radzely of Adel-Lawrence Associates, Inc.
107,685—Joseph F. Papa, CPC/CTS of American Medical Personnel Services, Inc.
100,307—Shari Skurnik of Omega Management Group
70,947—Cindy Sommer of SearchStars, Inc.

Be sure to check next week’s issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog for the rest of our Regional Award winners, as well as other 2010 awards winners within Top Echelon Network.

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MDemaree@TopEchelon.com
(330) 455-1433, Ext. 172

In years past, we’ve run the names of Top Echelon Network’s Top-Producing Recruiters in The Pinnacle newsletter, particularly when the newsletter was in hardcopy form (consisting of actual pieces of paper), as well as the Adobe PDF version.  Well, now that The Pinnacle newsletter is a blog, we intend to still recognize the names of the Top Producers, especially when it comes to their accomplishments during a full year.

In this case, that year is 2010, and the recruiters I’m recognizing are those constituting the Top 10 in the Network.  Before I announce the Top Producer for last year (as if you didn’t already read that in the headline), a quick word about the awards.

In years past, we’ve had separate awards for both split placements and non-split placements.  About midway through 2010, we switched to our Job Javelin job order posting service, as opposed to the contingency model, which we had used previously.  As a result, 2010 will the last year that the Top Producers will be determined through a combination of split placements and non-split placements.  Going forward, the focus will be split placements only, and the recruiter who earns the most cash-in on split placements (both perm and contract) will be the Top Producer overall.

But once again, we combined recruiters’ split placement and non-split placement cash-in totals to determine the Top 10 in the Network for last year.  It might come as no surprise that Sean Napoles of Career Brokers, Inc. was the Top Producer in Top Echelon Network in 2010.  To be sure, there are some newer names in the Top 10, but Sean has consistently been in the Top 10 for years now, and he’s been at the top of the list quite a few times.  He’s as consistent a producer in Top Echelon Network as we’ve ever had.

Below is the rest of the Top 10 for 2010:

1st—Sean Napoles of Career Brokers, Inc.
2nd—Rich Connors of Vista Technology
3rd—Marc Tappis of Opportunity Search, Inc.
4th—Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group
5th—Carol Brinkman of Corporate Resources, LLC
6th—Pat McCombs of KB Search Team, LLC
7th—Suzanne Griffith, CPC of J S Griffith & Associates
8th—Eric Stearley, CPC of Eric Stearley & Associates
9th—Philip Bartfield of Bartfield Search, Inc.
10th—Eric Berg of JN Adams & Associates, Inc.

I want to congratulate all of these recruiters and thank them for their hard work and dedication as Preferred Members of our Network.  Their efforts are greatly appreciated and their success is a testament to the fact that Top Echelon Network can and does help recruiters leverage the resources of their desk and their firm so that they can make split placements and generate more revenue.

We’ll be publishing the winners of other 2010 awards in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

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MDemaree@TopEchelon.com
(330) 455-1433, Ext. 172

Top Echelon Network President Mark Demaree and Membership Development Coordinator Drea Codispoti reveal where the money was in Top Echelon Network in 2010—specifically which industries were responsible for the most placements.  The top industry was Manufacturing, followed by Information Technology, Healthcare, Engineering, Sales & Marketing, and Accounting.

Once again, “Regular Communication with Trading Partner” was the number-one way in which Preferred Members made split placements.  Not only that, the amount of activity per firm rose in just about every category last year, including Offers Accepted per firm, Completed Placements per firm and jobs submitted per firm.  The only category that dropped was candidates submitted per firm.

Although a good number of recruiters are optimistic about the upcoming year—as indicated by our latest Members’ Area survey—the past year did not reflect those feeling for many recruiters, both inside and outside of Top Echelon Network.

However, 2011 is almost upon us, and there are many reasons to be optimistic.  The economic recovery finally seems to be gaining momentum, and companies appear to be more willing to hire.  (Although in some cases, they seem more willing to hire on a contract basis first, as opposed to direct hire.)

Anyway, as we’ll illustrate in the statistics that we publish in next week’s issue the average number of placements per firm increased in 2010 as opposed to 2009.  That’s good news all by itself, and we believe that the number will continue to grow in 2011.

Before next week, though, the New Year will be here, and I wanted to take this opportunity to once again wish you a happy holiday.  I hope that you have the chance to spend it with family and friends and that you’re able to usher in 2011 in a big way.  That being said, I want to wish you all the happiest of New Year’s from everybody here at Top Echelon.

As a reminder, please remember that the Top Echelon offices will be closed on Friday, December 31, in observance of the New Year’s holiday.  The offices will re-open at 8 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, on Monday, January 3.

We truly appreciate your loyalty as Preferred Members of the Network, and we look forward to the New Year with both optimism and encouragement.  Have a great holiday!

I have good news for those recruiters who’d like to see the deadline for “Super Early Bird” Registration for the 2011 National Convention pushed back: we’re pushing it back.

We originally set the deadline for Friday, December 31.  One of the reasons we did that is because we know that a lot of recruiters would like to register for the convention before the end of the year so they can claim the expense of the event on their 2010 taxes.  While that’s important, it’s not the most important aspect of “Super Early Bird” Registration.  The most important aspect would be the fact that we want Preferred Members to attend the convention.

We’ve decided that there are probably plenty of recruiters who are more interested in the $275 per person “Super Early Bird” price than are interested in claiming the expense of the convention on this year’s taxes.  And if that’s the case, setting a deadline of December 31 doesn’t entirely make sense, especially since the dates of the convention are Thursday, May 12, through Saturday, May 14, and Regular Early Bird Registration is going to run for well over two months.

As a result, we’re pushing back the deadline for “Super Early Bird” to the end of the business day on Friday, January 14.  That gives you two more weeks to register for the convention at the special price of $275 per person.  But the price of the convention isn’t the ONLY reason to register.  There are plenty of others, too:

• The site of the convention is The Westin Beach Resort in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.  That’s right, the beach will be right there for you to enjoy . . . and you’ll want to enjoy it, since the average high temperature in Ft. Lauderdale during the month of May is 86 degrees.
• We’ve secured a room rate of $169 per night at The Westin.  You can take advantage of that rate by clicking on a special link on the registration page, but remember that we have a limited number of rooms available at that rate.  So it’s first come, first served.
• The main speaker for the convention will be Jon Bartos of Jonathan Scott International.  Bartos is one of the most popular trainers and speakers in the recruiting industry, and this isn’t the first time that he’s presented for the Network Membership.  Bartos will be addressing the topic of working more efficiently on your desk during a time when recruiters are putting in more hours than ever.
• Once the 50th recruiter has signed up for the convention, we’ll draw a name, and that person will be able to attend the convention for FREE.
• The convention will feature a number of networking opportunities, both formal and informal, including our popular Gala Event.  What will the Gala Event involve?  We’re not at liberty to disclose such information at this time, but we can guarantee that whatever it is, it will be memorable.

We sent out an email a couple of weeks ago with a link to our online 2011 National Convention packet, which includes additional information about the event.  If you missed that packet, now’s the time to take a look at it.

There are already over 20 recruiters registered for the National Convention . . . and we want YOU to be there, too.  We’ve done everything we can to ensure that the cost of attending the convention is as low as possible.  We believe strongly in the power of these events and their ability to help you maximize your Network Membership.  You attend, you meet other recruiters, you form relationships, you trade hot job orders and candidates, and you make split placements.

That’s the way it works, and that’s the way it’s worked ever since we started holding these events.  If you haven’t attended one our conventions in the past, I invite you to call any one of our Top Producers and ask them what role attending such events has had in their success.  I can almost guarantee that there will be a coorelation between the two.  The New Year is poised to be one of resurgence for the recruiting industry.  Join us in that resurgence.  Attend the National Convention.  Have fun.  Meet other recruiters.  Make more placements.  Now THAT’S a happy ending.

View the preliminary agenda.
See who’s already registered.
Sign up for the convention.

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MDemaree@TopEchelon.com
(330) 455-1433, Ext. 172

Want to know how to enjoy more success as a Preferred Member of Top Echelon Network?

This episode of “Top Echelon TV” starts a series of episodes dealing with the “Best Practices” of the Network. It begins with The Four Pillars of Top Echelon Network: Quality, Communication, Trust, and Active Participation, as well as the importance of filling out your Recruiter Profile.

In addition, as far as holiday hours are concerned, the Top Echelon offices will be closed on Friday, December 24, and Friday, December 31, due to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. And don’t forget that “Super Early Bird” Registration for the 2011 National Convention (May 12 through May 14 at The Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) is now underway.

The 2011 Top Echelon Network National Convention is going to be unique for a number of different reasons.  Heck, it’s already unique, and the event is still months six months away.

In talking with recruiters lately, the word I would use to best describe those conversations is “optimistic.”  That’s certainly backed up by our most recent Members’ Area Poll.  We asked Preferred Members about their thoughts regarding the recruiting industry in 2011.  The majority of those who responded were either “very optimistic” or “cautiously optimistic” about the industry in the new year.

Partly because of that optimism, we have high hopes for attendance at the National Convention.  Of course, because of the recession and the state of the economy, attendance at our events has been down for the past couple of years.  However, considering we went back to our previous format of a National Convention and a Fall Conference each year, plus the fact that the economy is continuing to improve, we expect at least 100 recruiters to register for the convention, and quite possibly much more than that.

And why exactly is the National Convention so unique?  Well, let me count the ways:

• For the first time ever, we’re offering a “Super Early Bird” Registration period, which runs until the end of the year (Friday, December 31).  If you sign up for the convention before then, you can register for the low price of $275 per person.  How low is that?  It’s the lowest price we’ve ever offered for a National Convention . . . and it’s not even close.  Added bonus: if you sign up before the end of the year, you can put the expense of attending the convention on this year’s taxes.
• We’re going to give away a free registration. The first 50 recruiters who sign up for the convention will be entered into a drawing.  The winner of that drawing will be able to attend the convention for FREE.  (Of course, they’ll still have to pay for all other associated costs, including travel and hotel expenses.)
• The dates of the convention are Thursday, May 12, through Saturday, May 14.  We don’t typically hold the convention in May.  It’s usually March or April.  Since the location is The Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the weather should be phenomenally good.

As part of our promotion of the National Convention, we’re going to email a “Convention Packet” to Preferred Members of the Network.  This packet consists of a series of blog posts with additional information about the event (preliminary agenda, Jon Bartos speaker bio, possible flight options, etc.).

Learn more about the 2011 National Convention Packet on our recruiter networking page.

There’s a little over two weeks left to take advantage of our special “Super Early Bird” pricing.  When it comes to experiencing more success in the Network, one of the quickest ways to do that is by meeting other recruiters face-to-face, and the convention offers a great opportunity for that kind of networking.

So I encourage you to invest in your business, in your Preferred Membership, and in 2011.  Join us for the National Convention in Fort Lauderdale.  It’s going to be a great event.

View the preliminary agenda.
See who’s already registered.
Sign up for the convention.

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MDemaree@TopEchelon.com
(330) 455-1433, Ext. 172

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.
Follow Mark on Twitter.
Join Top Echelon Network on Facebook.

“Super Early Bird Registration” for the 2011 National Convention is now available!  Sign up now in the Members’ Area at the low price of just $275 per person.

“Super Early Bird Registration” began on Monday, and will run through Friday, December 31.  As we mentioned in last week’s issue of The Pinnacle Blog, there are two main reasons that we’re offering a “Super Early Bird” and such a low price for a National Convention:

• We want you to attend! Attending conventions is one of the quickest ways to enjoy success in the Network (i.e., make split placements).
• We want you to be able to claim the cost of the convention on this year’s taxes, which you can do if you register before the end of the year.

We’ve already had a handful of recruiters register for the convention, and we expect many more to do so by December 31.  Keep in mind that there will be a regular “Early Bird Registration,” but the price associated with that ($350 per person) isn’t nearly as attractive.  That’s why I encourage you to sign up now and lock in the special rate.

Another reason I encourage you to do so is that the first 50 Preferred Members who sign up for the 2011 National Convention will be entered into a drawing to receive free registration for the event.  The name of one lucky recruiter will be drawn from that pool of 50, and that recruiter will have the cost of the convention waived.  (They’ll still have to pay for all other associated costs, of course—travel, hotel, etc.)

Once we reach 50 registered attendees, we’ll conduct our drawing, pick a winner, and announce that winner in The Pinnacle Blog.  In the meantime, below is some additional information regarding the 2011 National Convention:

• The dates of the convention are Thursday, May 12, through Saturday, May 14.
• The location of the event is The Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• The main speaker for the convention is Jon Bartos of Jonathan Scott International.
• The preliminary agenda for the convention, plus logistics and location information, is also included in the Members’ Area, along with the registration form.  (All of that is located on the left-hand side of the Members’ Area, under the Placement Forms.)

We’re looking forward to a fun, productive, and exciting event.  This year has been a tough one for recruiters, but next year is looking up.  We hope that you’ll join us in Fort Lauderdale to meet other recruiters, drum up new business, and have a good time.

View the preliminary agenda.
See who’s already registered.
Sign up for the convention.

— — —

MDemaree@TopEchelon.com
(330) 455-1433, Ext. 172

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.
Follow Mark on Twitter.
Join Top Echelon Network on Facebook.