In 1978, just 34 short years ago, the song “Thank You for Being a Friend” by Andrew Gold reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with that song, it was the theme song for the television show The Golden Girls, which aired from 1985 to 1992.  (And if you STILL aren’t familiar with it, I’ve embedded a YouTube video at the end of this blog post that will assist you.)

Anyway, the recruiters in this week’s edition of “Comments and Compliments” are extremely grateful to their “split placement friends.”  In fact, they went out of their way to thank them for recent split placements that they’ve made together.  So, in a way, you could call this the “Thank You for Being a [Split Placement] Friend” edition.  If you don’t, I will.

Recruiters in this Network are glad that their Trading Partners can help them make placements, and they want to thank them for being not only great Trading Partners, but in many cases, for being great friends, as well.

If you’d like to thank another recruiting network for their efforts in a split placement situation, send your information to marketing@topechelon.com.  Your comments might be included in an upcoming issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

— — —

“Thanks for a great candidate, Dave!”

Submitted by Rose Langhals of Bridgeway Professionals, Inc. regarding her split placement with David Wick, CPC of Career Center of Cincinnati, Inc.

Position Title—MANAGER OF ACCOUNTING OPERATIONS
Fee Percentage—20%

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

— — —

“Yeah . . . ANOTHER split with Trey.  If it wasn’t for Trey’s [Hiring Hook website], we would not be making these out-of-state placements in GEORGIA!”

Submitted by Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC regarding her split placement with Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Position Title—MANUFACTURING ENGINEER
Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: this is the sixth split placement that Hemminger and Cameron have made together in Top Echelon Network.)

— — —

“Janet, thanks for your help throughout the process.  You were instrumental in making this happen.”

Submitted by Marc Tappis of Opportunity Search, Inc. regarding his split placement with Janet Miller of Computer Management, Inc.

Position Title—SERVER ADMINISTRATOR
Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: this is the fifth split placement that Tappis and Miller have made together in Top Echelon Network.)

— — —

— — —

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There are many recruiters who don’t want to take time out of the office to attend events like the 2012 Top Echelon Network National Convention. They believe that time out of the office will hamper them in their efforts to make placements.

Judging by what happened with the Preferred Member recruiters who attended the convention recently, that argument doesn’t hold much water.

That’s because a total of nine recruiters made placements while they were attending the convention in Nashville, Tenn.  These are recruiters with offices all around the country, working in different industries and with different business models.

Regardless of those differences, nine of them shared at least one thing in common: closing deals without physically being in the office.

The advent of technology is a major contributor, of course.  These days, all a recruiter needs is a Smartphone and access to the Internet to stay connected to their office:

• They can make phone calls to candidates.
• They can make phone calls to clients.
• They can make phone calls to other people in their office.
• If they use an online recruiting software program like Big Biller, they can access their database for important information.

In fact, in regards to that last point, Joanna Spaun of MJ Recruiters, LLC logged in to her Big Biller account to retrieve the phone number of a candidate.  Her retrieval of that information allowed her to call the candidate and close the deal.

Click here to see a photo of Spaun after she made her placement.

Nobody likes to spend time out of the office, especially when your pipeline is stuffed full of time-sensitive job orders.  After all, “time kills all deals.”

Attending events like the National Convention isn’t necessarily a deal-killer, though.  Recruiters can—and do—step out of training sessions to make calls and take calls . . . and sometimes, they have a smile on their face when they return.

And that’s because they just made a placement.

— — —

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We’re back!  From the Top Echelon Network National Convention, that is!

I might be biased, but this convention was one of the better ones we’ve held in recent memory.  In fact, we had several recruiters who expressed those same sentiments to us when the convention ended.  (So if I’m suffering from a delusion, it’s a GROUP delusion.)

That’s the good news.  Here’s the even better news: we documented the whole thing!

We documented the convention in the form of photos and videos, of course.  Membership Development Coordinator Drea Codispoti and I handled the documentation duties, employing two cameras (plus my iPhone) to capture all of the action.  I even posted a series of photos through my Twitter account while I was at the convention, sort of a blow-by-blow timeline of events.

You can still view the photos in question by visiting my Twitter profile.  Remember, you don’t have to “follow” me to view these photos.  All you have to do is look through my “recent images,” which are located on the left-hand side of my profile, about halfway down the page.

Although, if you do have a Twitter account, I would encourage you to “follow” me.  That way, you don’t have to visit my profile all the time to see my latest tweets, not to mention the fact that it would be a huge ego boost for me.

Anyway, these Twitter photos are going to be posted to the Top Echelon Network Fan Page eventually.  Not right away, but eventually.  That’s because I’m going to post the photos that I didn’t tweet during the convention to Facebook first.

In fact, I’ve already posted some photos!  They’re in the “2012 Top Echelon Network National Convention Photo Album” on the Network Fan Page.

Click here to visit the “2012 Top Echelon Network National Convention Photo Album.”

Now here’s the fun part—I’ll be updating the Fan Page with photos every day, three or four or more, from now throughout the month of April.  I’ll also be adding photo descriptions and tagging recruiters in the process.  I whole-heartedly encourage you to visit the page as often as you can, “like” the photos, and comment to your heart’s content.

In the meantime, if you attended the convention, took some photos, and wouldn’t mind seeing them added to the photo album, send them to me at marketing@TopEchelon.com.

The convention has ended . . . but the fun doesn’t have to!

— — —

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It’s a “split placement party” this week—and everybody’s invited!

We have Top Producers in Top Echelon Network making split placements.  Not only that, but some of the Network’s veterans have shown up, as well, and there’s a fair amount of new blood represented, too.

It all adds up to a rather balanced sampling of split placements made by Preferred Member recruiters.  Not only that, many different industries and niches are also represented, not to mention a variety of actions that caused this week’s split placements:

• Regular communication with another Top Echelon Network Preferred Member recruiter

• The job order or candidate was found by searching Top Echelon Network’s Split Databases.

• The job seeker or client was found through my Hiring Hook Website.

As far as we’re concerned, though, the “split placement party” is never big enough!  We want YOU to join us!  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the Network, how successful you’ve been to this point, or the industry and niche you work—you can make a split placement.

And when you do, we’ll party!

THIS WEEK’S COMPLETED SPLIT PLACEMENTS!

Job order recruiter: Mario Fidanzi of MedTeam Staffing, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Fee Percentage—25%

Action causing split placement: The job seeker or client was found through my Hiring Hook Website.

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Ed Nathan of Systems Search

Candidate recruiter: Bob Ferris of Ferris & Associates, LLC

Job title: SENIOR SAP MM ANALYST

Fee Percentage—Flat

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Roger Malatesta of Prof’l Recruiting Consultants

Candidate recruiter: Brian Courtney of The Courtney Group

Job title: QUALITY MANAGER

Fee Percentage—22%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Mike Helffrich of Helffrich International

Candidate recruiter: Bob Wick of Career Center of Cincinnati, Inc.

Job title: RAW MATERIAL MANAGER

Fee Percentage—25%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Denise DeLongis of ICONSTAFF

Candidate recruiter: Betsy Harper of Sales and Marketing Search, Inc.

Job title: SALES EXECUTIVE

Fee Percentage—25%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Rowe Henderson of Rowe Henderson & Associates

Candidate recruiter: Ray Fehrenbach, CPC of Southern Recruiters

Job title: PROCESS COORDINATOR

Fee Percentage—20%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Mike Niedbalski of Integritas Search

Candidate recruiter: Cynthia Strzelecki of Spyglass Search, Inc.

Job title: HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Fee Percentage—20%

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

 — — —

If you’d like to see the amount of the fees associated with each of the split 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 split placements.

Remember, you can opt out of having your split placement highlighted.  Just 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.

— — —

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ALL split placements are satisfying, but the argument could be made that some are more satisfying than others.  An example: when a Preferred Member recruiter makes a split placement that’s outside of their niche or area of expertise.

That’s the overriding theme in this week’s edition of “Comments and Compliments.”  In two of the three split placements we’re highlighting, the recruiter with the job order had an order that was outside of their niche.  Rather than turn it down, though, they accepted it and shared it with the Network.

That was the best move they could make, since it resulted in a split placement.  They took a job order they weren’t equipped to work on their own and turned it into a placement.  Not only that, but they also set the precedent for making more placements outside of their niche in the future.

Now . . . that’s satisfying.

If you’d like to recognize another recruiter for their efforts in a split placement situation, send your information to marketing@topechelon.com.  Your comments might be included in an upcoming issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

— — —

“Don was my first call when I got this JO since it’s something out of my area of expertise.  Within a short time, he sent one candidate, who he had thoroughly screened and interviewed, and she was right on target.”

Submitted by Joe Noto of Regency Search Group regarding his split placement with Donald Walker, CPC of Search Team One

Position Title—SERVICE MANAGER
Fee Percentage—25%

(Editor’s note: this is the second split placement that Noto and Walker have made together in Top Echelon Network.)

— — —

“Cynthia did a great job of understanding the need of my client and sent me candidates that were spot-on.  It was fun working with her, and I look forward to doing it again.”

Submitted by Ron Sunshine of Ron Sunshine Associates regarding his split placement with Cynthia Woods of Woods & Paolino Recruiting Solutions

Position Title—HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER
Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: this is the first split placement that Sunshine and Woods have made together in Top Echelon Network.)/strong>

— — —

“Ram provided me with several good candidates, and IT is not an area I work, so I greatly appreciated his help.”

Submitted by Chris Ramsay of Corporate Resources, LLC regarding her split placement with Ram Kola of Stewart Cooper & Coon

Position Title—SERVER ADMINISTRATOR
Fee Percentage—25%

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

— — —

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As has been documented numerous times (most recently here), we like to highlight recruiters for their success . . . and we’re doing it again!  This time, the recruiter we’re highlighting is David Wick, CPC of Career Center of Cincinnati, Inc.

Not only did Wick close a deal in Top Echelon Network last week, but he has two more this week!  (You can see the details of both of those split placements below.)

Wick enjoyed a good year in the Network in 2011, with 11 split placements.  He’s off to a pretty good start in 2012, too, with two placements . . . which, once again, are listed below.

During his time as a Preferred Member recruiter, Wick has made a total of 42 split placements.  An importer in the Network, Wick has supplied the candidate in all 42 of those split placement situations.

So, congratulations to Dave Wick—for a great 2011, these recent split placements, and for having this Pinnacle Newsletter Blog post named after him!

THIS WEEK’S COMPLETED SPLIT PLACEMENTS!

Job order recruiter: Richard Bramblett of ASAP Search & Recruiters

Candidate recruiter: David Wick, CPC of Career Center of Cincinnati, Inc.

Job title: ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

Fee Percentage—20%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Rose Langhals of Bridgeway Professionals, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: David Wick, CPC of Career Center of Cincinnati, Inc.

Job title: MANAGER OF ACCOUNTING OPERATIONS

Fee Percentage—20%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Steven C. Brandvold of Executive Connection

Candidate recruiter: Gene McQueen of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES

Fee Percentage—25%

Action causing split placement: The job order or candidate was sent to me via the automated email alerts.

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Megan Hamburg of Bridgeway Professionals, Inc.

Job title: PROGRAM MANAGER

Fee Percentage—20%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Debra L. Stitt, CPC of Quality Source Inc. of Ohio

Candidate recruiter: Kim Kirby of Balanced Career Solutions, Inc.

Job title: HUMAN RESOURCE GENERALIST

Fee Percentage—25%

Action causing split placement: Kim saw my job order and contacted me with candidates.

 — — —

If you’d like to see the amount of the fees associated with each of the split 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 split placements.

Remember, you can opt out of having your split placement highlighted.  Just 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.

— — —

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Every once in a while in our “Comments and Compliments” feature, we like to highlight a recruiter who’s “flying under the radar.”  In other words, they’re not a high-profile Preferred Member, but they’re unerringly consistent, year after year.

One such recruiter is Georgette Sandifer of Gallman Consulting.  Sandifer has made 26 split placements since she joined the Network in 2005.  She made five split placements in 2011, and she’s already made two splits in 2012.  Speaking of two of Sandifer’s placements, there are two listed below.  We’re highlighting them because of the compliments that she paid her Trading Partners.

However, Sandifer also deserves kudos for the work that she does within the Network.  She’s made an investment of time and energy into her Preferred Membership, and that investment is paying off in the form of split placements—and more revenue for her firm!

If you’d like to recognize another recruiter for their efforts in a split placement situation, send your information to marketing@topechelon.com.  Your comments might be included in an upcoming issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

— — —

“Trey and I have been friends since my first week in Top Echelon.  He taught me so much about using Big Biller and sourcing candidates.  We have tried forever to make a placement together.  [We’ve] come close dozens of times, and finally . . . it’s happened!”

Submitted by Georgette Sandifer of Gallman Consulting regarding her split placement with Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Position Title—SENIOR COST ACCOUNTANT
Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: this is the second split placement that Sandifer and Cameron have made together in Top Echelon Network.)

— — —

“Larry and I have a great team going.  This is the best one yet.  I think [Larry’s] able to read my mind and the client’s mind, too.  Great candidates!”

Submitted by Georgette Sandifer of Gallman Consulting regarding her split placement with Larry Radzely of Adel-Lawrence Associates, Inc.

Position Title—DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
Fee Percentage—25%

(Editor’s note: this is the fourth split placement that Sandifer and Radzely have made together in Top Echelon Network.)

— — —

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The 2012 Top Echelon Network National Convention is next week!  Specifically, it’s scheduled for Thursday, March 22, through Saturday, March 24, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tenn.

As you probably know, Top Echelon Network is represented well on the various social media websites, including Twitter.  As such, it’s common not only for us to tweet during special events like the upcoming National Convention, but it’s also common for the Preferred Member recruiters who attend such an event to tweet during it, too.

This makes sense, since we all want to share what we’re learning and experiencing.  However, to facilitate a more organized tweeting environment (if that’s even possible), I’d like to present the “Official Hashtag of the 2012 National Convention.”

First, that sounds more important than it actually is, which was by design.  And second, it’s easier to use than it sounds.

A hashtag is a tool within Twitter used to aggregate the conversation surrounding a topic, or in this case, an event.  You create a hashtag by combining the pound sign (#) with a word, acronym, or phrase.

As an example, this is the “Official Hashtag of the 2012 National Convention”:

#TENAT12

All you have to do is include this hashtag with every one of your tweets regarding the National Convention.  And you don’t have to actually be at the convention to do it.  You can use the hashtag even if you’re just tweeting your thoughts from the comfort of your own home . . . or while you’re at the office . . . or via your smartphone.

When I tweet this blog post, I’ll insert #TENAT12 at the end of my tweet.  Later, if you conduct a search in Twitter using #TENAT12, Twitter will find and present all the tweets that include that hashtag.  Once you do that, you can also view “Realtime” results for that hashtag.

So if you’re attending the convention, I look forward to seeing you there, and I encourage you to tweet heavily.  If you’re not attending the convention, shame on you, but I encourage you to tweet heavily, anyway.  (And as always, tweet responsibly.)

— — —

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Here’s the great aspect of this week’s split placements in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog: some of the recruiters making split placements have made deals before, while others are making their first split placement with one another.

That, in a nutshell, is what Preferred Membership in Top Echelon Network is all about.

First, there’s the value of making split placements with the same Trading Partners over and over.  You know them, they know you, you know the routine, and you make the splits. Mo’ money, mo’ money.

Second, there’s the value of making split placements with NEW recruiters.  You’ve never made a split together before, so on one level, it’s new and exciting.  Not only that, but there’s the possibility that this new Trading Partner will become a regular Trading Partner, which means you could start making split after split with them, too.

Whether you’re making split placements with recruiters you’ve worked with for years or making them with recruiters you’ve just met, Top Echelon Network provides value to its Preferred Members—namely additional revenue for their recruiting firm.

Perhaps that’s the greatest aspect of making split placements in the Network: sweet, thirst-quenching revenue.  Ah . . . feels refreshing just thinking about it.

THIS WEEK’S COMPLETED SPLIT PLACEMENTS!

Job order recruiter: Georgette Sandifer of Gallman Consulting

Candidate recruiter: Larry Radzely of Adel-Lawrence Associates, Inc.

Job title: DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Fee Percentage—25%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Amy Simpson of The James Allen Companies, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Gene McQueen of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: IT INTERNAL AUDITOR

Fee Percentage—25%

Action causing split placement: The job seeker or client was found through my Hiring Hook website.

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Shanda Davey of Management Analysis & Utilization, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: David Wick of Career Center of Cincinnati, Inc.

Job title: RECRUITER

Fee Percentage—12.5%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Kim Kirby of Balanced Career Solutions, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Debbi Reiger of Reiger Technical Search

Job title: SENIOR USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER

Fee Percentage—20%

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

 — — —

If you’d like to see the amount of the fees associated with each of the split 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 split placements.

Remember, you can opt out of having your split placement highlighted.  Just 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.

— — —

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“Past behavior is the best predictor of future success.”

You’ve probably heard this phrase—or a variation thereof—at one time or another, and it can be applied to just about anything.

This week, we’re applying it to the split placements made by Preferred Member recruiters in Top Echelon Network.  That’s because the majority of these placements were made by Top Producers in the Network, once again indicating that “past behavior is the best predictor of future success.”

However, that brings us to this point: past behavior may be the best predictor, but it’s certainly not the ONLY predictor.  Just because you haven’t been a Top Producer in the past or made a bunch of split placements in the Network doesn’t mean you can’t attain such things in the future.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the Network, what your history is, what industry you work, what your business model is . . . you can make split placements.  If you have any questions about your Top Echelon Network Preferred Membership, be sure to contact Membership Development Coordinator Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS at (330) 455-1433, Ext. 156.

In the meantime, below are this week’s split placements . . .

THIS WEEK’S COMPLETED SPLIT PLACEMENTS!

Job order recruiter: Angela Marasco of A. Marasco Recruiting, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Peter Oettinger of Front Line Solutions, LLC

Job title: GO LIVE COORDINATOR

Fee Percentage—Flat

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Brenda Wylie-Biggs of KB Search Team, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Jennifer Fahlsing of Aldis Associates

Job title: QUALITY ASSURANCE ENGINEER

Fee Percentage—25%

Action causing split placement: The job seeker or client was found through my Hiring Hook website.

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Kaleb Dumot of Emerald Resource Group

Candidate recruiter: Carol Brinkman of Corporate Resources, LLC

Job title: VB.NET SENIOR DEVELOPER

Fee Percentage—20%

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

 — — —

Job order recruiter: Jan Burke of MetalJobs Network

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group

Job title: EXTRUSION SUPERVISOR ALUMINUM

Fee Percentage—30%

Action causing split placement: The job seeker or client was found through my Hiring Hook website.

 — — —

If you’d like to see the amount of the fees associated with each of the split 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 split placements.

Remember, you can opt out of having your split placement highlighted.  Just 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.

— — —

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