Need to expand your recruiting business? Consider split placements!

Members of NPA’s global recruiting network are reporting that jobs are plentiful and clients are hiring. Some of our members are seeing activity levels on par with 1997-98, and many more are reporting activity at least back to pre-GFC.

How about your recruiting business? Are your numbers growing? Are you prepared to handle increased demand from your clients? Have you thought about:

• How you will respond when there are more jobs than you can fill?
• What to do when your best client approaches you with jobs that fall outside your “normal” specialty?
• How you can provide global recruitment services?

Business expansion is a difficulty proposition for many owners of small, independent recruitment firms. In addition to the hard costs (overhead, etc.), there are myriad soft costs associated with expanding a recruiting firm: the time it will take to find and hire a new employee, the time diverted from your OWN desk while you’re training and onboarding a new recruiter, etc.

Have you thought about adding (or increasing) split placements? Split placements can offer economical business expansion. Consider the following benefits:

• No need to spend time or money hiring new recruiters. Split placement partners are a phone call away, ready when you need them.
• No need to learn a new desk or open an office to serve a new location. Split placement partners are already running that desk or serving that location. Lean on them to help you.
• No ongoing overhead costs. If you’re the owner of a small, independent recruiting company, adding staff can be both risky and expensive. Building a network of split placement partners gives you access to the help you need, when you need it. This means you’re not paying the hard costs, each month, for an employee of your own.

It’s true that you’ll be sharing fees with a partner instead of keeping the money for yourself. But realistically, if you’re working alone, you probably can’t fulfill all the work that comes your way. Recruiters who participate in split placements often make MORE deals than they could on their own. If you have employees, you’re probably paying them some form of commission, which could be considered a “split.” And as one of our members is so fond of saying, “Split placements don’t mean GIVING UP half a fee… they allow me to EARN 50% of something I wouldn’t be able to earn otherwise.”