Sharing Fees with Recruitment Partners

This post is from guest blogger Scott King of Kings Resources in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Scott is a longtime member of NPAworldwide and is currently serving on our board of directors. Kings Resources specializes in the placement of contract and direct-hire information technology professionals.

I am a 24-year agency recruitment veteran. I have held sales and management roles within my industry, and I have always found this work challenging and rewarding.

Last year I wrote a blog about the benefit of being inclusive with recruitment partners. I detailed how this can be a better solution than the standard methods of recruiting via advertising, database management and social media solutions, of which there are thousands.

Sharing roles and candidates with partner recruitment agencies can see the following benefits:

• You can respond quickly to your clients with well-vetted candidates
• You can branch into many recruitment specialisations to support your client
• You do not have to rely on generic searching in social media and advertising to be your main source of candidates.
• You deliver quality
• You have the ability to grow your market by sharing with other agencies who may have the client or candidate relationship
• You will maintain long-term relationships with clients and candidates

I feel that half a fee (a shared fee) is better than no fee. The benefits that fee-sharing brings to my recruitment firm make it an important part of my business.

In this blog, I wanted to mention how this recruitment partnering has evolved.

I now chair a conference call that is run monthly with a group of 15 – 20 specialist recruitment partners within my market sector. From this we share roles and candidates with a view to helping each other make a placement. This has seen a growth in all our businesses in terms of capability.

This group is within a membership network called NPAworldwide. It has ethics and standards that support our ability to be inclusive. You can do the same thing through your own network of recruitment colleagues, whether that is a formal or informal affiliation.

So as a recruitment owner or recruitment consultant, consider working in alignment with like-minded partners who you feel will support your capability to supply within this ever-changing market.