One of the things that recruiters find hard to let go when they first consider working with a split partner is giving up all their insider info that they have worked so hard to get… such as the name of their client. Some recruiters hold this info close to their vest, in fear of an exporter trying to go around them and contact the client directly.
But when you join a recruiting network built on trust, comprised of vetted recruiters, and backed by member-owners who all adhere to the same rules, you will find that its most successful members are ones who are completely open and transparent, because they realize the value of open and honest communication.
In any good split placement partnership, transparency matters — It’s important to share all the information you can about a job, including the client, in order for the exporter to find the perfect candidate. If you only give them the job title and location, the exporter may unknowingly recruit someone from your client’s company! Now that would be embarrassing!
Some of NPAworldwide’s most successful members have built relationships with their trading partners where, when they get a job req, not only do they send the exporter the job description directly, but they will also organize a meeting with the hiring manager/hiring contact, and have the trading partner on the call to make sure he/she completely understands the job. Since they are finding candidates for you, it is of your benefit to give all the information you can.
The exporter should provide as much info as possible to their candidate — candidates may have specific companies they want to work for and/or avoid (for example, if they only want to work with small startups, you don’t want to inadvertently share info about a job and waste their time, only to later find out it’s with a huge company). When an exporter is armed with as much info as possible about the job, company, location, etc., it makes it much easier to “sell it” to the candidate.
Similarly, the exporting recruiter with the candidate should provide the importer as much information as possible, a complete workup so the importer can go ahead and submit them to the client.
From there, once an importer gets feedback — good or bad — they should let their trading partner know, as well as the candidate. Keep your trading partner in the loop the whole time – from references through interview, they should be the first person you call when you hear any updates.
One NPA member has said: “I share everything. If my trading partner goes on the company’s website and sees they have a job in Amherst NY for a product engineer, and they have one, they’ll just send me the resume and I forward to my client or another division of the client. The more information you share, the trading partner may come up with someone who may not be right for that day, but down the road might be. It’s a true partnership. I do the same thing with all NPA partners that come to me and want to work with me. They can’t go in and take your client, it’s against the rules… so share as much as you can.”
While transparency is key, it can take time to build that kind of trusting relationship with a partner. So if you are pursuing a trading partnership, always set expectations up front. If you see a job that really interests you, don’t just jump in and send a bunch of resumes to the partner… call them first to check on the status of the job and get more info. Everybody works differently, and sometimes it takes time to find a partner who works the way that you like.