Split Placements

Don Previti, owner of DVP Partners in New York, shared his review of his time in a split placement network. For him, success meant coming out of his comfort zone.

“Many of us have been recruiters for years and we all know how we can get accustomed to a comfort zone in managing our business. We know what got us here on every business level and we tend to revert to what feels comfortable and what has worked in the past. We focus on the same market sectors in the same business discipline in the same type of positions. I am no different than you. When I started my business I was focused on financial services and hedge funds in the NY area. That was where I made my living so that is where I spent my time. Read the rest of this entry »

Our guest blogger is Jason Elias of Elias Recruitment in Sydney, Australia. Elias Recruitment is a specialist legal recruitment consultancy, finding lawyers for law firms, not for profits and corporates, across Australia. Jason is the Secretary/Treasurer of the NPAworldwide Board of Directors and received our Chairman’s Award in 2014. Jason is also a Fellow of the peak recruitment industry body in Australasia  the RCSA (Recruitment & Consulting Services Association).

Who would have imagined the words of the famous 1980’s philosopher Vanilla Ice, would be so prophetic in 2017. The sharing economy dominates headlines – Uber, Airbnb and Airtasker. But what about recruitment, are there opportunities to share job orders and candidates? Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading a post on LinkedIn this morning titled, “Why Don’t Recruitment Agencies Collaborate More?” and it got me thinking about some of those reasons. As a split placement network, our members have been successfully sharing candidates and jobs for more than sixty years. But, there are definitely recruiters who shy away from the cooperative model. Here are some of the reasons for that reluctance: Read the rest of this entry »

When an independent recruiter makes the decision to join a split placement organization, or is considering adding splits to their business model, they usually will go through a fantastic plan to make the most of their membership, or make the most money on deals they are going to do with other firms. Over time, as the desk and email fill up, this plan gets buried, and then one day the firm gets frustrated with their lack of return on investment to a network, or of time to building up those partnerships. Here are five quick reminders to get back to the top of your head for making split placements.

1. Do those entries; Make the matches. Simply and easily put, no one knows your positions or candidates unless you share them! In a network, log into your profile and see how many jobs or candidates you have listed. If the answer is slim to none, your partners, especially new ones to the organization, have no idea what you do or specialize in! Take the next thirty minutes to add in your job you need help on, or even 5-10 candidates in your primary specialty.
2. Do that follow-up; and, do it quickly.  Fast, responsive communication is the key to making those placements. If you are seeing your partners email you candidates or ask for assistance on a role and you are telling yourself you will wait to respond at the end of the week when you have more time… the candidate could be gone! More than that, your partner will grow impatient waiting for feedback and move on to a more responsive partner. In 2017, our phones and email are attached to us at all times, so taking the 15 seconds to review a resume and send back a “yes/no” is increasingly important to build relationships.
3. Do you expect half a fee but don’t want to do half the work??  Remember when agreeing to a network placement fee percentage on a successful placement or with a partner that the percentage does not only equal the money you will receive, but the effort you should be putting in. On a 50/50 deal, make sure you are pulling equal weight as your partner in terms of either sourcing the appropriate candidate or building up information from the hiring manager. If you prefer to do less work and more business development, maybe giving your partner a larger percentage would keep their happiness when they believe you to be slacking.
4. Read placement reports to see who is making the deals! This is relevant to those in an organization, but do you know where to look to see the placements reported for the year? These should be available readily and able to be used as a tool to use as a directory of who is making money, aka, who you want to be connected with. As a generalist firm, also asking for information on the most placed industries and job titles could steer you towards the money if you are feeling your talents are too broad or the amount of search results received too wide.
5. Business just does not come to us, we have to make it work, make it happen!  Stay visible. This is true for any avenue that is available to you whether it be online posting, picking up the phone, logging onto trading group calls, and most importantly, adding meetings. Check the events calendar in your network to see what ways you could be making yourself visible, and work on learning some new partners, or getting more active in your current trading groups.

If you read through these reminders with a groan because you are doing all you can, fantastic! More likely than not, these have caused you to not necessarily learn any new information, but remind you to get back to the goals you had in regards to placements for the year. The year is quickly approaching the half way point, so it is a great time to check in and revamp!