First, it confirms that temporary staffing is certainly taking hold and progress is being made by staffing firms in temporary placements with their clients. For the third straight month now, temporary employment has risen in the 50,000 range each month.

Since a low point in the summer of 2009, BLS reports that nearly 250,000 new temporary jobs have been added. More importantly, 150,000 of those were in the last three months. This is great news for the staffing industry.

Although most of you have not reported a “dramatic” increase in business, most of you have noted that business is picking up.

Unemployment also ticked down in January to 9.7% from 10% in December. Even though most economists expect unemployment to remain at around 10% for a while, we can still take that as a step in the right direction.

After a long draught, we can safely say that the staffing industry is making a come-back. Will it be as fast as everyone wants it to be? Well, that depends on what we are willing to contribute to it most likely.

I was speaking with a good friend of mine in staffing who is a tenured and very talented blended desk recruiter and staffing sales person. She and I were discussing the concept of getting bogged down with the notion that business is still tight and holding back a little in our sales efforts due to our own pre-conceived notions of what that next call will bring.

We came to the conclusion that it’s time to “hit the sales refresh button” and pick up the phone again.

We joked that she would stand up, turn around a few times, do a few jumping jacks and then hit the sales refresh button. As silly as that sounds, it may be just what we all need to do to really jump start our own sales efforts again.

Time to call that client that you just called 2 weeks ago and re-visit your proposal.

Things change quickly in our business. If things can change for the worse, they can absolutely change for the better.

It’s time to hit the sales refresh button.

Perrin Peacock
ppeacock@openreq.com
http://www.openreq.com
http://www.recruiter-talk.com

Most recruiters I know, and that majority happens to work for agencies, have a long standing stigma against the idea of “splits”. The split seems to carry with it the idea of concession. Concession of control, ability, success, status, revenue, etc… These are all very valid points given the very simple fact that, when you engage in a split placement, you lose half of your revenue. A recruiters best case scenario is to bring in their own business, fill it themselves and take whatever cut they are entitled to based off of 100% of the revenue generated…we all know this. So, before you scoff at these next two sentences, read through the bullets and, if you don’t agree, I challenge you to reply with a compelling argument.

While I agree that splits can hurt in one scenario, the fact of the matter is this; if you work a split-fee network the right way, you can greatly increase your revenue with very little extra effort. Closing the door on splits is a short sighted, revenue impeding, old-school way of thinking.

How to work a split-fee network

1) Use a split-fee network to market and place your “leftover” candidates.

This is the single most glaring reason to partake in splits. For some recruiters it will be the ONLY reason. Every recruiter who says “I don’t do splits” cannot be thinking of this application when they make that statement. Why wouldn’t you??? Even the best, most efficient, niche oriented recruiters create a tremendous amount of “waste”. It’s just the nature of the beast. You recruit for a job, fill it with one person and can have dozens of great candidates leftover. There are always more “leftover” candidates than any recruiter can place. Most of the time those candidates fade into the recruiting abyss. Since you have done all the work, get those profiles posted to a split-fee network so recruiters from across the country can review them. Someone, somewhere is going to place a candidate you have sourced…with, or without you. Why not toss a bunch of lines in the water with bait you’ve already cut and let someone else come along and do some work for you? It is a great way to see some residual value out of candidates you would otherwise toss in the “I’ll get back to someday” file.

2) Don’t rely on splits for you core placement activity!

First and foremost, you should try and make you own placements and keep 100% of revenue generated. Some of you will never use a split-fee situation for any placements. Good for you…seriously! Now, if you’re a small shop or a one person operation, this may be a great way to satisfy your placement activity.

3) Use a split-fee network if an established client comes to you with a req you typically wouldn’t work!

Plenty of times during my recruiting (IT specific) I would have clients come to me with reqs outside of IT. Two things would happen here: either I would respectfully decline…or, I would spend time spinning my wheels trying to generate candidates for a space I was not familiar with. Both cases we not particularly beneficial to revenue production. Working with a split-fee network can allow you to effectively leverage other people’s specialties to drive delivery. It’s a winning situation.

4) Use a split-fee network if you are bringing in more business that your recruiting team can handle!

If you don’t have the working capital to support additional headcount split networks are a great way to get supplemental, scalable recruiting force for your company. As need ebb and flow you can engage recruiters via splits to help satisfy your requirements list. Once you are ready to bring on a new person, scale back your use of splits. Do the math though. Figure out what an internal recruiter will cost you after salary, payroll tax, commission, benefits, time, etc…. you might be paying more than 50% of each fee that internal hire is responsible for!

5) Use a split-fee network if you have no sales function

No sales force? Just want to recruit? Jump on a split-network and start building relationships with the recruiters who are positing jobs. These are recruiters who are looking for recruiter help! The split-fee network has now become your sales force. Foster a few good relationships and your off to the races.

Shake the stigma – drive revenue!

www.FeeTrader.com

• Dozens of new fee-paid job openings to fill added weekly: split-fee recruiter and *NEW*  full-fee employer posts!
• Free job posting (option for split-fee post or  *NEW* candidate access only posts).  Post all your jobs free! 
• Free candidate database!
• Set up your 6 search agents.  Be notified when your ‘bread and butter’ requirements are posted!

Thank you for being a FeeTrader member!

We appreciate all your feedback and implement as many good suggestions as we can!  Please keep them coming! 

Our registered users will help make FeeTrader an invaluable recruiting tool!  

RecruiterTalk  is a social & professional networking site for recruiters, staffing professionals, HR professionals, and those who work within or service the staffing industry.  It is a venue that has been created for recruiters to share ideas, talk shop, catch the latest staffing industry news, and more.

RecruiterTalk’s creator, Perrin Peacock, has a long tenure in the staffing/recruiting industry and has developed this great social networking tool.   FeeTrader is happy to join forces with these guys because we feel we can bring a valuable service to this network of recruiting professionals.

FeeTrader is proud to announce that we will be powering  RecruiterTalk’s split-fee network with a very powerful tool for recruiters and staffing professionals nationwide to do splits.

Invite your friends in staffing and recruiting to join RecruiterTalk and begin to network with your friends in the staffing industry. We look forward to seeing additional value to this site as it expands and grows.

Oh…and check out their GM Calculator!   RecruiterTalk has built a FANTASTIC gross margin calculator that will allow you to calculate gross margin dollars, gross margin percentages, mark-ups, and more. It’s a great tool that you should check out!

• FeeTrader now offers 6 search agents per recruiter.  You are able to indicate the frequency that you would like to receive updates on positions that fit your recruiting expertise.  Logon today and set-up your agents so you can get a jump start on filling job orders within your expertise and/or to which you already have candidates!

• Coming soon (within a couple weeks), hiring companies (end clients) will be able to search your confidential hot “my candidates” that you post to FeeTrader.  These hiring companies can contact the posting recruiter directly and the recruiter can form direct relationships with the end clients.  That’s right!  Hiring companies will approach you to provide them with recruiting services through your posted “my candidates”!  Get your candidates posted to FeeTrader (confidentially) and companies will contact you when they are interested in your candidates!

• FeeTrader will also allow member recruiters access to end clients (through end client job posts) that are interested in working with and finding recruiters.

Let us know what you think of the upgrades.  We’re always interested in hearing our members’ feedback: the good and the bad!

In recruiting, one of the age old questions is “what is the next move that is closest to the money?”  With most positions only taking one candidate to fill the role, “leftover” candidates are a constant by product of any search and can be a valuable source of potential income. The question is, how do you turn that potential into actual income. One thing you can do is focus your sales efforts on similar roles in the same geographical requirements. Another option is to make use of a split-fee network.

Keep in mind that there is a candidate driven side to split networks as well. If you have filled a position and find yourself with 1, 5, 10 great candidates at the end of the day with no other positions to present them to, what better way to try and capture some residual value for work you’ve already done than to place them with fellow recruiters’ openings? A split-fee network can help you capture that residual value.

FeeTrader.com has provided a FREE platform for you to drive split-fee business at whatever level you choose. Post positions (confidentially if desired) for recruiting assistance, search for open positions to work on or, post your best candidates confidentially and have other recruiters reach out to you if they think they can utilize your work. Our network of recruiters have access to jobs that you do not. Similarly, you have candidates that they job holder would never come across. Access this worldwide network and increase your revenue almost effortlessly.

Once you are comfortable with contacts you make on our free split-fee network, FeeTrader.com also provides a sample split-fee agreement to sign with your new partner for added security!  Again, the split-fee platform is FREE so you don’t have to pay any registration or brokerage fees to use it. Make more money from the wake of your recruiting efforts!

The buzz is starting to build and FeeTrader.com has been mentioned on several websites and blogs. Here are a few that we have found:

• Cheezhead.com
• jobsportalwatch
• RainierDigital

Our development team is constantly working to improve FeeTrader.com’s resources and functionality.

As a result of your comments via our Feedback tab, there have already been many improvements to the site since our opening day a month ago.

A few of the recent improvements include:

• Job ID’s added for easier tracking
• Added a “My Split Requests” section allowing recruiters to keep track of their split-fee requests
• Added an option that allows a job poster to make basic contact information visible to other members

Some of the plans for upcoming improvements to FeeTrader.com include:

• A more visible “How it Works” tab
• XML Feed- allowing us to easily and quickly import a large number of jobs a recruiter may have to post
• Constantly adding items to the “Resource Center”
• User-friendly URLs so it is easier for users to navigate the site
• Email support option on the “Contact Us” page

Thank you for your constructive and helpful suggestions!  Keep them coming!

Welcome to our blog!  We will be using this blog to share insights with you about FeeTrader.com as well as communicate ideas, updates and any enhancements we make to the service.
We encourage your feedback and ideas and hope this will provide a platform for communicating with our clients.