Commission, the right way!

There are so many different staffing/recruitment agencies out there that vary in a multitude of ways. A big component is compensation and how recruiters are going to be properly compensated for services rendered.

For anyone out there, I have a couple of intriguing questions that have kept me wondering what recruiters really do want or consider attractive for retention.

1) Would you rather have an increased base salary and less commission OR lower base salary with a higher commission? (All other perks not included or in the equation) It's probably different for a lot of people and some very powerful arguments can be applied to both sides, but what are your thoughts?

2) What do you consider to be a fair commission structure? For both contract and permanent placements. What have you seen work in the past?

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Permalink Reply by Robb Norris on December 6, 2012 at 11:52am

I think the concept of draw against commission is pretty clear to most people. The only other thing our firm offers outside of what has been talked about is an initial non-recoverable draw . This gives people an opportunity to build their desks without having to panic that they need to cover their draw right off the bat. We have typcially offered this non-recoverable draw for the first 6 or even 12 months. If the recruiter gets into a positive cash flow situation prior to the end of the non-recoverable period they can convert to the regular recoverable draw against commission situation and take their earned commissions. However, once converted to recoverable draw they cannot go back to non-recoverable. We have written off small deficits at the end of the non-recoverable period if the recruiter perhaps took a bit longer to get ramp up properly.