What do you think about splits?

Seems there are some people absolutely dead set against splits. Others owe their success to incorporating them as a key part of their business.

I for one am a strong advocate of working with other recruiters. In fact I consider my network of trusted split partners to be quite an advantage over my competitors.

What do you think?

Comment by FREYJA P. on January 17, 2011 at 8:54pm: Interesting - I'm not certain how you are able to sponsor them yourselves unless you are prepared to employ them in your company for at least one year, but you seem to have found an open door I haven't known about and more power to you. I try to always keep an open mind about most recruiting methods because the face of recruiting has changed so dramatically in the past ten years, at least superficially. Just because something didn't work for me ten or five years ago doesn't mean I'm not open to it now if I can see if has some value. This old dog can and will learn new tricks.

Comment by Chuck McLoughlin on January 18, 2011 at 12:37pm: First time poster here. Definitely opened my eyes to the benefits of splits. I have been in various forms of recruiting for 15 years and just recently reached out to a very trusted partner for splits, so far so good but haven't placed anyone yet. I may be unique in that I am in a firm of about 35 people and I'm the only person do IT/Telecom/Networking placements, definitely on an island.

I run a blended desk and get quite a few reqs and candidates. Any suggestions? Anyone interested in partnering?

Thanks for your time!

Comment by C. B. Stalling!! on January 18, 2011 at 1:22pm: Splits are good as long as not to many people are involved in talking to the candidate. You need to keep the candidate in the know and who ever pre screens the candidate needs to have some control..

Comment by pam claughton on January 18, 2011 at 6:41pm: Morgan,

I don't think that has to be the case though. One nice thing about doing splits with local recruiters is meeting up in person and literally working together. That way you can meet each others candidates and it becomes almost like a 'virtual agency'. The key as has been already mentioned is the trust factor. If it's there then there's nothing to be alarmed about. If you don't know the people, then you may need to worry about the things you mentioned. The way I operate is to trust people until I have a reason not to, and so far it's served me well.

Comment by Jerry Albright on January 19, 2011 at 11:31am: Hi folks. Thanks for the interest in the topic. We've decided to have a CHAT here today at 2 pm EST to dig into this a bit deeper. Hope you'll join us!

Comment by pam claughton on January 19, 2011 at 11:51am: Morgan,

You have to do what works for you, and everyone's niche is different. If you are able to completely cover and fill all of your local openings, then I would agree that splitting may not make sense. The way I've always looked at it is that by having my split network aware of my openings, I have better coverage for my client than if it was just me, because the reality is I don't know of every top candidate and I'd rather have someone great coming from my network than a recruiter outside my network, if that makes sense.

Comment by Leah Davis on January 19, 2011 at 2:44pm: We made an entire business out of split fee placements with London, UK based recruiters. We started in the accounting and banking industry and expanded from there. I agree with Morgan, if you want to make it a big part of your business you need both trust and a written agreement, particularly if working with large recruitment firms. Our business began sourcing chartered accountants from NZ and Australia for the UK job market. We found that it worked so well (at the time, pre-recession when there were jobs) that we have spent the past 2 yrs building software to provide the our split fee candidate sourcing service globally. I noticed that most bloggers here are in the USA which is an area we didnt intend covering initially because of the visa difficulty for people to enter the USA. Do any of you have opinions about USA recruiters sourcing candidates from overseas? Our candidates are typically British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Canadian and all fully qualified professionals such as accountants, lawyers, doctors etc

Comment by Manny Rao on January 20, 2011 at 2:54pm: GLOBAL SPLITS

Ironically, one of my split trading partners referred me to this discussion.

I think the best way to go is to join a split-fee network. We have been members of NPA, The Worldwide Recruiting Network for 28 years. NPA has stringent requirements for new members mainly to cut down on any trust issues.

Splitting for us adds to the bottom line in good times and has saved our @$$ in bad.

The biggest plus now, IMHO, is our ability to fill global jobs with our US Based clients. We have partners "in-country" around the globe who know salary structures, employment laws and the culture. Our clients love it.

Comment by Justin McMillin on January 21, 2011 at 8:35pm: As long as you're split buddy doesn't screw you- they're fine. :)

Comment by Meri Jones on January 25, 2011 at 3:29pm: I've been a member of a professional recruiting network since 1996 (NPA, The Worldwide Recruiting Network, same as Manny a couple of comments up). As far has split buddies not screwing me, it's been the contrary, many times my split partners have had my back in more ways than one!! We look out for each other - and the relationships have been beneficial over the years even beyond all of the actual split revenue. Relative to the revenue, when my market takes a dive, it's a lifesaver to have connections globally in other markets. When my market heats up again, I need my partners so I can keep clients happy! We were successful in split placements before joining NPA, but I agree with Manny, that joining a professional recruiting network is the best way to go - especially with the requirements, global affiliates and market diversity that NPA has.