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 Andrea Henderson on January 26, 2011 at 12:22pm: At the risk of being redundant, I agree that a solid split network can be a powerful tool in a Recruiter's arsenal. I like to work with partners who do not necessarily have the same network or specialty as I do so that we compliment each other and add to each other's pie. I work in financial services, consumer products and consulting mostly and like to help colleagues that dont know these industries as well. Similarly, I am often looking to partner with colleagues that work in IT, as this is not an area that I am very comfortable with.

Comment by Meri Jones on January 26, 2011 at 1:15pm: Great point, Andrea. We do that too within our network. One example was last year. One of our NPA affiliates who we'd gotten to know at meetings, etc, specializes in IT. His client loves working with them, but had a need for an Executive VP in manufacturing - which is our specialty. We knew he had a great relationship with the client, so we recruited for it, filled it and everybody wins! I feel most comfortable recruiting in the areas I know - so it's great to have other specialists to partner with to more successfully service client companies. Due to the quality of some of those relationships, we've even had them work directly with the hiring authority within our clients so they can talk "apples to apples".

Comment by Michael Sullivan on January 31, 2011 at 9:35pm: I work 100% splits to compliment my growing career coaching practice (this strategy was suggested to me by Gary Stauble, a noted trainer- he and Paul Siker are my best trainers- although lots of good ones). At one time I did practically none. I specialized in certain sectors of IT and a little software engineering. Being solo for over 20 years, trust, competency, and accountability are the major issues I deal with. I used to be too trusting and found I got burned when a couble years after I shared a candidate I found the candidate was recycled and placed without my knowledge. Now I am "very selective" who I work with. Being a "solopreneur" I prefer to only work with well established 1 or 2 person outfits, otherwise things (a candidate or contact could go through the cracks). Last Year considered TE and the NPA. I thought TE (top echelon) was stronger in my competency locally (The Boston Area) but I trusted the NPA people more because, well, I just trusted them (they do cost more which is maybe more of a concern for a 1 man band. One thing I learned is to treat your split partners with respect and trust and usually it comes back to you. Also Gary told me that now I am an exporter I can leverage that into getting more information about the job and the company- and thus enhance my credibilty and get higher quality candidates- because my split partner know there is no way I will be treading on their turf. The one thing I haven't done (and it may bite me yet) is have contracts with my split partners- another Gary recommendation. Sorry to ramble but I could go on about this forever.