[Editor’s note: Top Echelon not only offers recruiting software, but we also offer membership in our recruiting network. We often highlight the successes of these members in The Pinnacle, the newsletter blog for the Network. However, we’re now running a recruitment case study series in the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog. Our hope is that these recruitment case study examples will give you inspiration for your own success!]
Despite, today’s “immediate gratification society,” success in the recruiting profession does not happen overnight. Nobody knows that better than the subject of today’s recruitment case study for success, Debbi Reiger of Reiger Technical Search in Columbus, Ohio.
Debbi started as a recruiter in 1989, which means that she’s celebrating her 30th year in the profession in 2019. In addition, Reiger Technical Search joined Top Echelon Network in June of 2008, in the midst of the beginning of the Great Recession.
Recruitment case: step-by-step success
Debbie has over 20 years of experience in the recruiting niche of Information Technology. But as we mentioned, Debbi’s success didn’t happen overnight. As you will see, it required patience, planning, and a ton of hard work.
Let’s take a look at how Debbie built her recruitment case for success with the following five steps:
#1—Start small and expand from there.
Debbi learned the recruiting ropes at another well-established executive search firm for 8+ years prior to opening her own firm. Once she made that switch in 1988, she built out a solid niche IT client base in Columbus. Only in later years did she begin expanding her client base throughout the nation.
As Debbi says on her website, she has “weathered the ups and downs of the hiring market and is not in the business for the ‘quick’ money of the market upturns.” She takes the slow and steady approach to recruiting success, and it is certainly keeping her in the race.
#2—Take your time and ramp up when you’re ready.
Debbi has been making between four and six placements in the Network per year for the past five years. However, she joined in 2008, which means she didn’t make her first split for three years.
While she took her time getting started, she was “all in” once she began, making 27 split placements with seven trading partners in a five-year period. That’s over a quarter of a million dollars that she would not have made, if not for her split fee recruiting trading partners from Top Echelon!
#3—Be a niche specialist, but also a career generalist.
Debbi focuses exclusively in the IT niche. However, she places those professionals at all levels of their career, from hands-on technical positions to project managers and C-level executives. How does she find success? By focusing across the board on building “solid, long-term client and candidate” relationships.
She spends the time necessary to understand her clients’ needs and candidates’ interests so she can match the two successfully. She also knows that unless it’s a good match for both, it isn’t the right match. This is clear in her Top Echelon placement statistics–she supplies the candidate for a split just as often as she supplies the job order.
#4—Treat people well and make great connections.
Debbi attended her first Top Echelon conference in 2010, and made her first five Network placements the very next year. Coincidence? Unlikely. Debbi has been attending conferences and making splits regularly ever since, and she shows no signs of slowing down. As a result, she is well-respected and connected in the Network. Let one of her trading partners tell you directly:
“After nearly two years with the Network and regular communication with my Core Group, I had two offers accepted and one candidate placed through the Network in the month of April. All three splits were with Debbi Reiger.
“She has been so great to work with and truly a ‘partner’ during the recruiting and placement process. Each placement had its own set of complications, but in the end, we combined our experience and came to a win-win situation for everyone. Thanks, Debbi!”
#5—Make use of ALL your resources.
Debbi has been a Top Echelon Network member since 2008, a Big Biller recruiting software user since 2009, and a Big Biller Job Board website plug-in user since 2009. The integration of these products saves her time and helps her make more placements, and Top Echelon has been happy to assist in Debbi’s success over the years.
Debbi Reiger and Reiger Technical Search have built a tremendous recruitment case for success for more than 20 years. Debbi has done so both inside of Top Echelon Network and also outside of it. She’s focused on doing things the right way and sacrificing quality in the illusory pursuit of “quick money.” And she’s been rewarded for her efforts.
If you’d like to enjoy success similar to what Debbi Reiger has achieved, then consider applying for membership in Top Echelon Network. You’ll have the opportunity to share candidates and job orders with over 1,000 recruiters in nearly every industry and discipline within the employment marketplace.
Click here for more information about Top Echelon Network and click here to apply for membership.
This case study was originally published on the Ohio Recruiters Association website.